In this detailed blog post, we are going to dive deep into YouTube hashtags and how to generate more traffic out of it.
Lately, YouTube has been making new touches and changes to their system to make it more user-friendly and improved. When starting a channel on YouTube, it’s important to take note of these features in order to maximize the channel traffic.
For content creators, there is a variety of different traffic strategies that are convenient for putting up videos. One of those features is the use of YouTube hashtags on your videos.
But what exactly are these, and what can they do for you?
They can actually make a significant boost in your videos, so you would definitely want to try it out.
Here’s a detailed guide on YouTube hashtags and how to work with them.
Table of Contents
So, What Are YouTube Hashtags?
The concept of having hashtags in videos was first introduced on the platform in the year 2016. Admittedly, this change was small –but this did so much for boosting videos especially for rather younger channels looking for a better way to promote themselves.
A hashtag, which is widely used around various social platforms, functions to help users find related content about a certain topic or niche without having to look up specific terms alone.
You can use TubeBuddy to identify the topic niche with Keyword explorer. Note down a few related keywords and add it as YouTube hashtags.
The new feature is what allows us to, now, see hashtags displayed just above the video title; wherein in the past versions, hashtags were only visible in the video descriptions.
Connected to this, viewers are now able to search with the use of these hashtags by either clicking on the hashtag to find other related videos or by searching up a hashtag to get results of videos containing it.
This change did a lot for both content creators and viewers by making it easier to find and connect with videos related to a certain interest or targeted at a certain niche. But always ensure that you adhere to hashtags policies.
How To Add YouTube Hashtags To Videos?
Hashtags are free to use in the video. However, it had only been recently that these hashtags have been appearing in the video title instead of hidden in the description box –which not many people take time to scroll through.
Now, there are two ways to add YouTube hashtags to your video.
Place it in the Video Description
The easiest way to add hashtags is by adding them to the YouTube video description of your video. This can be done before you upload the video when you are on the Info and settings page.
You will also be able to edit the hashtags even after uploading it by simply editing the video’s description in the Info and settings page.
Because of the improvements with the use of hashtags on YouTube, the hashtags now appear right above the video title.
Usually, the hashtags that are placed in the video description are the ones that appear on top of the title. So you don’t need to do anything to appear at the top of the video.
Include It In Video Title
Lastly, you can directly add a hashtag to the title of the video. When this gets displayed, it will simply just be a part of the title rather than being a separate entity.
Although, when hashtags are added to the title itself, those that have been added in the description box won’t be displayed above the title.
Take note that the hashtags are clickable and hyperlinked, which means that users who are looking to find content related to the hashtag can simply click them to come up with other search results of similar videos.
How YouTube Hashtags Works?
Think of scrolling through your timeline on Twitter or maybe Instagram, you are sure to see posts with hashtags. YouTube hashtags work exactly the same way.
The idea is to optimize searching videos and allowing others to get discovered easily, especially for creators looking to target only a certain niche or gather a specific audience.
Likewise for viewers who are interested in looking through new and related content.
Picture this: if you want to look up a video on gaming, you can simply type in “#gaming” in the search bar and come up with a variety of results.
This is a much simpler method than having to think of certain keywords to locate a video that suits your content description.
You can also include your channel name as one of the hashtags to list all your videos when viewers click on it.
Why You Should Use YouTube Hashtags For Videos?
Since YouTube has grown into a community rather than a simple search engine platform, the use of YouTube hashtags has made it easier for creators to classify and categorize themselves based on the content they make.
As a result, there are more solid communities of people with the same interests through the use of a hashtag. Viewers and creators alike will be able to connect with each other with less hassle by going through the hashtag.
For viewers, they get presented with new concepts of similar content with ease.
All that’s left to do is click on the hashtag, or search the hashtag name, and continue scrolling through the various results without worrying about keywords.
On the other hand, creators can directly get in touch with the audience they expect by adding certain hashtags to their videos.
This also allows them to make fresh content beyond their usual niche in order to cater to a wider community and therefore grow their channel.
Using YouTube Hashtags For Views
It’s true that YouTube’s hashtags feature has made it easier for people to get in touch with those of common interest –which conveniently applies to both the watcher and the creator.
By adding hashtags to your video, it makes it more discoverable in search engines since people can locate your video through just the use of a hashtag rather than through keywords.
This makes YouTube hashtags valuable to content creators, especially when it comes to reaching a bigger audience and growing your channel.
However, it’s still important to note that there are rules to the hashtags that can be used.
This includes limitations with the hashtag count and language used.
Neither can hashtags be used if they are irrelevant to the video. Before anything, be sure to look through these guidelines to avoid any problems with your upload.
Regardless, there’s no doubt that YouTube hashtags boost the discoverability of your video.
With just the click of a button, your videos can appear in the search engines much easier than with the use of specific keywords –which is of great help for people who are working with a community that contains far too much content to keep track of such as gaming or lifestyle related videos.
How To Find The Best Keywords For YouTube Hashtags?
Identify what hashtags your competitors are using and try to use the same set of hashtags.
Let’s see how to find the competitor hashtags.
Install TubeBuddy and click on the TBicon from YouTube Studio on the top right corner.
Select the keyword explorer option.
A new tab will be opened. Enter your seed keyword and you can see the competitor hashtags under Common video tags.
YouTube Hashtags Do's and Don'ts
Frequently Asked Questions
It takes a few minutes to update the hashtags. Just refresh after a few minutes.
When you upload videos from mobile, you have the option to set the location. When you do, it replaces the hashtags so it won’t show up.
