The best YouTube SEO Tools in 2021

YouTube is now the second largest search engine on the planet!
And with more people uploading on YouTube, SEO has become super important!
It's possibly the best way to stand out from the crowd, only become more apparent in the future. So by having the right YouTube SEO tools you can get yourself ahead of the pack!

With the extensive knowledge and effort, we've gained from our work as a YouTube Network we 'll share what we've found and tested over the years. — Showing essential YouTube Ranking Factors, how the YouTube SEO process goes, and, ultimately,  how to have a rank #1 YouTube Keyword.

Before we'll be comparing the best YouTube SEO Tools on the market, you, of course, need to know what YouTube SEO is!

Let's start with the basics: what does SEO mean?
It means Search Engine Optimization - the art of making the search engine work to your advantage.

On YouTube, this is done by giving the YouTube bot a clear as possible description of your video.

So how do you implement Video SEO:
These are the three key factors to rank for your target keyword:
1. Video Title
2. YouTube Video Descriptions.
3. Video tags

By implementing what's called the triple keyword strategy also found using VidIQ. You put your target keyword in these three places, and that should make your video up in the YouTube Search Results - if you have enough authority, of course.

That's the basics of YouTube Video SEO however, there's a lot more to it,
which we cover in our detailed YouTube SEO best practices post.

Using the VidIQ Extension, it's dead easy to SEO optimize any YouTube Video! 
And ultimately give your YouTube Channel a massive traffic boost!

Rank your YouTube Videos
VidIQ has developed a score to judge the likelihood of your video ranking for a specific keyword and be promoted in related videos, searches, and recommended videos.

VidIQ Search Volume is the metric VidIQ developed to indicate how many YouTubers are searching for this exact keyword.

VidIQ Competition Score is the metric to indicate how much competition there is on YouTube for that exact keyword.

These two metrics are used to create an overall YouTube Keyword Score.
The higher the overall score, the better it is to create content for that keyword.
Ultimately you use this tool to find trends that have a lack of content.

a.k.a, you're researching the gap in the YouTube content market.

A thing to keep in mind though: When a keyword has a high overall score,
that doesn't mean you'll have a viral video. Your production quality still needs to be of very high standards, and your content must be in-depth and entertaining, but that's something we can help with!

Get your YouTube Videos discovered
Success on YouTube is about more than just views — VidIQ's Vision is a Google Chrome Extension that keeps you focused on the metrics that matter.

From what we found is that the most critical YouTube metric is
Estimated Watch Time. See it this way; YouTube wants to keep users on its platform for as long as possible. If your video has an Average Watch Time of 4-5 minutes, YouTube will take the viewer "hostage" on your video.
So it's your job to make videos which they can "hijack" to do this.

VidIQ has created Vision to give you a quick overview of your most important YouTube Metrics. Use this to your advantage and try to improve them continuously.

Optimize
Use VidIQ's research to drive better decision making for your content.
They have set-up a checklist called the "Video Optimization Checklist."
Made to find out what you need to improve on.
These recommendations are very general, but they get the job done!

Testing your Keyword Ranking - Keyword Planner
After you've done your keyword research and created any SEO strategies, you want to test them out! VidIQ makes this super simple!
When editing your video, you can change your video tags, and VidIQ will automatically show if you're ranking for that exact keyword.
It is also showing a relevancy score and some Suggested Video Tags.

Working on the 2nd biggest search engine, it's a constant battle to rank YouTube Videos, once your YouTube channel reaches a certain point it's hard to keep optimizing all of your videos. TubeBuddy is created to make this tedious task easy while keeping your YouTube Channel relevant.

YouTube Analytics
A proper analysis tool gives you access to your video rankings
(rank tracker), best practices, and social information.
Just like VidIQ, TubeBuddy has decided to create a Chrome extension that gives you a quick overview of the essential Metrics.

Bulk SERP improvements
As stated before, TubeBuddy's selling point is to waste less time managing your channel and spend more time creating video content. Now once your videos rank and you've implemented the right keywords into your videos, things can happen.. For example, you need to work on your video marketing strategy and add a Logo to every thumbnail.

Imagine, having 500 videos and having to change all of the thumbnails 1 by 1!
TubeBuddy has a solution for this, in the form of Bulk Thumbnail Overlays!

If you want to do your YouTube Keyword Research why not start on the platform itself? When using the autocomplete function by typing in any keyword. YouTube will give you recommendations for related content.

You can use this information to come up with new content ideas relevant to your audience. When choosing long-tail keywords variants of your main keyword, it's going to get easier to rank for them. Also, when there's proper engagement on your long-tail keyword video, you build authority for the main keyword.

So by filling up one niche with every possible keyword and long-tail variant, you'll be dominating the niche within no time!

So YouTube Search Autosuggest is a keyword tool on its own!
But it is also a great way to build a content marketing strategy!

When starting to work on your SEO efforts you have a few options.
VidIQ, TubeBuddy, and YouTube itself.
However, which one suits you bets it also based on your own situation.

Do you have a new YouTube Channel?
We suggest investing in a VidIQ subscription as it can help you find keywords that will boost your channel authority. And ultimately help you reach your end goal.

VidIQ also offers the most accurate keyword research tool, as we found TubeBuddy can sometimes be a little inaccurate.

Do you have a professional YouTube Channel?
We suggest investing in TubeBuddy and VidIQ!
Tubebuddy will help you automate all of the tedious tasks you'll face.
And VidIQ will help you to stay on top of the competition!

Are you just doing YouTube for fun and don't care about views?
We suggest using the search function, however this doesn't give you any insights.
So we cannot guarantee you'll accomplish anything, as all of the essential info is in TubeBudy or VidIQ's application.