8 Things to Know About Using Hashtags on YouTube

How to Use Hashtags to Grow Your YouTube Channel

November 23, 2020 8:30am Robyn Rivera

If you were to ask most people what the second largest search engine is behind Google, most people would probably guess that it’s Bing or Yahoo.

Believe it or not, it’s actually YouTube, and that means that getting it right on YouTube is incredibly important these days.

In addition to building a website, your small business needs a presence on YouTube, and this is best accomplished by building out a YouTube channel.

However, simply having a YouTube channel isn’t enough. You also need to take steps to grow that channel. One of the ways you can do that is by using hashtags.

Lots of people are familiar with hashtags, but not many people know how to make the most of them. Here are a few tips to help.

8 things to know about using hashtags on YouTube

#1. Make the first three hashtags count

Did you know that YouTube actually uses the first three hashtags as clickable links under your video?

Make sure that you use hashtags in your description, and if you use more than three, use your most important hashtags first.

Keep in mind that hashtags aren’t the same thing as the other tags in your description. If you have older videos that don’t currently have hashtags, make sure to go back in and add them.

#2. Gain more visibility with hashtags

One of the best reasons to start using hashtags on YouTube is that they will help your videos get found.

When a user clicks a hashtag, it allows them to easily find related videos that use the same hashtags.

Because of this, it’s incredibly important that any hashtags you use are actually relevant to your video.

If someone finds your video while looking for something else, it will do you no good.

#3. Utilize hashtags as a part of your SEO strategy

Using hashtags appropriately on YouTube will not only help your videos show up in a YouTube search, but they also help your videos rank well on Google.

There are many aspects of video SEO, but it’s important to ensure that hashtags are one of them.

How do you identify which hashtags to use on YouTube? You can do so using the YouTube search bar. Simply start typing in keywords, and let the auto-suggest feature do the rest.

It’s also a good idea to keep track of which hashtags are currently trending on YouTube.

#4. Hashtags will help your video be visible in related videos

Not only can using hashtags on YouTube help your videos rank better on YouTube and Google, it also helps your video be more visible in the related videos section.

If a video failed to answer a question or demonstrate something, Youtube users will keep watching related videos until they find what they need.

By using hashtags appropriately, you can help to ensure that your video shows up in the related videos section.

#5. Use hashtags correctly

There are some general rules of decorum to keep in mind while using hashtags on YouTube. Here are a few of them:

Don’t use spaces within your hashtags.
Try limiting your hashtags to just three, but at most, you should only use 15. If you use more, it can actually hurt your video’s visibility.
Use only relevant hashtags. If your hashtags are irrelevant, it may result in your video being removed from the search results.
Follow YouTube’s guidelines regarding harassment, hate speech, sexual content and vulgar language. Failing to do so could get your video removed or your channel banned.

#6. Hashtags put your videos on top

As you can see, there are many ways that hashtags can make your video content more visible on both YouTube and Google.

One of those ways includes ensuring that your video is on top of the “latest videos” feed of the hashtag in question.

Make sure to use the appropriate hashtags on your new videos.

When people follow the hashtags you’re using, your new videos will show up at the top of their feed.

And, the more content you create surrounding specific hashtags, the more real estate you can take up when someone clicks on one of them.

#7. Hashtags help you maximize your most popular videos

In addition to putting the most recent videos that utilize a specific hashtag on top of the results, YouTube also ranks the most popular videos in a search for a certain hashtag.

If you’ve got popular videos that have a lot of views, you can get even more out of them by using hashtags.

The best part is that, as of right now, not a lot of businesses are utilizing hashtags to make their videos more visible.

With few other businesses taking advantage of hashtags, there will be fewer videos to compete, and yours will be more likely to be viewed.

#8. People will be able to subscribe to hashtags sooner or later

As of now, people can’t subscribe to specific hashtags, but sooner or later, that will change.

When it does, it will mean even more visibility for your business online. Before this feature rolls out, make it a habit to start using hashtags in your descriptions.

Building out your YouTube channel is a great step for any small business to take advantage of, and I hope that this blog will help you learn how to make the most out of it.

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Originally purchased on 4/13/20