Dutch Cowboys (2019): 11 YouTube SEO tips

On 29 November 2019 Dutch Cowboys published my article 11 YouTube SEO tips. The editorial team states that the text was written by me. The piece explains how to make videos findable on YouTube, which the article calls the second largest search engine, after Google.

The eleven tips in brief

1. Do keyword research for YouTube, with free tools.
2. Use the suggestions in the YouTube search bar.
3. Use Google Trends with YouTube as the search source.
4. Use Google's suggestions.
5. Take Google's related searches and test them in YouTube's suggestions.
6. Name the video file after the keyword and fill in the file properties.
7. Put the main keyword at the start of the title. Title, description and tags carry the most weight.
8. Write a description of at least 500 characters, with the keyword near the start.
9. Use tags, with the most important keywords first.
10. Add subtitles or a transcript and work the keywords in naturally.
11. Make a clear thumbnail with contrast and a call to action; a higher click-through rate helps the ranking.

At the end, the article recommends the Online Video Marketing Academy channel for anyone who wants to go further with video marketing.

My belief in video was not new in 2019. For DushiDeals on Curaçao we had already made many YouTube videos, including the commercial for the Dushi VIP Card. You can read that story on the page about DushiDeals and Flair.

What has changed since 2019

The basics still stand: keywords at the front, a full description and good subtitles. What has been added is that AI search engines now read those subtitles and transcripts too. The 2026 Gemini experiment showed how quickly a transcript with a YouTube Short can end up as fact in Google AI. That makes tip 10 more important than I could have known in 2019.

For tip 6, the article gives the example of a file name such as hoe maak ik een YouTube kanaal.mp4 (how do I make a YouTube channel). The screenshot above shows tip 1: the suggestions YouTube gives while you type.

Video for local businesses

For local businesses, video is one of the quickest ways to stand out in Google and in AI answers. You can read how I approach that on YouTube marketing and making local videos. The original article is still live on Dutch Cowboys; a summary is available on gijs-bodenstaff.nl.