SEO Case Study: YouTube Optimization Drives Engagement and Traffic

Background:

Our client, a global leader in cloud-managed IT solutions, recognized the importance of video content, and wanted to capitalize on the world’s second largest search engine: YouTube.  However, amidst a sea of video content, finding and engaging their target audience had proven difficult.  They asked Avid Demand to audit and improve their YouTube Channel and enhance their customers’ video experience.

The Challenge:

Via our audit, Avid Demand identified the top 3 challenges associated with the client’s YouTube channel, namely:

1. Low visibility of the company’s product videos amid a saturated market.
2. Average video retention rate (% of video viewed) was below industry standards.
3. Limited traffic from YouTube to the client’s website.

Our Strategy:

Avid Demand conducted a comprehensive YouTube Video Audit. Videos were analyzed based on: publish date/currency, marketplace relevance, redundancy/duplication, and accuracy. Our audit uncovered videos that were:

• Outdated: 41% of the videos are over 5 years old
• Driving Low Traffic: 80% of the videos had driven very little traffic during the last three months (i.e. under 100 views).
• Too short: 20% of videos are under the recommended length of 1-2 minutes.
• Poorly Optimized: 23% had no description, while 80% showed an opportunity to further optimize titles, descriptions, video tags, and add #hashtags.

Videos were then organized and prioritized within these 5 categories:

1. Brand/company overview videos
2. Customer stories, interviews, case studies
3. Product information, demos, tutorials
4. Thought leadership, executive, and employee videos
5. Promos/Ads

This categorization helped Avid Demand determine performance by type of video, and allowed us to prioritize our improvement plan.

YouTube Performance Dashboard

Avid Demand created a customized YouTube Performance Dashboard devoted to tracking and reporting critical video KPIs including:

• Views
• Likes/Dislikes
• Watch Time
• Subscriptions
• Average View Percentage
• Website traffic (from YouTube)
• YouTube traffic behavior and engagement
• YouTube conversions

Avid Demand’s Video Optimization Plan

Our optimization plan included 6 critical steps:

1. We utilized YouTube’s “search suggest feature” to target relevant keywords.
2. We implemented keyword-rich titles, descriptions, and tags.
3. We included optimized links back to the company’s website.
4. We focused on increasing viewer interaction (likes, shares, comments) to boost video ranking.
5. We grouped videos thematically to prolong viewer engagement on the company’s channel.
6. We implemented descriptive and keyword-rich playlist titles and descriptions.

The Results:

One month after YouTube clean-up and optimization was complete we saw very positive results. Specifically:

• Video views increased 7%
• Total watch time up 8%
• User subscriptions increased 5%
• YouTube traffic up 17%, driving 244 NEW users to the website (a 22% increase)

Avid Demand Can Help Improve Your SEO Results Too!

Contact us today to learn how our team of senior-level SEO experts can help you improve your YouTube results and exceed your organic search goals.