Are Tags Important on YouTube and How to Use Them

Tags on YouTube are a crucial aspect of video optimization, as they help viewers find your content when searching for specific topics. In fact, research shows that videos with relevant tags are 3 times more likely to be discovered than those without.

Using the right tags can make a significant difference in your video's visibility. According to YouTube's own guidelines, using a mix of niche and broad tags can help you reach a wider audience. For example, if you're creating a video about cooking, using a mix of tags like "vegan recipes" and "cooking tutorials" can attract both specific and general interest.

A common mistake many creators make is over-tagging their videos. However, this can lead to a penalty from YouTube's algorithm, which prioritizes relevance over quantity. It's essential to strike a balance between using enough tags to attract viewers and not overdoing it.

In the next section, we'll dive deeper into how to use tags effectively on YouTube.

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Tags matter because they help YouTube, Google, and other search engines understand what your video is about. This is crucial for getting your video found by people searching for similar content.

Your tags are an opportunity to give search engines information about your video, including its topic and category. This information helps search engines index your video and display it as a relevant result to a search.

A small but significant relationship exists between YouTube tags and ranking in YouTube. This means that using relevant tags can actually improve your video's visibility in search results.

Matching up video content with search queries is key to getting your video seen by the right people. YouTube tags provide more clarity into what your video is about, making it more likely to be shown to viewers searching for similar content.

Using relevant tags can also help increase watch time, which is a vital ranking factor on YouTube. When your tags reflect what your video is about, and the video provides valuable content to the searcher, it can engage the viewer and motivate them to watch more.

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Here are the three main benefits of using relevant, accurate tags on YouTube:

Your first tag should be your target keyword, making sure it's the exact keyword you want to rank for. This is especially important for YouTube, as they heavily account for your video's first few tags when ranking content in search results.

Using broad keywords as other tags helps YouTube understand your video's context. For example, if you're creating a video called "How to Hit a Baseball", you'd want to add "Baseball" as a broad tag.

To identify related and potentially trending tags, use a tag generator like TunePocket or Keyword Tool. These tools come up with tag recommendations based on your video title or main keyword.

You can also use YouTube Studio to find potential keywords for your tags. Look at the Reach tab to see how your audience has found your channel, and view reports for Traffic source types to see how viewers found your content and YouTube search.

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Use a mix of broad and focused tags to help YouTube understand your video topic. For example, if your primary keyword is "how to do a pushup", you'd want to use that and other relevant keywords in your tags, as well as broad tags like "fitness" and "workouts".

To help users find your videos, use both specific and broad tags. For example, if you're a real estate agent in Los Angeles, some of your specific tags could be "Los Angeles real estate" or "LA homes for sale", while some of your broader tags could be "real estate" or "apartments for sale".

Here's a breakdown of the types of tags to include:

The first tag is crucial, as YouTube heavily accounts for it when ranking content in search results. Make sure it's the exact keyword you want to target.

You can add broad keywords as other tags to help YouTube understand your video's context. For example, if you're creating a video about "How to Hit a Baseball", you'd want to add "Baseball" as a broad tag.

Using specific keywords that describe the topics you cover in your video as other tags will help YouTube understand your video's content. For instance, in the same "How to Hit a Baseball" video, adding "hitting off a tee" or "hitting batting practice" as specific tags would indicate to YouTube the exact topics your video covers.

YouTube limits the characters across all your YouTube tags to less than 500 characters. You'll be restricted if you attempt to go over the character limit as you type in YouTube tags.

A good rule of thumb is to use at least 5-8 tags per video, as this is a mix of focused and broad keywords that you found from video keyword research. For example, a top 10 result for "passive income" uses 7 total tags that describe the video content.

You should avoid using too many tags, as this can do more harm than good. According to Briggsby, 31 to 40 tags (of two to three words each) is ideal.

It's best to keep most of your tags between 2-3 words, as YouTube seems to prefer 2-4 word phrases. This will help you avoid clustering too many keywords in one tag.

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You can use tools like TubeRanker and VidIQ Boost to generate related tags for your YouTube videos. These tools suggest tags based on your video's primary keyword, making it easier to find the right tags.

TubeRanker is a free tool that provides a list of YouTube tag suggestions. VidIQ Boost, on the other hand, is a paid feature that suggests tags within the YouTube video editor.

There are also other tools like TunePocket and Keyword Tool that can help you identify related and potentially trending tags. These tools are free and can be used to generate tag recommendations based on your video title or main keyword.

To optimize your tags, it's best to start listing them in order of importance. This will help you prioritize the most relevant tags and make it easier for viewers to find your content.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when using tag generators:

By following these tips and using the right tools, you can optimize your YouTube tags and improve your video's performance on the platform.

YouTube tags are crucial for helping the algorithm understand what your video is about and surface it to the right audience. Make your first tag your target keyword and order the rest by importance, as YouTube heavily accounts for your video's first few tags when ranking content in their search results.

Using broad keywords as other tags helps YouTube understand your video's context, and specific keywords that describe the topics you cover in your video as other tags will help YouTube understand your video's content. For instance, if you're creating a video about "How to Hit a Baseball", you'd want to add "Baseball" as a broad tag and "hitting off a tee" or "hitting batting practice" as specific tags.

Don't go overboard with tags - the optimal number of tags is between 31 and 40 when used correctly, and using too many keywords can cause confusion for what your video is actually about.

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YouTube heavily accounts for your video's first few tags when ranking content in their search results, especially the first tag. So make sure your first tag is the exact keyword you want to target.

Using broad keywords as other tags helps YouTube understand your video's context. For example, if you're creating a video called "How to Hit a Baseball", you'd want to add "Baseball" as a broad tag to indicate to YouTube that your video's overarching topic is baseball.

Make your first tag your target keyword and order the rest by importance. Using specific keywords that describe the topics you cover in your video as other tags will help YouTube understand your video's content. For instance, in the same "How to Hit a Baseball" video, adding "hitting off a tee" or "hitting batting practice" as specific tags would indicate to YouTube the exact topics your video covers.

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Moderation is key when it comes to using tags. Using too many keywords can cause confusion for what your video is actually about.

Research suggests that the optimal number of tags is between 31 and 40. This number has been found to be effective when used correctly.

Using more than 40 tags dilutes their power, so it's best to stick to the recommended range.

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If you're struggling to come up with relevant tags for your YouTube video, don't worry, there are tools to help you out. YTube Tool is one such tool that can extract tags from a competitor's YouTube video with just a URL.

You can also use a tag generator like TunePocket or Keyword Tool to identify related and potentially trending tags. These tools come up with tag recommendations based on your video title or main keyword for free.

VidIQ is another powerful tool that can display your target keyword's related keywords, related score, search volume, search score, competition score, and overall score. The overall score is a combination of a keyword's related score, search volume, and competition score.

With these tools at your disposal, you'll be well on your way to getting your content found on YouTube.

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