Update: Since this article was written, Google has released a YouTube Keyword Suggestion Tool.
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.
Suggest, follow the “advanced” link to the right of the
search box.
Next, select the box
that reads Display Query Suggestions as I Type.
From now on, the predictive text system will show you popular queries
with every character you input.
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
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 |
Tags: natural_search
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
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
Informative posting. Thnx a lot.
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 !
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
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
Hi Bryson,
I am writing a posting on video SEO in the Netherlands. Your posting provides some great insights.
Just wondering – how much has changed since July 2008 in this field? Do you if there are any other keyword research tools out there for video SEO? If not, what would the ideal video SEO tool for YouTube look like?
Cheers
Richard
Hi Richard, thanks for the reminder. Google released a YouTube keyword tool in February of this year. To my knowledge it is the only video-specific keyword tool that currently exists. That said, it’s a good tool, though not much different than the YouTube suggest tool. Search volume would be nice, so that optimizers and advertisers could understand the total opportunity from video search; but relative search volume is a good start. Thanks for your comments! Best, Bryson
[...] This is similar to the methodology laid out in my post on doing video keyword research using YouTube Suggest. When a character is inputted into suggest tools, queries with high search volume are returned in [...]