Link Building For YouTube Videos

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Like its parent company Google, YouTube is great. Just a few years ago, many people did not emphasize creating videos. Even a few that had tapped into the niche; did not give it much weight as they did to their websites.

Today, through YouTube SEO, those with YouTube channels know how important it is to invest in the channel, much like the business’ content site.

With that in mind, it is reasonable to believe that when you build links for your YouTube channel; you help the channel to rank. Many people will link, refer or even share your videos because your channel is ranking.

The more views, interactions, and subscriptions, the higher the position your channel will be on YouTube ranking arithmetic.

As such, this post will help you know the importance of backlinking for your YouTube videos, how to assess and acquire quality backlinks, and ultimately, the delicate process of creating backlinks for your YouTube videos.

To start us off, let’s look at the reasons why you need to invest in YouTube video link building.

Importance of Backlinks for Your YouTube Videos

While there could be many reasons why you should take the time to conduct proper backlinking for your YouTube videos, YouTube SEO experts appear to conclude that there are three main benefits.

Backlinks Improve Rankings

A backlink to a YouTube video helps to improve the ranking of the video.

Unlike in the case of conventional link building (website backlinking) which looks into the source and the quality of the link, YouTube backlinking doesn’t look into that.

Whatever the source of the backlink, the YouTube search engine tends to agree that by the time the video gets a backlink, it means the video is regarded as credible.

With many such backlinks, the search engine concludes that it is reasonable to consider the YouTuble video(s) with many backlinks for search queries.

Therefore, the more backlinks to a YouTube video the more likely the search engine will rank the videos/channel for corresponding searches.

Faster Discoverability

Posting a quality video on your YouTube channel is one thing and quite another that people will know that you’ve uploaded one.

However, quality backlinks from other ranking articles whether on your content website or other websites will help expedite the discoverability of your new video.

There is a debate that if you are an authority in your niche (by having many subscribers), your videos will be discovered faster.

While there is some truth in that, having many subscribers does not guarantee faster discoverability of your YouTube videos.

Some subscribers Could Be Dormant.

Besides, even if your subscribers are notified, there is no guarantee that they will watch your video.

NB. Search engines often revisit popular or authority pages to see if there are any changes such as new backlinks. This does not happen to less popular sites or channels.

Therefore, if the popular site has known of your YouTube video and is linked to it, the search engine will crawl the popular site and be the first one to refer organic traffic to your channel.

Boost Referral Traffic

There is no doubt that backlinks boost referral traffic, the number one reason why people do backlinking. Whether organic or solicited, backlinks send referral traffic to your YouTube videos.

The good thing about backlinks is they are clickable. As such, once readers click on the backlink, they are redirected to your YouTube video(s).

Qualities of Good Backlinks

Not all backlinks are quality. Some offer value while others are useless – mere mentions on other websites or forums.

Unless you are a credible source of information on your niche, it is usually unheard of that you’ll get a quality backlink from another authority site.

A majority of the links you’ll get are from young websites or mentions on channels that are also struggling to be known.

When assessing the backlinks for your YouTube videos, make sure they have the following attributes:

They should come from high-authority sites – this means the authority site will transfer some of its authority to your YouTube videos.

The backlinks should come from a page that ranks – it would be useless if your YouTube videos are mentioned inside a page that has little or no traffic at all.

Doing so will not help a thing. If you are to consider a backlink to your YouTube videos, ensure the backlink comes from a page that gets a substantive amount of traffic.

They should be relevant – the other important feature of a quality backlink is its relevancy.

You cannot call it a quality backlink if it comes from a ranking page with thousands of visitors per day but on a different topic.

A quality backlink should always be topically relevant and related to your video.

Should be well placed – the position of the backlink is also important. For a backlink to give you good results, it should be placed where readers can see it.

Inserting a backlink deep inside the 8000-word in a 10k-word blog will not give the same results as the backlink placed within the introduction.

They should have nicely-crafted anchor texts – the words you choose for the anchor text should be well-thought, clickable, and require action.

ou will lose it if you choose redundant or dormant words. For better results, go for backlinks that have a word or a phrase that is on your YouTube video.

The backlinks should be ‘follow’ – unless they are labeled ‘follow’ or ‘do follow’, the search engine will not follow or send visitors to your site thus becoming useless.

How to Improve Your YouTube Videos

YouTube SEO experts agree that the ideal length for a YouTube video title should be roughly five words.

Keeping your YouTube titles as short as possible yet communicating the main message is key.

Usually, aim at writing a title with 60-70 characters.

When doing this, try as much as you can to place the keyword or the main word at the beginning.

You should also note that there is no right or wrong when creating YouTube videos but you wouldn’t want your video titles to be truncated in a majority of the search results or when viewers are sharing your videos.

Here are the three main areas you need to emphasize when describing your YouTube videos:

Video URL

This is the number one place you want to focus on. If possible, your YouTube video URL should be as short as possible, tell the viewer what the video is about, and be readable.

You should aim at inserting the URL at the beginning of the description, usually the first 155 characters.

Description

Make it your routine to include your target keyword(s) in the description. The beauty of YouTube is it allows you to describe your video using many characters. The last time I checked, you’d use 5,000 characters.

However, if you want to stand out, do not overdo your YouTube video descriptions. You will still make it with around 300 to 500 words (1,500 to 2500 characters).

In this, make sure the focused keywords appear in the very first words; let’s say the first 30 words.

High-end SEO practice for YouTube dictates that you include the focused keyword(s) 2-4 times throughout the description.

It is also good practice to include a link to your content website, something that will aid in bringing visitors from your YouTube channel to your site and back in case you decide to put a YT channel link on the site.

