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