YouTube and You - What in the Blazes is YTO?

All right, you created a YouTube channel, threw up a few videos and the number of views coincidently equal the number of folks in your family minus (of course) the newborn and toddlers. What can the problem be?

Well, nothing could be wrong with the videos, in reality they could be absolutely grand. The answer could be simply, you haven't done any "YTO" (I just made that up :-) That stands for "YouTube Optimization". You've heard of SEO; "Search Engine Optimization", well, YouTube is the third-largest search engine on the Internet. Consequently we have to optimize all we do in regards to our videos.

In 2006 when I initially joined YouTube, I did not know what a keyword was. If you are not sure of what a keyword is, do a Google search and become familiar with them. Anyway, I named my channel "MrKimB". With a first name like Kim, I wanted folks to realize that I was male. My last name starts with "B" subsequently "MrKimB" and that was all I cared about back then.
I did not think that YouTube would ever be used in internet marketing, it was merely a fun place to look at videos and post videos.

So, let us get back to YTO. Nowadays, everything is different. If people need to know how to do something, what a product does or looks like, many will go to YouTube and hunt for the product or service. If you advertise what they are hunting for and have a channel name like "MrKimB" they are not going to find you. Who the hell is going to be hunting for "MrKimB"? Not even my mother!

So, even the name of your channel must be YTO'd to the niche you are involved in. Okay, let us say your niche is "Online Video Marketing", that's a fantastic longtail keyword, but it is taken. What do you do? If you are in the United States you can add USA. Obviously if you are in England you can include UK.

Now here is a little extra food for thought: when search engines spiders do their thing, they also pick up on "user names". In the instance above you may choose a username like "Video Marketer USA" Always be thinking SEO/YTO ... also this includes the title of every video, the description, and keywords. I am probably leaving something out here but you get the idea, right!?

Amazingly, YouTube's technology will even pick up on the relevant words in your video. I find that amazing although I guess if people can type using voice recognition software, then YouTube can certainly use comparable technology.

Bottom line...A little planning goes a long way. Optimize the name of your YouTube channel, your username, the title of each of your videos and all relevant information to your niche within the video itself...before you even make the video. Yes, it is a little extra work but when it is done right you'll blow the doors off this YouTube thing.