video seo tipsYou’ve already learned how to make a viral video, now it’s time to optimize your video descriptions and title for search engines. You probably already know that Facebook is a major force in the world of video marketing.

But YouTube is still a huge player when it comes to getting your videos found by the people who need the products and services you’re offering.

For one thing, it’s the second largest search engine on the planet. And maybe just as importantly, it’s owned by Google. So it’s safe to say that if you want your videos to get seen far and wide, you still want to make ole YouTube happy.

One great way to do that is to create very detailed YouTube descriptions of each video.

Most people just slap a video up there and attach a short blurb about it. The conventional wisdom behind this practice is that shorter is better. And sometimes, it is.

But it turns out that YouTube can serve up your videos to searchers much more effectively and efficiently if you write descriptions that are just a wee bit longer. (Take that, conventional wisdom!)

How to create video descriptions that search engines (and people) love

For starters, feel free to create YouTube descriptions that are up to 200 words in length(about the number of words you’ve read so far in this blog post).

You want to try to make these descriptions keyword rich, since the goal is to get them in front of Google (and other search engine) searchers who are looking for the answers and solutions that you’re providing.

A side benefit of creating longer, keyword oriented YouTube videos is that it will entice more viewers to actually watch your video. In the old days — back when there were much fewer videos online than there are today — it was much easier to get people to commence video watching with a simple directive like “play.”

But with so many videos to choose from, today a bit more selling is needed. Letting people read an extended description of what your video offers is a great way to overcome the inertia and get them watching.

On that note, realize that you don’t necessarily need to explain everything in your video’s description…there are plenty of other great tactics you can use in order to entice people to watch.

For example, hitting on people’s major pain points (with the promise of a solution said pain points), creating a curiosity gap through strategically omitting information, and establishing yourself as an authority on your subject are all proven ways to influence people — and can work wonders for making your video watchable and shareable.