Tags are crucial on YouTube for the viewers who want to find your videos and those looking after them. YouTube tags can make it much easier and more efficient, especially if you’re a content creator that wants their audience watching specific types of video related to yours, like gameplay or music playlists.
Whether you know how YouTube tags work or don’t see how it works yet, this article is right for you. We’ll also cover some best practices on using labels and tips for creating relevant and meaningful tags to help your video get found more easily by suitable viewers.
What are YouTube tags?
YouTube tags help YouTube users find your content, as the platform’s algorithm uses these keywords to place videos in relevant categories. When uploading a video to YouTube, you can add tags as descriptors that help the algorithm categorize your content better.
The most crucial function of tags is understanding what your video is about, so it can serve the right users when they are searching for something relevant.
Benefits of using YouTube tags
Now that you know how YouTube tags work with the platform’s algorithm, it’s time to dig deeper. Here are some advantages you can get when you use YouTube tags in your content:
- YouTube tags allow your video to be found by people using YouTube search. As a result, new users are more likely to find and watch videos that have been tagged correctly, increasing the chances of them subscribing so you can earn money from their views through ads displayed on your channel once they’ve watched 15-20 minutes worth of content.
- The tags YouTube help the platform’s algorithm understand what your video is about. It also helps the YouTube content surface in suggestions and other people’s home pages.
- To increase viewership on your YouTube videos and help bring more viewers in, you should use relevant keywords. Tags will enable the search engines to find out about what is posted on YouTube to index it better, which makes them visible even outside of Youtube (e.g., Google).
How to Add Tags to YouTube videos
Now that you know the importance and meaning of YouTube tags, the next thing we’re going to do is how to add them to your YouTube video content. Here’s how you can do it:
- First, log into your YouTube channel account.
- On the left side of the menu, you can see Content. Select it.
- Go to the video you want to add tags in. To edit the tags, click on the pencil icon or the one that says “Details.”
- Once you’re on the video details page, scroll down until you see the option “Show More.”
- You can see the Tags section in this part—type in all the tags you want to add to this video and separate them with commas. You may add tags up to 500 characters.
- Once you’re done, click on “Save,” and the tags will appear on your video.
How to look for tags on YouTube
To gain inspiration for your tags, you can look at what’s working in successful content within your niche.
To find popular keywords, go to YouTube and type a topic related to your content into the search bar. For example, if you’re creating a video on food guides, you might type “food guide” in the search bar.
Click on a popular video from the results. Next, look at the suggestions on the right side of the screen. Get some keywords there that are related to your content and use them as tags on your videos.
An online tag finder can be helpful, like the Chrome extension VidIQ or this free tool. It uses a database of tags other people have used before and creates an organized list you can comb through to get ideas for your own title/description.