How to Title Youtube Videos

Good titles are essential to rank your youtube videos and grow an audience. Youtube titles have high SEO value and impact how many clicks you get. So how do you title youtube videos for more views? 

Good titles are short, concise, and entertaining. Like a good thumbnail, a good title should entice interest in a potential viewer. In this article, we will show you the best practices when titling your Youtube videos. 

How to Find Keywords for Video Titles

Let’s start with the basics; A good youtube title always includes one or more keywords.

Keywords are words or phrases people type into search to find a specific video. If you want your videos to be found on Youtube, it is important to identify and include keywords that people are searching for.

Other than describing your video in a way potential viewers understand, keywords also have enormous SEO value and help the Youtube algorithm figure out what the video is about.


Youtube Search Suggestion

The autocomplete function on Google and Youtube is a great tool you can use to find great keywords for your videos. 

Start with a keyword you want to include and let the autocomplete fill out possible phrases and questions. Search suggestions will give you an idea of what people are searching for.  


Keyword Tools

When you have some phrases and potential keywords to use, we recommend using a keyword tool to see how many searches it gets and how competitive that keyword is.

There are free keyword tools you can use, like Google Keyword Planner or paid options like Semrush.

For each video, you should narrow the list down to one or two keywords you can use in the title.

Persuasion and SEO Value

To write a good title for a Youtube video, you want it to catch the eye of a potential viewer and also appease the youtube algorithm. One has more to do with human psychology and describing your video, while the other is much more technical. You need both components to get good rankings on youtube. 

Below we will show you exactly how to write persuasive titles for humans, and later on, go into the SEO component.

How to Write Persuasive Titles for Humans

While it is the algorithm that ranks your videos, it is humans that decide whether or not to click on your content.

Begin by focusing on writing a good title for potential viewers. While SEO-optimized titles are extremely important, avoid bad practices like keyword stuffing or titles that sacrifice readability and message to appease the algorithm.

Below are some tips to make your titles more persuasive.


Make the Title Descriptive

A good title should be unambiguous and describe the video viewers are about to see.

While it can be tempting to have clever and creative titles, remember that viewers will probably have no idea what the video is about before they watch it. A good descriptive title simply means viewers have some ideas of what to expect.


Search Intent

When coming up with titles for your videos, always start with Search Intent.

Put simply, Search Intent is the why behind the phrase, question, or keyword. In other words, why the person did that search. 

Once you understand the search intent behind a keyword or phrase, you can create highly relevant titles.


Use Numbers

There is something about adding a specific number to your videos. For example, take a look at these two titles:

“Best Gaming PCs for Streaming” 

“Top 5 Best Gaming PCs for Streaming” 

The second option will usually get more clicks and frequently is in the top results. Adding specificity to your titles, like numbers, is a great way to improve your titles on Youtube.


Questions

Posing a question in your video title can be a great way to make it more persuasive. You will notice that many titles among the top results are formulated as questions, this entices someone to click on the video for the answer.

How to Optimize Youtube Video Titles for SEO

The second component of your title is SEO. There are certain steps you can incorporate when titling your videos to help improve your rankings.


Length

You get up to 100 words for Youtube video titles. But a title should be no longer than 70 characters to show up correctly in the search results. 

Each of the 70 characters is valuable real estate where you can include sub-keywords, a persuasive question, or phrase. Make sure to use the space effectively.


Add the Main Keyword in the Beginning

Include the exact primary keyword at or close to the beginning of your title. 


Optimize for Multiple Keywords

If possible, optimize for multiple keywords. This could mean adding, one or two more sub-keywords related to the topic of your video.

A Warning Against Clickbait

Unfortunately, some creators have used clickbait as a means to get quick views on their videos. Clickbait, in its worst form, is a misleading, sometimes completely false title for a video to get more views.

Because of this, click-baiting has gotten a bad rap in the youtube community, and for good reason. Having said that, some level of clickbait can work wonderfully and create more engagement from your content. Instead of relying on misleading viewers, try the persuasion tactics shown above when you title youtube videos

Learn More About Youtube SEO

Titles are very important, but more factors affect your rankings on Youtube. Learning how to title Youtube videos is just the first step in your SEO journey. You also want to learn how to write descriptions, how to use tags, and other SEO tricks. We recommend you check out our articles below on how to do that.

Learn more about Youtube SEO on MediaEquipt:

In Conclusion

We hope that by now, we shed a little light on how to title youtube videos. 

It might feel tempting to just get the video out there once it is finished, but today, titles, thumbnails, and other metadata are extremely important to get right if you take youtube seriously. 

Once you have done it a few times, you will find titling your videos will come naturally to you.