How much traffic is your blog receiving daily?
It could be that your blog:
1.) It is still new, and it has no traffic.
2.) Your blog has been around for quite a long time, and as such, it already has traffic.
It doesn’t matter whether your blog has traffic; you have to keep using the techniques that drive more traffic to your blog.
Having mentioned the techniques that drive traffic to a blog, you should know that:
- There are techniques that work for a blog that has got no traffic.
- There are techniques that work for a blog that has got traffic.
For example, you can use opt-in email advertising if your blog has got traffic. But you can’t use this technique if your blog has no traffic.
It’s common sense that you can’t build an emailing list if hardly anyone is visiting your blog.
One of the techniques you can use to get more than 1000 visitors per day is publishing videos on YouTube. This technique works regardless of whether your blog gets traffic or not.
You’re going to learn 12 YouTube Video Tactics that will get you more traffic.
Let me be frank with you, it is pretty challenging to drive traffic to your blog using YouTube videos.
Why?
Because videos don’t work effectively for all content.
Don’t create a video whose content no one is interested in viewing on YouTube.
You should know the type of content people want to view on YouTube so that you create videos that will receive many views get you many subscribers and click-throughs to your blog.
So, what makes YouTube website to be a good source of traffic for your blog?
To answer this question, let me highlight essential facts that have already been reported online about this video-sharing website.
To start with, there are over a billion YouTube users. That is almost a third of all people using the internet.
It’s the most popular video-sharing website in the world. As of June 2015, YouTube was listed as the third most visited website globally. It attracts each month more than 15 billion visitors.
It was reported in 2014 that “More than 300 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute.” Compared to 2013, video uploaded to YouTube 2014 increased by 100 hours per minute.
There is a 60% increase in the number of hours people spend on YouTube watching videos. According to Google, it is the fastest growth seen in two years.
There has been a 40% increase in people watching videos on YouTube every day since March 2014.
YouTube views from other countries apart from the U.S are 80%.
More than half traffic of YouTube is from mobile devices. This website is accessed on mobile by people aged 18-34 and 18-49. It’s reported that the number of hours spent watching YouTube videos on mobile has increased by a hundred percent.
YouTube is available in 76 different languages. This covers 95% of the population on the internet.
According to statistics on YouTube Press, there is a 50% increase in the number of YouTube Channels earning six figures each year.
As of October 2014, rightsholders who had chosen to monetize claims were paid out $1 billion by YouTube.
12 Effective Ways To Use YouTube To Get More Traffic To Your Blog
The following are 12 practical ways to get more traffic to your blog.
They’re practical ways to easily apply to drive traffic to your blog.
Use these 12 practical ways to leverage the potential of YouTube for your blog.
1.) Create YouTube Channel For Your Blog
You want to optimize your blog in the search engines.
You also want your blog to have a public presence on YouTube, right?
To make this happen, you have to create a YouTube Channel for your blog.
How To Create YouTube Channel For Your Blog
First, you should create an account with Google if you haven’t created one.
Once you have an account with Google, you should log in to your account for you to be able to create a YouTube Channel.
Below is an example of a YouTube Channel.
I.) Channel Name
Since the channel name will be already linked to the name you used to create an account with Google, you should edit it.
Edit it to use a name that will optimize your YouTube Channel in the search engines.
Since you want to use YouTube Channel to target a specific group of people, you should include the keyword that defines your blog when creating the name of your YouTube Channel.
II.) Your YouTube Icon
Whenever people view your videos, the icon of your YouTube Channel will be shown right below your videos.
The icon will also be displayed on your YouTube Channel Art image (banner).
The image you upload to be an icon for your YouTube Channel should be visible.
The recommended size is 800 x 800.
Let the logo of your blog be your icon image. By using it, people will associate your blog with the video you have published on YouTube.
It helps you to gain exposure for your blog.
III.) Channel Art
The Channel Art will increase brand awareness for your blog by giving it a unique look and feel.
You should upload your blog logo to be your YouTube Channel Art.
The recommended size of the image is 2560 x 1440. The maximum file size is 4 MB.
Note that your Channel Art may appear different in size on mobile, TV, and desktop displays. Therefore, ensure that it is displayed well on other devices.
You can also display a hyperlink to your blog on the right-hand side of your YouTube Channel Art image.
IV.) Channel Description
The description will be displayed once people click the “About” link that will be shown on your YouTube Channel.
The description you write is going to optimize your YouTube Channel. It is the one that is going to tell people what kind of content they expect to view.
You should write a description that will interest people to view your videos, subscribe to your YouTube channel, and click-through to your blog.
Note that part of your description will appear elsewhere on YouTube, and it will also optimize your YouTube Channel in the search engines.
Your description should have a call to action that links to your blog. You can also link to your social networking sites from your channel description. Read how the highest-paid YouTubers make money on Youtube
V.) Introduction Video
Create an introduction video for your YouTube Channel. Let people know why they should watch your videos and subscribe to your YouTube Channel.
It’s the introduction video that will make people interested in viewing your content.
Your introduction video should also make people aware that the YouTube Channel they’re viewing belongs to your blog.
As such, it should invite people to visit your blog.
2.) Write A Long Description For Your YouTube Videos
You should know that optimizing your videos in the search engines is not the same way you optimize your plain text blog posts.
