The document provides tips for optimizing YouTube videos and channels. It recommends uploading videos in HD, optimizing titles, descriptions and tags, and including closed captions. To get views, it suggests getting people to watch, share, and link to the video. It describes YouTube as a major search engine and emphasizes optimizing for subscriber engagement over search engine optimization or driving sales.

3. Upload your video in HD
1

4. Optimize your titles,
descriptions and tags for
relevant keywords
2

5. Upload a closed caption
(transcription) file
3

6. Get as many people to
watch, share and link to the
video as possible
4

7. The prevailing
narrative
looks like SEO from
2008

10. #MozCon
Phil Nottingham • Distilled
YouTube: The Most Important Search
Engine You Haven't Optimized For
@philnottingham • phil.nottingham@distilled.net

11. YouTube - A
Search Engine?

12. This is Google

13. This is probably Bing

14. This is YouTube

15. It’s also designed for
conversation and collaboration

16. People don’t (usually) go to the library
with purchase intent

17. YouTube is great for…
Increasing brand awareness
Building conversations around your
brand
Solving problems for your customers

18. YouTube is not so great for…
Sending traffic to your site
Driving sales

21. Think of your channels
Like a soccer team

22. Don’t build a team of attackers

23. Tim Howard is not judged on his goal
scoring ability

24. He may score one occasionally…

25. But he’s great because he can save
anything

26. How do people find YouTube
videos?

27. Two ways

28. Go looking for them
1

29. Search on Google

30. Search on YouTube

31. You can optimize for this with
SEO from 2008

32. Have them suggested
2

33. Recommended links on YouTube

34. Subscription Notifications

35. Social Channels

36. Engagement Begets Engagement

37. If you get this right, you can
generate results without
“SEO”

39. Subscriptions are the holy
grail of YouTube optimisation

40. Common Approach to YouTube Marketing
Pay a creative
agency to make it
Upload the
video to
YouTube
Have idea
for a Video
Come up with an
idea for a video
to promote your
business
Judge
success by
number of
views
Pay for some
seeding &
advertising

41. Good idea for a video
!
!
!
Good idea for YouTube
≠

42. We’ve made this mistake at
Distilled

43. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=TXoWVW0MIZ0

46. Don’t treat YouTube like a
content repository

47. We want to make sure all of our
our videos can be found on
YouTube
The opinion of many a CMO

48. Do your audience want to watch
your videos on YouTube?
Phil Nottingham
2014

51. A
B
V

52. Always
Be
Valuable

53. You need a coherent channel strategy

54. Channels need to be lean

55. …and
mean

56. weed out under performing videos

57. If most views from from Google search or other
websites, YouTube may not be the best choice of
hosting platform

58. MVC
(Minimum Viable Conversion)

59. Possible next action after
watching a YouTube video
Visit another website
Share the video
Subscribe to the channel
Watch another video

60. For YouTube,
the MVC is usually
!
“watch another video”

61. You want to
encourage
consumption

62. By developing a channel UVP

63. A framework for creating a
winning YouTube channel

64. Home and Hero

66. Home
Scalable and easy to produce
Evergreen
Typically informational
Drives consistent, unremarkable
engagement

72. Hero

73. Hero
Big investment, heavily promoted
Campaign focused
Promotes a core brand message
Drives extreme temporal engagement

76. It’s not about great production

77. It’s about the story

79. Gut reactions are formed in three
seconds or less

80. This is incredibly important,
because…

83. This is Rob
Ousbey

84. He is the
arch
nemesis of
this guy

85. Apparently my son insisted on watching this about 10
times consecutively yesterday. He hates pre-roll
adverts interrupting his videos, but loved this bit of
creative marketing. Conclusion: the attitudes of a one
year old are a good proxy for the average internet
user.
Rob Ousbey, 2013

87. Your brand is not what you sell,
it’s how you sell it.

88. We are entering the Mad Men era of
the internet

89. Content needs to be actively watched
and shared to gain traction

90. What works on TV may not work
on YouTube

93. We share because we care

94. We share to communicate our identity

95. !
Strong
emotions
triumph

96. Distilled’s attempt at getting
this right

97. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=KWdMPftzmUU

98. MVC
!
≠
!
Become a Distilled client

100. How can I come up with ideas for
great YouTube videos?

101. I recommend total immersion

102. Find out what your audience
care about

106. If you have an existing
channel…

112. Think laterally about your
brand

113. What can you talk about with
authority?

114. What separates you from the
pack?

115. “love [your brand]”
“hate [your brand]”
!
“love [your competitor]”
“hate [your competitor]”
!
“love [category]”
“hate [category]”

116. Content marketing:
!
It’s not about the product

117. …except when it is about the
product….

121. Unless you’re incredibly desirable…

122. …assume brand agnosticism

123. Relevant to your audience
>!
Relevant to your product

124. If your client/company
doesn’t get this….

126. Can I predict whether or not my
video will be shareable?
Someone in the audience

130. Technical Optimization

131. Optimize for visibility by optimizing
retention

132. http://wistia.com/content/
understanding-audience-retention

134. Split retention by traffic source

135. Clicks
!
>
!
Keywords

137. Test adjustments in titles
and thumbnails

138. Traffic Sources à YouTube Suggested Video

139. Multiple channels for multiple
audiences

140. Use Playlists liberally

141. Consider Annotations in pre-production

142. For YouTube,
the MVC is usually
!
“watch another video”

145. Provide a CTA for subscription

146. Promotions

147. This doesn’t happen by magic

148. viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com

150. Test and iterate with paid promotions
for all pieces

151. You can get good returns with small budgets

155. Target specific channels and
videos

156. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=KXqp9Izk0yM

157. I am a bit of a troll…

158. I’m a troll

161.
Find out which of your
competitors have partner
status enabled
1

162. Create an ad specifically
targeted towards their
customers
2

163. Choose to only advertise via
TrueView on their channel
3

164. Don’t allow ads on your own
channel!

165. You only want partner status if you’re
trying to monetize your content

166. The most subscribed to channels on
YouTube are not brands

167. You can leverage this…

171. Find outreach prospects with
competitor analysis

174. Why should I care?
Some cynical person in the audience

177. 0.00%
47.50%
95.00%
142.50%
190.00%
2010 2011 2012 2013
Traditional TV
Online Video
Change in time spent watching video (US)

178. The No 1. online entertainment destination
…..by miles.

179. We are about to see the next great
flood of money to digital

181. 15 -25 billion dollars
could be up for grabs

182. Tomorrow’s biggest brands
will be built online

183. online first

184. YOUSP

185. #MozCon
Phil Nottingham • Distilled
@philnottingham • phil.nottingham@distilled.net

186. EVERYONE TO
THE BAR!!!