19 YouTube SEO Tools to Improve Ranking

To increase the reach and ranking of your videos on YouTube, it's not enough to link videos together.

You'll get better results if you focus on quality over quantity.

This is how you can get a better ranking and get first place, by skyrocketing your video views and subscribers, or at least stop showing poor videos because you're trying to reach an arbitrary quota. But as anyone who has ever tried to increase their reach and the number of views of their videos on YouTube can tell you, it's not easy.

Luckily, we've found 26 YouTube SEO tools that can help you get a growing and engaged audience.

YouTube is a powerful search engine. In fact, it's the second most popular search engine in the world, behind Google. And Google loves YouTube content.

When you search on Google, video content stands out from the rest of the search results:

When you focus on creating the right YouTube content using the right keywords and tags, you're in a great position to rank higher on Google and YouTube's internal search.

That's why we've put together this list of the best YouTube SEO optimization tools that you can use to get more subscribers on YouTube and improve your rankings without spending countless hours creating videos just for the sake of creating videos.

List of the best SEO tools for YouTube

If we consider that video is the best performing content out of all platforms social media management, it makes sense to focus on creating the best, most optimized YouTube videos possible. You can then share them on your social networks, which allows you to increase your number of followers and increase your reach. But with over 2 billion users on the platform, it can be hard to find your videos.

That's where these YouTube optimization tools come in.

Here you will find all the tools you need to create great videos, find the right keywords and tags, find out what your competitors are up to, and track the performance of your YouTube channel.

1. TubeBuddy.

TubeBuddy is a browser extension that offers tons of different ways to effectively manage your YouTube channel.

It includes tools for productivity, video SEO, data and research, promotion, and mass processing.

With TubeBuddy, you can create and schedule your YouTube videos, use recorded responses to facilitate content moderation, and create final screen templates, among other cool things.

2. YouTube Analytics.

YouTube Analytics is one of the best tools you can use to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your channel.

You can use it to learn more about your audience and the content that attracts them, improves the views of your YouTube videos, and keeps them interested. You can also check the viewing time of your videos (a signal in theYouTube search algorithm) and the evolution of your audience.

3. VidIQ.

vidIQ is a browser extension that shows you the stats you need to track your YouTube performance. You can also add competing channels to see how they compare to yours, and set up email alerts to find trending topics. There's even a Facebook syndication feature that allows you to instantly share your video on social media platforms.

Identify your best keywords

Descriptions and titles are important information for YouTube users. When you include the right keywords in your YouTube video descriptions and titles, users are better equipped to decide if your video is right for them. In this section, you'll find YouTube optimization tools that can help you find the keywords that will get your videos ranked and viewed.

4. YouTube Autosuggest.

If you've ever searched for a video on YouTube, you know that as soon as you start typing, YouTube offers suggested keywords and phrases to help you:

It's a great tool for users, but it's also an extremely useful tool for creators.

Like Google Trends, you can type your keyword or topic into the YouTube search field and use the autosuggestion results to find keywords to include in your video description, tags, and title.

5. Google Keyword Planner.

Google has tons of free tools that creators can use to find the right keywords to include in their content.

Google Keyword Planner is a great tool. You can access Google Keyword Planner from your Google Ads dashboard (you don't need to run ads to use it).

It will help you find the keywords that are most valuable in Google searches, so you can insert them into your YouTube descriptions and titles.

6. Keyword Tool (Keywordtool.io).

Keyword Tool is a freemium tool that you can use to find topics that might be of interest to your viewers based on what they are likely to be looking for.

Just enter a high-level keyword or topic and Keyword Tool will give you suggestions in the form of questions, prepositions, and even hashtags.

The paid version starts at $69/month and gives you access to search volumes, cost per click, competitive data, and trends.

7. Rank Tracker.

Rank Tracker is another freemium keyword research tool. You can use it to extract keywords from YouTube suggestions and show search volume, competition, planned visits, and more.

Rank Tracker is ideal for finding keywords that will allow your videos to get the coveted featured snippet position, which places you at the top of the search results. The paid version starts at $72/year.

8. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer has one of the largest YouTube keyword databases.

You can search for your keyword and find local and global search volume, clicks, percentage of clicks, and click flow data so you can find out how many people are looking for a certain term on YouTube each month.

There are also keyword ideas reports that can give you great keyword ideas or topics.

9. Kparser.

Kparser is another easy to use paid keyword research tool that focuses on long-tail keywords. You can add keywords before and after your target keyword (similar to Keyword.io) but Kparser lets you choose the depth of analysis.

10. YTrank.

yTrank is a super simple free tool that you can use to track YouTube rankings for a target keyword. Simply choose your desired location, add your YouTube video URL, and add your keywords.

Search for profitable tags

YouTube tags are words and phrases that allow YouTube to know what your video is about.

Like keywords, tags are an important ranking factor inYouTube search algorithm. Here you'll find YouTube optimization tools that will help you find the most profitable tags for your YouTube videos.

