Many social networks today like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat support video, so YouTube may seem like yesterday’s news. For many businesses, however, it still offers the best opportunity to reach your target audience via video.
YouTube users arrive ready for video content. They’re more likely to stick around longer—provided the video holds their attention and fulfills its promise. This is quality relationship building time. Furthermore, Google loves YouTube videos, and you can compete for a spot in those rankings with videos of your own.
YouTube by the Numbers
YouTube is still one of the web’s largest search engines. According to YouTube:
- The community has one billion users—about one-third of all internet users.
- YouTube reaches more 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
- You can navigate YouTube in 76 different languages, which covers 95 percent of the internet population.
- People watch a billion hours of YouTube every day.
The Ranking Signal You Need to Know
Knowing just how vast YouTube is, you might feel intimidated when trying to compete. How can you ensure the widest possible audience sees your video? Of course, you can promote your YouTube video through a variety of avenues, like paid advertising or social promotions—but there’s one often-overlooked action you can take that will feed into the most powerful organic ranking signal on YouTube. And I’m not talking about basic optimization techniques like video titles, descriptions and tags (though YouTube descriptions offer a little-known opportunity to help you obtain featured snippets in Google).
It’s no secret that the average time people spend…
