The rest of the About Us page is also a great opportunity to fully describe what your channel is about, the types of videos you produce and the value you provide to subscribers. Inserting a few keywords naturally can help optimize the page further for search as well.

Not sure what keywords to include? Google Search Console, Google Analytics and YouTube Analytics are great resources to mine for keyword opportunities you can win on.

Other keyword tools you can put to good use are Moz, SEMrush and Market Muse. Don’t settle for the obvious high-competition keywords, however. Segment analytics data until you uncover long-tail keywords that are intent-rich and wide open for organic rankings.

3. Use channel keyword tags under Advanced Settings

In this section under Advanced Settings, you get 100 characters to apply tags that round out the scope of your channel’s metadata.

These tags serve the same function on your site as they do on your YouTube channel, yet not every marketer places as much emphasis on meta tags as they could. Again, the purpose here is to allow YouTube and Google to index your site for search, so the more relevant, contextual information you can provide, the better. Just remember, keyword stuffing died years ago, so only input tags that add value – don’t go overboard.

4. Update your channel trailer

The YouTube Creator Academy, the Bible of YouTube pro tips straight from the company itself, calls channel trailers “the red carpet you lay out to get visitors to subscribe.” And if you remember from our list of ranking factors above, the number of subscribers is definitely what you want to optimize for.

These trailers are the introduction to your channel and are a visual About Us. However, channel trailers are visible only to non-subscribers, meaning you don’t need to create or curate information in your trailer in line with the needs of existing subscribers – you need to win over the nonbelievers, the uninformed and the skeptics.

Channel trailers are typically 30-60 seconds in length, and you should adhere to a few guidelines:

• Introduce yourself as if no one has ever heard of you.
• Keep it short and pitch quickly. You need to hook viewers within the first few seconds.
• Ask viewers to subscribe, both vocally and textually within the video.
• Show, don’t tell. Don’t talk about your value, give examples of it.

5. Publish long videos

The most important video ranking factor is video watch time. Sometimes referred to as “audience retention,” watch time means viewers have found enough value in your videos to remain on the page.

The best way to keep users occupied is to produce long videos that strategically disperse valuable information throughout the duration of the entire video. Videos that hit the 10-minute mark are often able to achieve significantly higher watch time than those that cram too much information into a short video or those that don’t cover a topic thoroughly enough to retain their audience. The average length of page one YouTube videos is 14 minutes 50 seconds.

YouTube SERPs typically serve only 3-4 videos above the fold (one of which is likely a paid ad), so your goal should be to crack into this elite list – otherwise, your awesome video might get lost in the shuffle. To do so, create long videos that dive deep into a single concept or that answer a single question.