How and Why to Research Your Keywords Using Youtube-Based ToolsThough most don’t realize it, there are several compelling reasons for researching keywords using Youtube.
First and foremost, it’s a huge user-generated resource visited by hundreds of thousands of people daily who create and consume content. Digging into this dynamic community is GOLD: it will let you better understand your audience and niche.
Secondly, if you engage in video marketing (which you certainly should), using Youtube for keyword research will give you lots of ideas on where to direct and how to manage your videos and campaigns.
So let’s take a look at the three tools that will let you research keywords with Youtube:
Youtube Insights for Audience
Do you want to know which videos your target audience likes to watch? Then check out this Youtube experimental tool called “Youtube Insights for Audience”
No, this is not about your individual video analytics – this is about a standalone tool that shares the statistics on what various types of viewers like to spend time watching on Youtube (like a Google Insights for video!).
To get started, describe your audience based on your target demographics and choose categories for targeting:
The result will include:
- Your target audience demographics (age and gender breakdown and location)
- Your audience likes (and dislikes): how your audience’s interests are distributed across all Youtube categories
- (!) Examples of videos your target audience likes (Videos are displayed from top to bottom and left to right, based on their popularity among your defined audience)
- (!) Tags your target audience prefers (search terms they are viewing):
Youtube Comment Search
Youtube comment search is another tool inside Youtube Labs that lets you search through users’ comments. The tool thus works like a real-time search for Youtube in that it searches through most recent comments (search results can be sorted by rating or time). Thus, it is a great source of user-generated content evolving around your base term.
With some playing around, it can be a major inspiration source!
Example: Look how popular comments containing a base phrase [makeup tutorial] instantly gives you a cool content idea. Now you just have to go shoot your video or write a post titled ["Alice in Wonderland makeup tutorial"]!
The good news is that the comments search supports some standard boolean search operators which means you can dig deeper into keyword-based comments by:
- Excluding any word from search results (use minus – before the word, no space needed)
- Forcing the exact match (use parenthesis)
- Allowing either of the phrases to appear in search results (use OR in-between) – this technique allows you to see more results for both of your topics together. In our example below we can find more Halloween-related comments evolving around makeup tutorials.
- Forcing an extra word to be used in between your phrase (by using the wildcard * that seems to be substituted by a word here)
How fun is that?!
Youtube Suggest
Like Google Suggest, Youtube Suggest is the goldmine for keyword research experts as it it gives them a glimpse into the typical user’s search behavior. Youtube as-you-type suggestions were introduced in 2008 but it is still under-utilized by a marketer.
If you plan a video campaign or just need additional content inspiration, you must include Youtube Suggest in your arsenal.
Here’s why (and how to use Youtube suggest):
1. Expand your initial query (add each letter of the alphabet after your base term):
Similarly, you can expand the query by getting more suggestions for each phrase that comes up:
2. Get Random Linkbait Inspiration: Youtube Suggest starts predicting when a single character is entered – which makes it possible to get an idea of the most popular queries on YouTube by entering each letter of the alphabet and transcribing what comes up.
Youtube Suggestions in your browser:
This cool FireFox addon will add Youtube Suggest empowered search to your Firefox search box:
Attention: to get the suggestions to work, you might need to enable suggestions first: click “Manage Search Engines” below the full list of all your engines, select the newly-installed Youtube Search engine and enable suggestions for it.
Do you use YouTube for keyword and content research? Share your tips!
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This is a brilliant idea, I have used it in the past and have to admit that this technique has worked in bringing in lots of traffic to my client’s videos. The one thing we have to realise when doing a keyword research using youtube suggestion is that, it is not going to work for every sector. Sectors such as makeup, health and sports would probably benefit more than finance. But I might be wrong. Nonetheless great post.
Yes, it won’t work for every sector but it can sour creativity and inspire anyone at least ;)
Brilliant post. With so many videos being uploaded daily it’s harder and harder to get exposure. I wonder if there is a Chrome add-on similar to the Firefox one?
I am not aware of the Chrome extension for that. If you find one, please share here!
Thanks, although it will all be based on google info, it is a fresh approach, not just to new keywords, but to the keywords people are actually using.
Finally blog with valuable informations.
Good Stuff, do you have a bebo profile?