What Are the Best Keywords for YouTube?

Keyword selection is an important part of the video SEO process. The keywords you select for your videos can make-or-break the performance of your videos. Knowing this, selecting the best keywords should be a priority. But what are the best keywords for YouTube, and how can you find them?

Often, content creators on YouTube target the most competitive keywords possible. This isn't a good idea. The best keywords for YouTube typically end up being keywords that are less competitive- even if they get fewer searches. After all, if your video doesn't rank, it won't get any organic search views. So, fewer views are better than no views.

Certain keywords are better than others. While some might get more monthly searches, it's better in 99% of cases to target a keyword that gets less monthly searches but is more competitive. If you want to improve your video SEO skills, you must learn what the best keywords are and how to select them for your videos.

Best Keywords to Use for Your YouTube Video

Selecting the best keywords to use for your YouTube video can seem like an intimidating process. However, the process isn't that difficult thanks to a helpful piece of software. Before you start selecting keywords for your videos, however, you need to learn what the best keywords are for YouTube videos.

You see, certain keywords are better than others. As I mentioned above, many content creators tend to target popular but competitive keywords. It's much better to target keywords that get less monthly searches but are less competitive. The less competitive a keyword is, the easier it is to rank for.

Keep in mind, the goal when selecting keywords to do on-page video SEO is to inform YouTube about the subject matter of a video. Knowing this, you must use relevant and specific keywords that have low competition. On-page video SEO is an important YouTube ranking factor, so it's important not to mess this up.

Keyword selection is not a process you want to ignore. Target keywords can make-or-break the performance of a video. Select keywords that are relevant, specific, and low competition. While targeting keywords with lower search volume might seem like a bad idea, it's a good idea, as it's always better to get some views than no views.

How to Use TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer

To find the best keywords for your YouTube videos, I recommend using TubeBuddy. TubeBuddy will allow you to check the competitiveness and estimated search volume of a keyword. Basically, this software will tell you whether or not a keyword is worth targeting for your video.

Here's how to use TubeBuddy keyword explorer:

Step 1 - Install TubeBuddy

First, you will need to install TubeBuddy. Doing this is a very easy and straightforward process. Simply visit the TubeBuddy website, authorize access to your YouTube channel and you'll be good to go. Keep in mind that this is a completely safe thing to do and you will not be putting your channel at risk by authorizing access to the plugin.

Step 2 - Open the Keyword Explorer

After you have installed the plugin, you will notice a new icon on your YouTube menu beside your channel icon. This icon is used to access TubeBuddy. Click on this icon and a window should pop up. After this happens, select the "Keyword Explorer" option from the sidebar present in the window.

Step 3 - Insert a Keyword

Once the Keyword Explorer window is open, you will see a bar where you can insert a keyword. Ideally, you should have used YouTube's auto-suggest function to discover a relevant keyword for your video. Once you have a relevant keyword, you should insert the keyword into the bar and press the green "EXPLORE" button.

Step 4 - Check the Keyword Score

After you click the "EXPLORE" button, a new screen should show up. Pay attention to the overall keyword score which is rated out of 100. Along with this, pay attention to the rating TubeBuddy provides for the keyword. A "Poor" rating means a different keyword should be used, and a "Good", "Very Good", or "Excellent" rating means the keyword is worth using.

Should You Always Use the Best Rated Keyword

At this point, you might be wondering- should you always use the best-rated keyword given by TubeBuddy? Or, are there circumstances when you should use a keyword with a lower score? After all, the whole goal is to find the highest rated keywords to target in your YouTube videos, right?

Believe it or not, there are some instances where it is ideal to use a keyword that is rated lower than other keywords. You see, the whole goal of the video SEO process is to include the most relevant metadata possible. Sometimes, the most relevant keyword for a video will possess a lower score than other keywords.

You should always target the most relevant keywords first. Then, you can include slightly-relevant keywords with higher scores as secondary keywords in the metadata of your videos. Just keep in mind that viewers will respond more positively to videos that accurately state the content included in the video in the metadata.

Conclusion

It should be your goal to select the best keywords possible to use on your YouTube videos. Sometimes, it's better to target less competitive, long tail, lower search volume keywords, as they are easier to rank for. As always, selected keywords need to be specific and relevant. Keywords can be discovered with the help of TubeBuddy and YouTube's auto suggest function.