YouTube Video Keyword Research and Characteristics of Popular YouTube Queries

posted May 22, 2008

Currently the first result in Google for “youtube keywords” is a video claiming to do video keyword research using WordTracker. The problem with doing keyword research for videos this way is that the most popular queries in WordTracker, which takes its data from meta search engines, are not necessarily the most popular queries in YouTube. In fact, in most cases they’re probably entirely dissimilar. Fortunately for video SEOs, last week brought a better video keyword tool for YouTube queries: YouTube itself.

Using the new YouTube Suggest tool I discovered some of the most popular YouTube queries and categories. The results aren't entirely surprising, but can be used to justify Arts & Entertainment spend in YouTube, or to find alternative subjects that still bring in a lot of search volume.

YouTube Suggest, like Google Suggest, is a user interface improvement that uses popular search queries to predict what the searcher will type next. Predictive text is good for the user because it means less typing to get to the result, and it’s good for the marketers who want to connect their content to queries because it gives them a glimpse into the typical user’s search behavior. These queries can then be added to relevant fields in the video to put the video in front of the largest possible relevant audience when the user is looking for it.

To opt into YouTube Suggest, follow the “advanced” link to the right of the search box.

Next, select the box that reads Display Query Suggestions as I Type.



That’s it. From now on, the predictive text system will show you popular queries with every character you input.



When researching a particular topic, this tool will show you popular queries, most likely in order of relative search volume. Incorporating these keywords into your relevant video can help increase visibility of that video.

Characteristics of Popular YouTube Queries

Unlike Yahoo Suggest, which won’t predict the next query without 3 characters inputted, Google Suggest (and this YouTube version) starts predicting when a single character is entered. It is therefore possible to get a good sense of the most popular queries on YouTube by entering the alphabet one character at a time and transcribing what comes up. When I did this, I discovered some of the most popular YouTube queries and categories.

Category

By far the most popular category on YouTube was Arts & Entertainment, of which music searches made up the bulk. No real surprises here. Nonetheless, there are popular categories outside this category that brands looking to get into video SEO should consider. This is also a study of head queries, so the long tail of video SEO could vary. Category breakdown is below.

Top 100 YouTube Suggest Queries by MSN April Search Volume

For the same reason that it doesn’t make sense to use WordTracker for YouTube keyword research, it doesn’t make much sense to give MSN search volume for YouTube queries. It’s unlikely, for example, that YouTube would be the most popular query since the users are already within YouTube. The fact that YouTube even shows up in the suggest tool is kind of astonishing for that fact. Nonetheless, to give my readers a sense of the most popular queries in YouTube as reported by this predictive text tool, this is a list of the top 100, sorted by MSN search volume for April. Find the full list, along with categorization data here.

1

youtube

2

mariah carey

3

miley cyrus

4

american idol

5

wwe

6

lil wayne

7

runescape

8

chris brown

9

naruto

10

alicia keys

11

my

12

love

13

beyonce

14

nba

15

funny

16

pokemon

17

video

18

leona lewis

19

hannah montana

20

funny cats

21

obama

22

juno

23

christina aguilera

24

family guy

25

shakira

26

taylor swift

27

michael jackson

28

jonas brothers

29

ufc

30

janet jackson

31

rihanna

32

soulja boy

33

emo

34

hilary duff

35

avril lavigne

36

vanessa hudgens

37

you

38

kiss

39

eminem

40

ashley tisdale

41

titanic

42

zac efron

43

usher

44

harry potter

45

panda

46

akon

47

kelly clarkson

48

high school musical

49

fergie

50

wow

51

cristiano ronaldo

52

iron man

53

halo

54

lost

55

mario

56

alvin and the chipmunks

57

south park

58

ufo

59

bob marley

60

iphone

61

ghost

62

pitbull

63

plies

64

ciara

65

world of warcraft

66

ronaldinho

67

rbd

68

whitney houston

69

snoop dogg

70

celine dion

71

david archuleta

72

nelly

73

wisin y yandel

74

lollipop

75

undertaker

76

xbox

77

ronaldo

78

david cook

79

ashanti

80

xxl

81

slipknot

82

metallica

83

linkin park

84

halo 3

85

dance

86

kobe bryant

87

elvis

88

daddy yankee

89

bon jovi

90

one tree hill

91

aventura

92

kanye west

93

xbox 360

94

jesse mccartney

95

guitar

96

jeff dunham

97

ironman

98

jojo

99

enrique iglesias

100

don omar



Leave a response

  1. juan pabloMay 23, 2008 @ 11:04 AM
    estos manes son como pendejos peleando con daddy yankee en cualquier momento puede ponerlos en stop you man are the best exponent of reggaeton you know who this my ms is thebigpablo@hotmail.com
  2. Bryson MeunierMay 23, 2008 @ 11:28 AM
    Thanks for your comment, Juan Pablo. I don't really understand what you said but it's clear that the artist you support is lucky to have such brand champions. Best, Bryson
  3. HenryMay 26, 2008 @ 05:25 AM
    Informative posting. Thnx a lot.
  4. Publicidad en internetJuly 08, 2008 @ 07:34 AM
    Hi Bryson! indeed cool post. This is the first time that I visit your blog, I must admit that you have also a great design. SMX speaker, mmm, that's sounds important, Congrats! I'll be back frequently because I have found a great blog to read. Keep Working Hard !
  5. RobertJuly 15, 2008 @ 03:59 PM
    Hi Bryson, Awesome post, How did you get the top queries chart? I think this is a great post, I wanted to understand more about YouTube Keyword research. Thanks, Robert
  6. Bryson MeunierJuly 17, 2008 @ 10:07 AM
    Thanks, Henry, Robert & Publicidad! @Robert, the list was generated by sorting the complete query list by MSN Ad Intelligence search volume. As such, it's not meant to be a completely accurate representation of the top YouTube search queries by volume, but simply a reference in the absence of such a list. A true YouTube top search queries list would almost certainly not have "youtube" as the top search query, for example. Perhaps eventually Google will release YouTube search volume as they have Google search volume, but in the interim we'll have to content ourselves with approximations like these. Best, Bryson
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