An SEO Checklist to Boost Your YouTube Views
By: Conversion Interactive Agency- Marketing Beyond Recruiting (MBR)
Posted: Mar 31, 2025
Categories: Blog
At Conversion Interactive MBR, we specialize in SEO to drive traffic, leads, and conversions for businesses through Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other major search engines. But search doesn’t stop there—YouTube is a search engine too, and a massive one at that.
YouTube is a powerful tool for growing your brand, with over 2.5 billion monthly active users globally, YouTube is the second most visited website in the world. In the United States alone, 62% of internet users access YouTube daily. That’s a huge opportunity to reach your audience—but with billions of videos uploaded, getting noticed requires more than just great content.
The key to standing out? Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Just like Google, YouTube uses keywords, engagement signals, and optimization factors to determine which videos rank higher in search results, making them more discoverable to the right audience.
Good news: we've got you covered with an easy-to-follow checklist to boost your video visibility, increase clicks, and grow your community!
- Conduct keyword research and choose a target keyword (and related terms) for your video.
- Use your target keyword in your video’s file name before uploading it to YouTube.
- Include your target keyword at the beginning of your video’s title.
- Use your target keyword in the first 120 characters of your video’s description.
- Add tags that include your keyword, related terms, and channel keywords.
- Choose a category for your video.
- Check ‘allow embedding’ to make it easier to share your content.
- Check ‘publish to subscriptions feed and notify subscribers’ to reach your audience effectively.
- Check ‘allow people to sample content’ to increase engagement.
- Add video captions and subtitles (upload your own transcript instead of using YouTube’s auto features).
- Include video chapters (timestamps) for better viewer navigation.
- Include a clear CTA in your video and its description (like, comment, subscribe, or visit your website).
- Add video cards to direct viewers to related content or external links.
- Create a custom end screen with a CTA and suggested videos.
- Add your video to a playlist or create a new playlist about its topic.
- Promote your video on social media, through paid ads, in your email newsletter, in community groups, and by embedding it on your blog or other web pages.
At Conversion Interactive MBR, we go beyond traditional SEO to help businesses optimize every touchpoint—including YouTube. By following this checklist, you'll improve rankings, attract more viewers, and increase engagement.
Don’t let your content get lost in the shuffle—optimize, upload, and watch your YouTube channel grow!
