Tagging videos properly in Youtube is a tactic that will gain your video a ton more hits and help Youtube work better for everyone. By tagging videos properly, you allow Youtube to properly auto-suggest related videos and add to a richer user experience.

In this example you can see how I improperly tagged this video about Michael Jordan. Instead of “Michael Jordan” being a search term you now have "Michael" as a search term and "Jordan" as a search term.

In this case, since there are so many videos about Michael Jordan, the term "Jordan" will still lead people to videos about Michael Jordan. But when you add search terms like Richard Jefferson, improperly tagged, terms easily get mixed. Someone searching “Michael Jordan Richard Jefferson” will get mixed results like “Michael Jefferson” leading them to this popular South Park bit about Michael Jackson. In a few quick shifts of a search phrase, the user has landed in a place very far away from anything having to do with basketball.

The way to properly tag is simple. Instead of using spaces to separate phrases use quotes for terms that are larger than one word.

So for this string of terms:

Michael Jordan NBA Washington Wizards New Jersey Nets Sports Legends Jason Kidd Richard Jefferson Kenyon Martin

you would put:

“Michael Jordan” NBA “Washington Wizards” “New Jersey Nets” “Sports Legends” “Jason Kidd” “Richard Jefferson” “Kenyon Martin”

Tagging in this manner makes the terms clearer for the search engine and the user. Your video gets more visibility and resides with similar content.

Companies are “tuned in” to the advantages of placing self-made web video content on the popular social media and video sharing websites. The cost of self-producing a web video has never been cheaper for many companies.

While an inexpensive web video showing your sales manager explaining your latest product can be very effective for driving traffic to your website, there are some image factors to consider.  Your company has most likely spent considerable amounts of money marketing its brand and developing a consistent look and feel throughout its print and web presence.  It is worth the extra time and investment to maintain your company’s professional look and image by investing in a few reusable motion graphic elements to tie together your company’s brand and maintain a consistent look in your web video campaigns.

Consider investing in a simple Logo Animation created from your company's logo.   It does not have to be a blockbuster Hollywood opener; it just has to professionally represent your company visually.  This is especially important for companies that use YouTube to host their video content. A professionally designed logo animation will allow for no mistaken identity and ensure that viewers will know they are at the right place when they navigate from YouTube to your website.

Another worthwhile investment is a Lower Third ID Graphic for properly identifying your video’s on-screen speakers.  A lower third is called a lower third because it is displayed briefly on the lower one-third portion of the video frame and provides the name and title of the on-screen speaking person.


Logo Animations and Lower Third ID Graphics are very basic to any professionally developed video production.  You can invest in these two graphic elements and use them on every video that your company self-produces.  These elements will help represent your company in a professional manner and help maintain a consistent look and feel in your visual communications.