YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, so keyword-optimizing your videos on the platform is only as important as keyword-optimizing your weblog posts for Google.

Even if you've just created the next "Charlie bit my finger" video, you must call back that an algorithm dictates which videos YouTube volition serve to its audience -- and which ones it won't.

Ane of the best means to keyword-optimize your videos for YouTube is leveraging tags. Beneath, we've put together a guide that volition explain exactly what YouTube tags are, why they're important, and some best practices to follow.

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What are tags for YouTube?

YouTube Tags are words and phrases yous tin include in your YouTube videos' description. They let your viewers, and YouTube, know what your videos are almost and can help them rank higher in the platform's search results.

Why are YouTube tags important?

YouTube tags function to aid YouTube grasp your video's content and context. This way, YouTube tin can understand your video's topic and category, and associate it with similar content, which can amplify your video's achieve. The rise of semantic search has fabricated YouTube tags less important over fourth dimension, only they're still a strategic element you can use to your reward.

Fifty-fifty though YouTube sites the title, thumbnail, and description equally being more of import for video SEO on their platform, studies do indicate that in that location'due south a slight positive relationship between keyword-optimized tags and ranking (Backlinko). Neglecting to use them isn't a dealbreaker, but they can definitely aid.

They're fifty-fifty more than of import in cases where your target keyword is unremarkably misspelled because you can tag the misspellings without including them in your championship and description.

Equally a secondary benefit, tags fifty-fifty help y'all organize and find your own content if you do self-reference tagging (e.m. "Ireland trip 2019").

YouTube Tags All-time Practices

To leverage YouTube tags to their fullest potential, cheque out these tips and tricks.

ane. Make your commencement tag your target keyword and gild the rest by importance.

YouTube heavily accounts for your video's first few tags when ranking content in their search results, especially the first tag. Then make sure your first tag is the exact keyword you want to target.

ii. Apply some broad keywords that describe the overarching topic your video falls under as other tags.

Using wide keywords equally other tags helps YouTube empathize your video's context. For instance, if yous're creating a video called "How to Hit a Baseball", yous'd desire to add "Baseball" as a wide tag to indicate to YouTube that your video's overarching topic is nigh baseball game.

3. Utilize some specific keywords that depict the topics you covered in your video as other tags.

Using specific keywords that depict the topics you lot encompass in your video as other tags helps YouTube empathise your video's content. For instance, in the same "How to Hitting a Baseball game" video, adding "hitting off a tee" or "hit batting practice" as specific tags would indicate to YouTube the verbal topics your video covers.

four. Go along most of your tags between 2-3 words.

While yous should certainly include long-tail keywords and a few broad friction match variations, YouTube seems to prefer two-4 word phrases (Briggsby).

v. Practise not go overboard with tags.

The point of tags is to help the algorithm understand what your video is almost and then it can surface it to users that are looking for a video like yours. Using besides many keywords can crusade defoliation for what your video is actually about. Enquiry suggests that the optimal number of tags is between 31 and twoscore (when used correctly, of course). More than that dilutes their power.

graph showing the optimal number of tags as being between 31 to 40

Paradigm Source

half-dozen. Get inspiration from videos that are currently ranking.

If you know what y'all desire to rank for, take notes from those who are already ranking on the topic. Their keyword tags might requite you a proficient starting point for enquiry and inspiration.

7. Get inspiration from YouTube motorcar-suggest.

Auto-suggest is a feature to assist users discover what they need. YouTube isn't surfacing these suggestions willy-nilly. Chances are, in that location'southward a reason these keywords are suggested, so don't exist afraid to go straight to the equus caballus'south mouth, so to speak, to draw inspiration.

youtube auto-suggest results for "sewing a button"

Best YouTube Tag Generators

To discover the keywords you can tag in your videos and assistance them rank higher in YouTube's search results, hither are three of the best YouTube Tag Generators to try.

1. Keywordtool.io

keywordtool.io youtube generator tag results for "baseball"

Later plugging your target keyword into its YouTube search bar, Keywordtool.io will provide you with suggested keywords, their search volume, how they've trended over the past 12 months, and questions, prepositions, and hashtags that also include your target keyword.

2. Rapidtags

rapidtags youtube tag generator results for "sewing a button"

Entering a seed keyword into Rapidtags and then striking the button will generate a number of related tags for your YouTube video. Best of all, there's a re-create button for y'all to easily pull the text without entering information technology manually.

three. YTube Tool

ytube tool youtube tag generator homepage

This tool helps you extract the tags from a competitor'southward YouTube video. All you have to do is enter the URL, and the tool volition then return your results.

four. Keyword Keg

keyword keg youtube tag generator homepage

Using Keyword Keg, you can enter your target keyword into the tool and it'll serve up its search volume, toll-per-click, contest, on-page difficulty, off-page difficulty, SEO difficulty, CTR scope, keyword power, trends, and suggested keywords. You lot can also filter your results by country and language.

five. VidIQ

vidiq youtube tag generator homepage

VidIQ will display your target keyword's related keywords, related score, search book, search score, competition score, and overall score, which is a combination of a keyword's related score, search score, and competition score.

With these tools and types for generating optimized YouTube tags for SEO, yous're well on your way to getting your content establish on YouTube. Proceed optimizing other elements of the video likewise and monitoring your aqueduct'southward growth.

Editor'due south note: This mail service was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Originally published Nov 5, 2020 7:00:00 AM, updated April 12 2021