Why YouTube is powerful for SEO

With over 2.6 billion active users, YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine.

There’s a reason YouTube is so powerful for SEO: it’s owned by Google. When you Google something, there’s a good chance you’ll see YouTube videos above Facebook, Vimeo, or any other video source. Often these YouTube videos are placed at the very top of the search results in a carousel format — prime real estate that can have a significant impact for content creators.

“When choosing the best video clips to promote from around the web, [...] Google gives a secret advantage to one source in particular: itself [...] or more specifically, its giant online-video service: YouTube.”

— Sam Schechner, Kirsten Grind and John West (The Wall Street Journal)

If you’re not already publishing on YouTube, we recommend you consider making it part of your content strategy. When it comes to podcasting, it’s a great way to get your show discovered, connect with your audience, and monetize.

YouTube recently published this 67-page "Podcasting on YouTube" guide with its latest recommendations for podcasters.

Here we highlight some of these best practices to help your podcast succeed on YouTube.

1. Brand your podcast’s channel

Start by making your podcast and channel easily recognizable by your audience. Your channel needs a banner, an avatar, and a trailer video on your homepage that fits the branding for your show. To encourage visitors to consume (and binge watch) your videos, organize them into playlist shelves based on themes or formats.

2. Make your videos stand out in search

Use titles and thumbnails to make your videos irresistible

First, write a title that includes keywords and a strong “hook” for each video.

Second, create a thumbnail image that fits your brand and showcases each video. YouTube automatically picks a thumbnail for you but we recommend designing and uploading manually.

For example, check out how The Howard Stern Show approaches titles and thumbnails to feature guests in each episode clip.

3. Use data to create relevant & timely content

Keep a pulse on what’s top of mind for your audience at any given point. If you know a topic is trending, you can try to “ride that wave” to attract new viewers who just might become regular fans of your show. There are a couple of tools that Google offers to help you with this.

Google Trends shows you what people are searching by region and time. They even do special reports, like 2022 Shopping Trends or Year in Search 2022.

YouTube Analytics gives you information like the search terms that viewers use to find your videos, and once they’re there, how they consume your content. For example, you can see metrics like click-through rates, watch time, average percentage viewed, audience retention, and audience demographics.

These tools help you decide what content to cover and understand how to make it resonate more and more with your audience over time.

4. Set a consistent publishing schedule

One of the most impactful things you can do for your show is to adopt a consistent publishing schedule.

Posting episodes regularly at a steady cadence sends a signal to your audience that you’re actively committed to serving them. It’s part of the promise you make, and the more you keep it, the deeper your connection becomes.

To figure out the best day and time to release new videos, check YouTube Analytics for data on when your audience is most active. Experiment and adjust as you go along.

5. Lean into YouTube Shorts

With TikTok’s record-breaking growth, YouTube is stepping up the competition in the short-form content landscape with YouTube Shorts. It’s still relatively new, so it’s a great opportunity to stand out by editing your full episodes into short-form clips.

YouTube makes it easy to do this within the platform and even allows you to link a Shorts clip to the full episode to keep your audience engaged.