YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and its ranking system rewards very different things from Google's. Keywords still matter, but they are only the entry ticket. What ultimately determines whether YouTube pushes a video is whether viewers click it and then keep watching. Checking YouTube SEO therefore means auditing two layers: the discoverability layer of titles, descriptions, tags, and thumbnails, and the performance layer of click-through rate, retention, and traffic sources. Here is how to run that audit properly.
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Video works best when it feeds the rest of your funnel rather than living in isolation, and that is how we structure it. Our team optimises channel and video metadata, aligns video topics with the keywords your website already targets, and embeds video into landing pages so it supports conversions and dwell time. Combined with our SEO services, that means a single search strategy covering both Google and YouTube. If you want your video library working as an acquisition channel, hire AAMAX.CO — we support clients worldwide across web development, digital marketing, and search.
Start With YouTube Studio Analytics
Every audit begins with your own data. Inside YouTube Studio, open the Reach tab for a video and examine impressions, impressions click-through rate, views, and unique viewers. Then open Traffic Sources. This is the single most informative report: it tells you whether views came from YouTube search, suggested videos, browse features, external sites, or playlists. A video with almost no YouTube search traffic has a discoverability problem. A video with search traffic but few total views has a scale problem — the query may simply have low demand.
Check the Search Terms Report
Within Traffic Sources, drill into YouTube search to see the actual queries bringing viewers to the video. Compare those to the keyword you intended to target. Frequently you will find the video is ranking for adjacent terms you never optimised for, which is an immediate opportunity: update the title and description to reflect the language viewers are actually using. If the report shows almost no queries, the video is not competing in search at all and needs metadata and topical repositioning.
Audit Click-Through Rate and Thumbnails
Impressions click-through rate tells you whether your packaging works. If YouTube is showing your video and few people click, the algorithm stops showing it. Review the thumbnail at the small size it actually appears: is it legible on a phone, visually distinct from surrounding results, and consistent with your channel identity? Then review the title for curiosity and clarity — front-load the searchable term, keep it readable without truncation, and avoid vague phrasing. Test alternative thumbnails and titles on older videos where you have nothing to lose; the effect is often dramatic.
Examine Retention Honestly
Retention is the strongest performance signal on the platform. Open the audience retention graph and look for three things: the drop in the first thirty seconds, which reflects whether your opening delivers on the title's promise; mid-video dips, which usually mark tangents or slow sections; and overall average view duration relative to length. A steep early drop almost always means a mismatch between packaging and content, or an intro that delays the payoff. Fixing this is content work, not metadata work — get to the substance immediately and structure the video around the question the title asks.
Review Metadata Systematically
Now check the fundamentals for each video. The title should contain the primary search phrase naturally. The description should open with two or three sentences summarising the video and including the target terms, followed by timestamps, relevant links, and supporting context; this text helps YouTube understand topic and helps viewers navigate. Tags carry modest weight today but still help with misspellings and variations. Ensure the correct category is set, add accurate captions rather than relying solely on auto-generated ones, and use a custom thumbnail on every video. Chapters improve both user experience and the chance of ranking for specific sub-questions.
Check Suggested Video Performance
Suggested video traffic often exceeds search traffic on successful channels, so verify whether your videos are being recommended alongside others. If suggested traffic is negligible, your videos may be too disconnected from established topics, or session behaviour may be poor because viewers leave YouTube after watching. Improve this with end screens pointing to your next relevant video, playlists that create logical viewing sequences, and topics that sit clearly within a recognisable niche rather than jumping between unrelated subjects.
Assess Channel-Level Signals
Individual videos benefit from a healthy channel. Check that your channel description, banner, and about section clearly state what you cover and for whom. Organise content into playlists by theme. Look at subscriber growth per video, returning viewer percentage, and average views per viewer — these tell you whether you are building an audience or collecting one-off views. Consistency of publishing and topical focus both improve how confidently YouTube can categorise and recommend your content.
Check Google Search Visibility Too
Videos frequently rank in Google results, and that traffic appears under external sources. Search your target queries on Google to see whether video results appear and whether yours is among them. Embedding videos on relevant pages of your own website helps both surfaces: the page gains engaging content, and the video gains external views. Aligning video topics with the pages you already rank for is one of the highest-leverage moves available, and it fits naturally into a coordinated digital marketing plan.
Don't Forget AI and Voice Discovery
Transcripts, captions, and structured video markup increasingly determine whether AI assistants and generative search surfaces can summarise or cite your video. Publishing accurate transcripts and clear on-page context makes your video content machine-readable, which is exactly what GEO services optimise for as answer engines expand.
Build a Repeatable Review
Run this audit on your top ten videos monthly and on every new upload after two weeks. Track impressions, click-through rate, average view duration, and search traffic share in a simple sheet so patterns become visible. YouTube rewards channels that learn quickly, and a disciplined checking habit is what separates channels that compound from channels that plateau.
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