For many years, ranking a local business in Google was very simple. It was just a matter of identifying the right keyword phrases to target, adding your location, and voila! You were on the first page of Google.
Search engine optimization was a breeze, especially for local businesses.
Now…
It’s not that simple any more.
Over time, Google added its business listings on top of the organic search results, and then it started adding more and more sponsored listings (ads) on top…
And now it’s moving towards AI search. It’s just a matter of time before getting seen in Google will become very difficult indeed.
Why do I say that? Well, AI search is aimed at giving you exactly what you were looking for – the first time around. Once they get to the point where they get it right, the rest of the results – which will be much lower down on the results page – will be (for most people) irrelevant.
So where does that leave YOU?
Well, unless it is worth your while to pay to advertise on Google, and remain on top that way, Google is likely to – eventually – get to a point where it is no longer worth the effort. For many small business owners serving competitive markets, that day is here already.
Just think of things like real estate, plumbing, etc. Unless you live in a small town, chances are that, unless you have a well established website with plenty of solid backlinks, it is already a struggle just to be seen.
So what are you supposed to do without Google?
Actually, that one is simple: Instead of going after the biggest search engine on the planet, go after the second biggest one.
Youtube. No, it’s not Bing or Yahoo, contrary to what you may have heard. It’s Youtube.
Fair enough, you are basically limited to only one type of content – video. However, with the way that the world is going, it seems that video is the way to go anyway. The number of people who are willing to read text seems to be shrinking – systematically.
Here are 8 things you need to keep in mind about Youtube:
1. While shorts typically get a rush of exposure and then fade away, longer videos often take longer to get decent exposure – especially if your channel is new.
However, once it does get exposure, your video can – as long as the information is evergreen – attract viewers for many years to come.
2. Your videos don’t need to be too long. Many people – present company included – often go to youtube to find very, very specific information. The type of information you can pack into a video of 3 to 5 minutes, and sometimes even shorter.
3. You don’t need to be on camera to have a Youtube channel. There are many professional text-to-video products out there, from Invideo to Pictory and many more.
4. Unlike Google, your video can be found in various ways: Search, related/suggested videos, and suggestions in your home feed. In fact, Youtube will systematically show your video to people who might be interested in it, in their home feeds and related/suggested videos when they watch something related/similar.
5. The more people view your videos, the more they will be shown to other people (as long as they are not too terrible. Youtube rewards total watch time, average watch time, and engagement).
As a result, many videos on new channels seem to attract no views for many months, and then, slowly, they start picking up speed.
5. Just like on Google, you can do some basic SEO for your video to get it seen. In fact, without it, chances are it will be buried after a while.
Watch out for next week’s blog post when we get into some more details about Youtube SEO.
6. On Youtube, you can add a custom thumbnail to your videos – which lets potential viewers know exactly what your video is about. when people search for something specific, that thumbnail can make you stand out among results from more established channels.
7. As you gather more subscribers over time, your videos can gain views immediately – unlike Google SEO, where you often had to wait months to get visitors. Also, as your videos gain more views and engagement, they rank higher in the search results.
8. You cannot add clickable links to Youtube shorts any more – but you can link to a related (longer than one minute) video, from where you can link to whatever page you want. It can be your website’s home page, or (we suggest) a landing page for a specific purpose, or – depending on what you offer – a product page.
9. You can also do SEO on your channel – which can also help you to get seen.
10. Unlike Google, Youtube users can filter their search results. They can choose whether they want to sort results by relevance, upload time, view count or upload date (newest first). They can also filter by length, video age and more.
All of these can offer you ways to be seen even when your videos don’t yet show up in the default search.
In conclusion:
Yes, Youtube is the second biggest search engine in the world. But the way it works makes it a lot better than Google in many respects.
There are just so many ways to be found, making it easier to be seen on Youtube than on Google.
But just like Google, your efforts compound over time, giving you more and more exposure as you go on. And that is – ultimately – what counts.