Want a winning tutorial for improving your SEO with YouTube? Here it comes:
- Hop on viral YouTube trend
- Make short video
- Appear in every search result
Great success.
Just kidding! If only SEO were that easy.
While I can’t deny the importance of short-form video for your YouTube channel growth, that alone may not have as big an impact on your overall SEO as you think.
Timely vs. evergreen content: Which is better?
Yes, YouTube reports that Shorts average 200 billion daily views, making the value of brand awareness through Shorts undeniable.
Plus, channels that use both short-form and long-form videos tend to see more growth.
But your visibility in search engines is a different story.
The data points to long-form video as a key driver of visibility — including through AI results.
The importance of long-form video for SEO
Let’s zoom in on YouTube as a platform for a moment.
A recent analysis shows that top channels get the majority of their organic watch time from videos older than 30 days.
Not fresh content or timely trends. Month-old evergreen content.
Please stand back as we zoom out to SEO as a whole.
YouTube videos have grown significantly as a source for AI citations, and AI citations have grown significantly as a driver of SEO success.
One study found that YouTube is the second-most cited social media platform, with Reddit in the top spot.
Another study found that long videos on YouTube generated the most AI citations.*
Not only do long-form videos help you build your YouTube channel, but they also help get your brand in front of the growing portion of your audience using AI.
Visibility is the name of the game in the AI era, so let YouTube help you win.
*The caveat to keep in mind with this study is that not all AI platforms cite YouTube equally. The analysis points to Perplexity and Google’s AI ecosystem (unsurprisingly) citing YouTube videos often. The Google ecosystem includes AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini. But Google holds a large portion of market share, so the statistics are still worth understanding.
What do you do with this information?
If I ended this blog post with something generic, like “start making long-form videos,” you might hate me. And I would hate that. So I won’t.
Instead, let’s do this.
3 tips to improve your SEO with long-form YouTube videos
1. Identify relevant searches in your niche that include videos in their results
Doing this can be as simple as heading to Google, typing in a phrase you want to rank for, and reviewing the current results.
Make note of whether there’s an AI Overview, and if that AI Overview pulls from YouTube.
Repeat this process with the AI platforms your audience uses. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude — see what the LLMs surface with your prompt.
If you don’t want to do this manually, the OmniSEO® can cut your AI research time down significantly.
2. Review the structure and topics covered in the cited videos
What is the average length of the videos being cited by AI or linked to in the traditional search results? How thoroughly are topics covered?
Spend some time researching the competitive landscape for your chosen subject area so you have a baseline for what your video needs to include.
The goal is to figure out how to differentiate your business from the others.
If you have any unique data to pull from or experience that enhances your credibility, those are great assets to include in your video.
3. Thoroughly optimize your finished YouTube video
Once you’ve created and uploaded your YouTube video, you need to give YouTube as much information about it as possible.
The more detail you provide, the easier it is for crawlers and LLMs to understand and cite your video. And, most importantly, the more likely it is that people will click on your videos.
I know. We still need to optimize for people in 2026. Crazy, right?
Make sure you give your video a clear title, a detailed description, relevant tags, and upload a transcript or edit the one that YouTube automatically generates.
If you can work your target keywords and questions into your video’s metadata, that can give you a boost. Just don’t shove every keyword imaginable into the title and call it a day.
That’s not going to help anyone understand your content.
In your description, you’ll also want to break the video up into chapters.
We often see Google citing video chapters when it references YouTube videos, so you definitely want to list out the individual segments of your video and their timestamps. This is good for user experience, too.
Bonus points if you work some keywords into the chapter titles.
Lights, camera, action
So, if you’re ready to boost your AI visibility, make a plan to create a new (or your first) long-form video.
You know your brand, and you know the competitive landscape. Now, you just need to capture your knowledge on camera.
To learn more about producing your first video, you can check out a short video marketing guide written by yours truly.
Happy optimizing!
Get found in AI-powered search results
Be a brand AI engines recommend with a customized AI search strategy from the experts at WebFX.
Get found in AI-powered search results
Be a brand AI engines recommend with a customized AI search strategy from the experts at WebFX.
Get found in AI-powered search results
Be a brand AI engines recommend with a customized AI search strategy from the experts at WebFX.
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