Keyword Research vs. Topic Research: Which One Gets Better Results? [Ep.#265]

You're likely doing keyword research all wrong on YouTube. In fact, when we start working with a YouTube creator and they tell us how they're doing keyword research, all I usually have to do to make my point is ask, "That sounds great. How's that working for you so far?" and typically they chuckle and say that it's not. It's not surprising because the whole idea of keyword research is based on an outdated understanding of how YouTube's search and discovery systems work. The idea is that if I can find keywords that have a lot of search volume with low competition, then there's a greater chance that I could rank for that keyword and thus get a lot of that traffic. But just because there's high competition and high search volume doesn't mean you can't outrank everything that's there. It happens all the time! Maybe you've experienced it yourself with a video that performed well for years, but now suddenly isn't. Someone else's video took over. Furthermore, there's no such thing as ranking number one for anything anymore. Search results are so personalized based on each viewer's history, viewing habits, the type of content they gravitate towards, even the channels they're subscribed to. It also makes a difference what kind of device you're searching from, your geographic location, and what age YouTube thinks is making the search query. Keyword research assumes that YouTube's search and discovery systems are positioning videos based on the keywords in the title, description, and the tags. However, YouTube announced they were switching away from this keyword matching system on August 10, 2012. Almost 10 years ago! Instead, they favor viewer signals to learn which videos to position, where to position them, when to position them, and for whom. So, here at Video Creators, we don't actually talk about keyword research. Instead, we talk about "topic research," which is a different approach and produces different results. Today, Lennon, D'Laina, and I are going to talk about how the two differ, and hopefully, by the end of this episode, you'll be equipped with a better process for researching your video ideas. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE CREATOR SPOTLIGHT: His and Her Money - https://www.youtube.com/c/HisandHerMoney/ REGISTER FOR VIDEO LABS: https://videocreators.com/video-labs/ Test an image to see what Google's AI thinks of it: https://cloud.google.com/vision Free trial of the VidIQ Chrome Extension: https://vidiq.com/videocreatorstv

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Video Creators is the premiere YouTube growth agency for YouTube Creators and entrepreneurs, founded by Tim Schmoyer in 2013. It's a place where you'll learn cutting edge YouTube growth strategies and the fastest path to building a highly engaged community of subscribers and customers. Our success stories include brand new creators to Fortune 500 companies alike, helping them grow from 0 to 100,000 to 1 million subscribers and beyond. To date we've helped our clients organically grow by over 17 billion views on YouTube and hundreds of millions of dollars in their bank accounts. This stuff works! The best way to grow on your channel isn't by only publishing great videos, but by also having a strategy that is intentionally crafted to guide viewers through a journey with you and your brand, leading to more engaged subscribers and ultimately more sales and income as well. If you have a message you're spreading with your YouTube videos and you're building a business around it, you're in the right place. We'll teach you the YouTube tactics that take your efforts to the next level.