11. RapidTags.

RapidTags is a free tool that quickly generates tags that you can use for YouTube. You can apply a language filter for different locations.

Simply enter your target keyword into the search field to get a list of tags you can use on your YouTube videos.

12. TubeRanker.

Similar to RapidTags, TubeRanker allows you to enter your target keyword to get a list of related tags that you can add to your YouTube content.

This tool also includes all the SEO features for YouTube that you will need:

• Tag generator
• Channel Audit
• Tracking the ranking
• Tag extractor
• Hashtag generator
• Title generator
• Description generator

Find out what your competitors are up to

Studying your competitors on YouTube is a great way to develop your own video marketing strategies and find inspiration for new content.

In this section, you'll find YouTube optimization tools that will help you get ahead of your competition.

13. Rival IQ.

Rival IQ offers information analytics on YouTube that will help you understand your competitors so you can make better decisions about your own channel and get better results.

Rival IQ will show you how often your competitors post content, how much engagement their content gets, likes and dislikes, followers, views, comments, and more.

14. SE Ranking.

SE Ranking is a keyword tracker that allows users to check YouTube rankings for any location and device on a daily basis.

You can even set a target URL for each search and any non-targeted URLs will appear in red.

You can track rankings across five search engines and up to five competitors.

SE Ranking is one of SEO software tools overall and one of my favorites. In addition, I use it almost every day.

15. SerpStat.

SerpStat is a keyword research tool that gives you insight into what your competitors are doing. You provide a target keyword and SerpStat offers suggestions that you can rank for, as well as search terms that potential customers are looking for.

16. Tags for YouTube.

The free TagsforYouTube Chrome extension allows you to see the video tags of any video by clicking “show more” under the video description. This is a great way to find out what tags your competitors are using in their videos so you can use them as well.

Keep your comments clean

It's important to moderate your comments on YouTube. Not only do comments play a role in the YouTube algorithm, but keeping your comments clean contributes to the accuracy of the information your audience receives and improves the reputation and credibility of your brand.

Here you'll find YouTube optimization tools that will help keep your comment sections safe.

17. YouTube's Comment Moderation.

YouTube's built-in comment moderation tool allows you to customize settings to automatically filter out inappropriate comments. You can add specific users to automatically approve their comments, enter a list of words to block, and block messages that include hashtags and URLs.

18. Smart Moderation.

Smart moderation is a paid tool that moderates comments on social media platforms. It connects to your social profiles and removes unwanted comments as soon as they're posted.

It is based on AI and can therefore moderate comments almost as well as a human. And, thanks to AI, the tool learns as you use it. Pricing starts at $79 per month.

Create great videos

Creating great YouTube videos starts with a great subject, but you'll also need to create eye-catching YouTube thumbnails and edit your video to make sure it's smooth and to add titles and visual effects. Here you'll find YouTube optimization tools that will help you create YouTube videos that people want to watch.

19. Google Trends.

Google Trends is an easy to use option for finding great video topics. Simply type in your general topic or keyword and specify YouTube Search. From there, you can choose a location, category, and time period to get the most relevant results.

FAQs

What is the best way to use SEO on YouTube?

To improve your audience on YouTube and the ranking of your videos, it's not enough to link videos together.

You'll get better results if you focus on quality over quantity. To do this, you can include video keywords, optimize your video title, optimize your YouTube tags, ask people to participate in your video, encourage people to subscribe, and create an engaging thumbnail.

That's how you'll be able to rank your videos first every time, or at least make them appear on the first page of YouTube's search results.

Does YouTube SEO exist?

YouTube SEO is a way to optimize your channel by adding features like playlists, metadata, descriptions filled with keywords, and videos designed for the platform.

With YouTube SEO, you can prepare your videos to be successful both on YouTube and outside of YouTube, like Google search.

That's how you'll be able to rank higher and get first place, which will cause your video views and subscribers to skyrocket - or at least stop showing poor videos because you're trying to reach an arbitrary quota.

How can you improve your YouTube rankings more quickly?

It's not easy to increase your audience and the number of views of your videos on YouTube, or to improve your ranking on YouTube. To get results, you need to take the time to optimize your YouTube channel and videos for search.

To do this, you can include video keywords, optimize your video title, optimize your YouTube tags, ask people to participate in your video, encourage people to subscribe, and create an engaging thumbnail.

That's how you can get your videos to rank number one over and over again, or at least show up on the first page of YouTube's search results.

Summary

If you're looking to promote your business on YouTube, use these YouTube SEO tips to improve your video traffic and watch time:

1. Choose your keywords wisely
2. Include keywords in the video title
3. Include keywords in the video file
4. Optimize your description
5. Use video hashtags
6. Select a video category
7. Use eye-catching stickers
8. Add subtitles and closed captions

And finally, do your research as you would for any other piece of content.

Focus on creating value-added videos that you can rely on to reinforce your content and appeal to theYoutube algorithm.

The more useful content you offer to users, the more search volume you'll get for your business and your YouTube channel!