If you’ve ever wanted your YouTube videos to show up in Google search results, I’ve got good news for you: it’s easier than you might think. Gone are the days when SEO for websites was the only focus. Today, SEO for YouTube is a game-changer, and you can now rank your videos at the top of both YouTube and Google—without jumping through the hoops of traditional website SEO. Let’s dive into how you can do this, with one important caveat—Google’s AI.
By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly what to do to ensure your YouTube videos and channel are ranking at the top of Google.
Understanding the Shift in Google’s SEO
For decades, Google served as a search engine for websites. To get your website to rank highly, you needed to implement SEO strategies that focused on website content. However, Google has evolved. It’s no longer just a search engine for websites; it’s now a search engine for content. YouTube has followed suit, becoming a content-driven search engine as well.
While many still rely on outdated SEO tactics, the real key to success today is creating the right kind of content—content that people are actively searching for. The old-school strategy of bombarding the search engines with backlinks and keyword stuffing is now obsolete. Instead, if you focus on creating content around the specific questions people are searching for, you’ll automatically rank higher on YouTube—and Google, too.
Keyword Research Before You Film
The trick is to do your keyword research before filming your video. By understanding what people are searching for and crafting your content around those questions, you’ll be setting yourself up for success right from the start. This approach means you won’t have to “trick” the search engine into ranking your content. Instead, you’re working with the search engine, giving it exactly what it’s looking for.
Let’s look at a few examples:
- Noelle Randall, a real estate investor educator, has garnered 69,000 views in just the last 28 days from YouTube search alone. On top of that, Google search brought her an additional 8,281 views. And guess what? She didn’t use any extra tactics to promote or boost her content. She simply created the right kind of content.
- Chad Littlefield, another content creator, receives 15,000 views per month from YouTube search, with an additional 12,000 views from Google search. Again, this is all thanks to creating content that directly addresses what people are looking for.
- Jason Schroeder, in the construction industry, has achieved 28,000 views from YouTube search and almost 8,000 additional views from Google search. By focusing on specific, targeted questions, his content shows up at the top on both platforms.
The Role of Google AI in SEO
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: Google’s AI. If you search something like “how to become a construction project manager,” you’ll notice Google’s AI is now dominating the search results, often pushing organic results far down the page. This new shift means that you’re competing with AI-generated content, as well as sponsored listings. It can be frustrating to see your content buried beneath these results.
But don’t worry—there’s still a silver lining. While Google’s AI experiment continues to grow, YouTube is still a reliable search engine without the interference of AI-generated content. By following the strategy I’m about to share with you, you can continue getting traffic from YouTube search, and even Google search, despite these changes.
The Power of YouTube SEO
So, how do we keep our content ranking? The secret lies in super-specific questions that your target audience is searching for. When you create content around these questions, you drastically reduce the competition and increase your chances of ranking at the top.
Although Google’s AI might be making things tricky for website content, YouTube’s search engine is still a powerful tool. By focusing on creating the right type of content, you can ensure that your videos show up in both YouTube and Google search results. The good news is that you’re still getting traffic from Google, even with the changes, so long as you stay true to the principles of YouTube SEO.
What’s Next?
Now that you understand how YouTube and Google search work together to boost your content, I encourage you to dive deeper into my complete strategy for mastering YouTube SEO. I’ve created a detailed video that takes you through the steps of what SEO for YouTube really looks like.
Click on the video linked below to learn the exact steps to start seeing results with your own YouTube SEO.
By following this approach, you’ll be well on your way to not only getting your videos to show up at the top of YouTube but also ranking on Google—without the confusion of outdated SEO tactics.
Want to learn more? Check out my full guide on YouTube SEO, and let’s get your channel to the top!