The search engines bots can’t view your YouTube videos. But, they can crawl the text description of your video to determine how to rank it for your target keyword.
When you’re writing the description for your video, ensure that it’s long enough to give important information about what your video is all about.
Use a keyword that will optimize your video in the search engines.
To drive more traffic to your blog, you should include a link to your blog at the beginning of your description.
You should link your YouTube videos to blog posts with relevant content. This way, you’ll increase your conversion rate.
If your video is about how to create a video, link it to your blog post whose content is about creating a YouTube video.
3.) Choose Your Keyword Wisely
Don’t use too competitive keywords to rank your videos in the search engines. Using too competitive keywords to describe your videos will make it impossible for you to drive traffic to your blog.
Before using the keyword you’ve selected, you should determine if video results are appearing on the first search result page found by the search engines.
Use a keyword tool to determine the competition of the keywords you want to use.
You’re allowed to use 5-7 tags as keywords for your videos.
You should include tags because they’re the ones that are going to associate your video with other relevant YouTube videos.
4.) Share Your Video On Social Media Sites
Don’t just publish your video on YouTube and wait for people to find it. Instead, you should take your video to the right people it’s targeting to view it.
The more views your video receives, the higher chances it has to be ranked well by the search engines. This also will increase click-throughs to your blog.
This is why you should share your videos on social networking sites.
Encourage people to share your video on social networking sites.
5.) Use YouTube Ads
One of the best ways to use YouTube to get more traffic to your blog is by using YouTube Adverts. In fact, this is the fastest way you can drive targeted traffic to your blog.
Your advertisements will be displayed at the beginning of selected YouTube videos before the actual videos play.
Short text advertisements linked to your blog can also be displayed in selected YouTube videos.
The good thing about using YouTube Adverts is that:
I.) You’re in control of your budget.
II.) You’ll only pay when someone engages with your advertisement. So, for example, you won’t pay if someone skips your advertising before 30 seconds.
III.) You can target people by interests, gender, location, and age.
Use Google Adverts to drive more traffic to your blog.
6.) Embed Videos Within Your Emails
One of the ways to use YouTube to get more traffic to your blog is by embedding your videos within your emails.
It has been proven that emails increase the conversion rate.
This is a good reason you should embed your YouTube videos whenever you send emails to your readers.
7.) Use Annotations
Don’t go crazy with annotations. They can be distracting to viewers if you overuse them.
However, annotations can be a great way to give viewers a little more extra information to emphasize important points.
With annotations, you can layer text and add a link to your YouTube video so that you drive traffic to your blog.
Use annotations sparingly, but do use them when it makes sense so that they help you to capture people’s attention and get more traffic to your blog.
How To Add Annotations To Your Videos
I.) Go to your YouTube Channel. Click the video you want to add annotations on the right-hand side just below your video; click Video Manager.
II.) You’ll be directed to a page where you can edit your video. Click edit, and from the drop-down menu that will be displayed, you should click Annotations.
III.) After you click Annotations, you’ll be directed to another page. Then, on the right-hand side, click the Add annotation button.
IV.) Once you’re done adding your annotation, click Apply Changes.
8.) Create Playlist That Is Keyword-Rich
Once you publish videos on your YouTube Channel, you should organize them by creating a Playlist.
A Playlist will also optimize your YouTube videos in the search engines.
A keyword-rich Playlist is capable of driving more traffic to your YouTube videos. But, of course, the more views your videos receive, the more traffic your blog will also receive.
9.) Add Transcript
Transcriptions are a tremendous SEO tool for your YouTube video since you’ll have the chance to use keywords that will optimize your video.
It also increases the number of people who share your videos. People will readily grab a quote from the transcripts of your videos that they will share online.
Using YouTube to promote your blog is all about increasing the visibility of your videos so that people share them on social networking sites.
You may just be surprised how much of a difference adding transcriptions to your YouTube videos can make this happen.
Note that transcripts work effectively for videos less than an hour long.
10.) Request Influential Bloggers To Feature Your Video
When you create a video, you know that the video has information that will help people learn a new skill. The video also empowers people with engaging information on how to do something. You should contact influential bloggers to request them to feature your video.
When your video is featured on famous and influential blogs, it is likely to be featured by many other bloggers. As such, your video is expected to go viral. As a result, your traffic also increases.
11.) Allow Comments
It should go without saying that you’ll want all of your YouTube videos to be engaging. One way to make your videos engaging is by allowing viewers to post comments.
Keep in mind that the search engines, especially Google, factor in the number of comments to rank YouTube videos.
For sure, you’ll probably get some spambot comments. But you’ll also get the opportunity to engage viewers who may be interested in reading your blog.
Your blog is an interactive marketing tool that allows people to post comments on videos you publish on your blog’s YouTube Channel.
12.) Include Call To Action In Your Videos
You should never create a YouTube video that doesn’t have a call-to-action graphic.
Again, don’t mistake having the same call to action in all of your videos.
In each video you’ll be publishing on YouTube, you should always use a different call to action.
For instance, you can have a call to action informing viewers to:
I.) Subscribe to your YouTube Channel.
II.) Visit your blog.
III.) Subscribe to your blog.
IV.) Post comments on your video.
You’re the one who is in control of your words; therefore, create a call to action that converts.
Most people place their call to action at the end of the video.