Some experts argue that the more you condense the description, the better the results.

The other thing you should not forget is your YouTube channel’s subscription page. Ensure you put a link to the page in the description.

Tags

Tags act as supportive aids to your video description.

You should create titles and meta tags that are related to the focused keywords. When creating tags, make sure you mention the focused keyword as you did in the video URL and description.

For best results, ensure the first tag matches exactly your focused keyword or the important word in the YouTube video title.

Tips on How to Create Backlinks to Your YouTube Videos

As we have already seen, YouTube backlinks are as important as their conventional content site backlinks.

When properly done, they will help improve video/channel ranking, enhance discoverability, and increase referral traffic.

However, you may still want to know the tricks of creating backlinks to your videos.

Let’s look at some of the tips for creating YouTube video backlinks:

1. Create Backlinks from Your Blog

Many people with YouTube channels have blogs or other websites. This is a good starting point.

If you have a blog, consider it the first place you create your YouTube video backlink.

Insert a link to the YouTube video ingeniously inside your blog and let your readers click to view the video on YouTube.

2. Share the YouTube Video Link on Social Media

Your social media handles are another good platform to share your YouTube videos.

No matter the following you have on social media, make it a routine to share a link to your latest or preferred videos on your social media platforms.

You can decide to add a small description about the video before you share the link to the video.

3. Build Web 2.0 Sites and Link to the Video

Web 2.0 sites are those sites that you can open and publish without paying for domain names and hosting space.

A majority of the people who are now authority copywriters started with WordPress, Blogger, Blog, Weebly, Tumblr, Medium, and Squarespace free sites among others.

You too can take advantage of these sites by creating a few and inserting your YouTube video links for your audience.

4. Create a Video Pin on Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the largest content-sharing platforms today with close to 350 million users each month.

Content creators across a variety of platforms create and share more than 200 billion pins on the platform each month.

You can tap into this platform and spread the word about your YouTube videos.

To create a pin on Pinterest, you need to:

i. Sign in to your Pinterest account
ii. Go to ‘Create Pin’
iii. Click on the arrow ‘Upload or drop video’
iv. Pick your YouTube video’s cover image
v. Label your pin with the correct description, title, and tag
vi. Insert the YouTube video link
vii. Create the public board
viii. Publish your newly-created pin

NB. As a way of keeping the platform clean, Pinterest will put your pin under review for 24 hours.

If the pin meets the platform’s guidelines, it will be live. However, if the pin is found to have violated any of the guidelines, it will be trashed.

5. Post Your YouTube Video Link on Forums

By now, you should be a member of several forums in your niche.

These niche-specific forums provide a platform where you can comment, discuss and air your views on a topic you feel comfortable with.

What is more, you are free to include a link to your YouTube video if the community rules allow it.

6. Build Backlinks From Blog Comments

Whether it is your content website or blog comments on other people’s websites, you can use the opportunity to build backlinks to your YouTube videos.

When building backlinks from blog comments, you shouldn’t post dry or isolated links.

You should accompany the backlink with a valuable comment.

7. Use Automated Link Building Tools

With a lot lined up for you, chances are you may not have enough time to carry out your work manually. This is where using automated link-building tools comes in handy.

Popular link-building tools such as GSA SEO and Ranker X can go a long way in helping you create YouTube video backlinks automatically.

8. Make Use of the Broken Link Building Method

Although funny and weird, finding and utilizing broken links is another good way of creating backlinks for your YouTube videos.

In this method, you go on a mission of finding broken (not working) links on websites, videos, or vlogs.

Once you identify the ‘broken links, you suggest to the owners of these respective platforms that you can provide working links. If they agree, you get the backlinks to your videos.

Some of the trusted tools for this job include LinkMiner, Moz, Semrush, and Ahrefs.

9. Use Press Releases With Video Backlinks

As it were, most entrepreneurs use press releases the time their company is launching new products. However, you can do more with a press release.

You can use it to launch your new YouTube video and in it, place a backlink to your video.

10. Inform Your Fellow YouTubers/Bloggers About Your Video

It may look so traditional but it is yet another ingenious way of getting your video known to new viewers. If they are serious business people like you, they might consider giving your video a backlink.

Because your fellow bloggers and YouTubers may have large followings, chances are you will benefit from the traffic.

11. Start a Collaboration With Another YouTube Channel

Starting a partnership with another YouTuber that has a channel that publishes videos on the same niche is also a unique way of getting backlinks to your YouTube videos.

The collaboration should be aimed at benefiting both channels by the other party embedding a backlink on his/her channel and you inserting the partner’s link on your videos.

12. Do More Guest Vlogging

This is similar to guest blogging only that you do a video on someone’s channel.

When you get such a chance, you should tell your friend’s viewers of your YouTube channel and even share or embed a link pointing to your channel.

13. Make Use of Unlinked Mentions

During your manual or automated search of companies or websites that have mentioned your channel, you might find one or two that have mentioned but did not link to your channel.

You can go ahead and ask the owner of the site, social media page, or company to link the mention thus getting a backlink to your YouTube videos.

14. Continue Creating Viral Videos

You must have heard of a viral video – one that is viewed and shared by millions even billions of people within a short time.

Your videos can hit billions of watch times if only you continue to create great videos.

They can also attract organic and referral backlinks because they provide value to viewers.

Conclusion

Building quality backlinks to your YouTube videos is not an easy thing and does not happen overnight. It takes time and may involve recourses.

The good thing is if done properly, it will result in immense benefits.

Use the suggestion discussed on this blog to build quality backlinks for your YouTube videos and you can reap immeasurable benefits if you do not give up.

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