Do you want to know the secret to finding the most searched topics on YouTube and skyrocketing your video rankings? In this episode, we’re diving deep into the world of YouTube search, revealing the big picture of how search fits into your overall marketing strategy. But we’re not stopping there – we’re getting incredibly tactical, so you’ll know exactly how to get your videos ranking at the very top of YouTube search results.
Believe it or not, there’s a right way and a decidedly wrong way to choose search topics. And get this: the method for uncovering high search volume topics that I’m about to share is likely the complete opposite of what you’re currently expecting.
The Undeniable Importance of YouTube Search Traffic
Let’s first underscore just how vital search traffic is for your YouTube growth. When we talk about marketing versus nurturing your audience, it’s essential to understand the difference. While many mistakenly label nurturing as marketing, my definition of true marketing is getting in front of people who have never heard of you before.
Nurturing, on the other hand, involves engaging with your existing fan base – your subscribers, Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections. When you post content for these individuals, you’re nurturing those relationships and staying top-of-mind. Nurturing is crucial for building loyalty, but it’s distinct from the initial reach of marketing.
What Marketing Really Means (Versus Nurturing)
So, how do you effectively market your YouTube channel to new audiences? There are primarily three avenues:
- Viral Content: While the dream, going viral is largely uncontrollable and often attracts viewers interested in entertainment rather than your specific services or products. Conversion rates from viral traffic are typically very low.
- Paid Advertising: Running ads can be useful for fine-tuning your sales funnel, A/B testing, and generating leads quickly. However, these leads tend to be of lower quality as you’re interrupting their viewing experience.
- Search: This is where the magic truly happens. YouTube search, especially with the advancements in AI, has become incredibly powerful. People are using more specific long-tail keywords, allowing you to pinpoint exactly what your target audience is asking.
The Power of Search in the Age of AI
The evolution of AI has dramatically improved search engine capabilities. We can now use more detailed and specific search queries and receive increasingly relevant results. This is fantastic news for content creators because it allows for a new approach to keyword research.
Instead of broad, highly competitive terms, you can now research and find the very specific questions that your ideal audience is asking within your niche or industry. There are potentially thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of these specific questions. By creating videos that directly answer these questions, you can attract your ideal clients and turn them into valuable leads and customers.
Discover Exactly What Your Audience is Asking
The even better news? There are tools available to do this research for you! While I’ll show you an example shortly, any tool you consider must have these four crucial features:
- Thoroughness: The tool needs to provide a vast and expansive dataset of potential search terms and questions.
- Questions Filter: It must have the ability to specifically filter for questions. If enabling this filter drastically reduces the results, the tool likely lacks sufficient data.
- Word Count Filter: This allows you to filter search terms by the number of words used. For effective targeting, you’ll want to focus on questions with at least eight words. These longer-tail keywords indicate a more specific need.
- Consistent Monthly Search Volume: The tool must provide data on the monthly search volume for each phrase. Many tools show potential keywords but lack this crucial metric. You need to ensure that the phrases you target have at least 10 consistent searches per month.
How to Use the Keyword Magic Tool (Example: SEMrush)
Let me demonstrate this using a tool called the Keyword Magic Tool by SEMrush (note: I have an affiliate link that offers a two-week free trial at herokeywordtool.com).
Let’s say you’re a parenting expert focusing on children. You might enter a seed keyword like “teach children.” Then, you’d apply the “Questions” filter and set the advanced word count filter to at least eight words.
The tool will then reveal specific questions like: “how to teach children how to tell time,” “how to teach children about the value of money,” or even “how to blow their nose.” You can then further refine your search using related keywords like “teach kids,” “teach teens,” or “how to discipline kids.”
The Counterintuitive Secret to Ranking for High Search Volume
Now, here’s the part that might bend your mind: to eventually rank for high search volume keywords, you actually want to start by targeting low, but consistent, search volume keywords.
Notice in the example, the selected keywords have around 10-20 searches per month. This is actually gold! It’s all about turning your “nos” into “yeses” in terms of ranking.
By creating content that precisely answers these specific, low-volume questions, you begin to build authority and relevance within that niche.
The Leaf Strategy in Action
We’ve used this strategy, which I call the Leaf Strategy, with great success. For a new branch on our channel, after creating five videos targeting low-volume, long-tail questions, our ranking score significantly improved within a month.
Similarly, in the competitive “construction manager salary” niche, by focusing on these “lower leaves” (low-volume, specific questions) first, we gradually worked our way up to dominating even high-volume two-word searches like “construction management.” The same applies to “become politician,” where we started with 8-10 word questions and now rank for the highly competitive two-word term. And in the parenting space, targeting specific discipline questions led to top rankings for the broader term “discipline teenager.”
All three of these successful channels utilize the Leaf Strategy.
Want to Learn the Leaf Strategy?
I’ve created a dedicated episode explaining the Leaf Strategy in detail. You can watch it here: [Link to YouTube SEO Secret Strategy Video].
By understanding and implementing the Leaf Strategy, you’ll unlock the power of YouTube search, attract a highly targeted audience, and generate consistent leads for your business. Don’t miss out on this game-changing approach to YouTube growth!
