YouTube has just released its new research insights tool, which gives content creators a free, but limited keyword research tool to help plan and improve their video content.
In this guide, I will quickly walk you through how to use the tool for your own keyword research. Helping you to improve your YouTube SEO and grow your channel.
Step 1: Locate the Youtube Research Insights Tool
First, you’ll need to head over to youtube.com and click on your profile image, then select YouTube Studio from the dropdown.
If you haven’t set up a channel now is the time to do so as you’ll need one to access the research insights tool (don’t worry it takes seconds if you have a Google account).
Once you’re on the YouTube Studio dashboard you’ll want to navigate to the analytics tab on the left-hand side, where you’ll be presented with your channel analytics overview.
The new YouTube research insights tool is housed under the research tab in the analytics view.
Step 2: Enter Your Keyword(s) Or Explore Your Viewer Search Data
Now that you’ve found your way to the new YouTube keyword research tool, it’s time to break down how it works.
There are three main tabs for you to navigate, so I’ll give a quick overview of the first two as these will be the ones that you use to discover new keywords. We’ll cover the saved searches tab in the next section.
YouTube Search Data
Using the keyword search function
This is the part of the tool you’ll be using the most, especially if you have a small channel or just plan to use it as a budget-friendly option for keyword research.
Here you can type in a seed keyword to use for your research. YouTube will also present you with a series of suggested keywords a bit like Google’s autocomplete function.
As you can see it will also provide some additional information on the keyword, which is great for quickly identifying the correct term or topic you want to research. This is extremely useful when searching for keywords that have multiple meanings such as “seal”.
For the best results use one of the clearly defined keywords as just using the search term will return any result containing that phrase, which can sometimes be irrelevant.
For example, just going with the SEO search term listed above I’m presented with any result containing the phrase “SEO” in it – which includes a number of channels and actors unrelated to search engine optimisation.
Once you’ve selected your seed keyword, you’ll be presented with up to 3 pages of results for that topic. Currently, this data is limited to the top searches from the last 28 days and five regions (USA, UK, India, Australia, and Canada).
When it comes to search volume instead of being given a numeric figure like most keyword research tools you’ll be told whether the search volume for that keyword is high, medium, or low.
It’s best to use less specific terms for your seed keyword, as niche subjects won’t return any results. If you do run into this problem, try searching for a related term or a parent topic instead.
Using the filtering options
You can further refine your results with the filtering options the tool provides. Currently, you can filter by search type and region (limited to the five regions currently covered). All results are currently in English though this will be updated in the future.
Search filter
This option allows you to filter by all searches or by content gaps. Content gaps are searches that can fall into three categories –
- Keywords where viewers can’t find any results for their search
- Keywords where viewers can’t find exact matches for their search
- Keywords where viewers can’t find relevant results, either because their outdated or of poor quality
As you can imagine the content gap filter is great for quickly finding new content opportunities with low competition.
Region filter
The region filter lets you select one of five regions to focus on or all of them (which is the default). Currently the regions the tool covers are –
- USA
- UK
- Australia
- Canada
- India
This will provide you with more relevant results if you’re trying to target viewers in one of these specific countries.
Viewer Search Data
The insight tool’s other method for discovering new keywords is through viewer search data. This section will allow you to explore what your viewers and viewers for similar channels are searching for.
Unlike the first tool, the viewer search tab doesn’t require any input from you. Instead, it will be populated with keywords based on your audience’s search data, giving you greater insight into their interests and the way they search for videos on YouTube. Again the volume for these keywords will be ranked, high, medium, and low.
Step 3: Save & Compare Your Keywords
Now that you’ve identified relevant keywords for your channel, it’s time to save and compare the results!
How to save keywords in the YouTube Research Insights Tool
There are two ways you can save keywords in the tool you can either –
- Click the save icon on the left-hand side
Or
- Select the save option from the menu
The menu will also allow you to remove saved keywords, report specific keywords, or view that search term in Google Trends (more on that later!).
Once you have saved your keywords you can then view the full list in the saved tab.
From the menu on the right, you can “unsave” (remove) any keywords, report them or view their trend data in Google Trends.
Any keywords where there is a content gap will be tagged in the list, making them easy to find. There does seem to be a limit on the number of keywords you can save to your list, though this isn’t communicated in the tool.
While initially, it looks like you can store over ten pages of keywords when you reload the tab it will reduce to 10. With this limit in mind, try only to save keywords you want to explore further.
It should be noted there is no way to filter or sort your saved keywords so you may not want to go overboard on adding them unless you want to spend time having to sift through them manually.
Step 4: Use the Data to Improve Your Videos
So once you have your finalised list of keywords to work with, it’s now time to use that data to improve your videos and grow your channel.
Target content gaps for quick wins
Content gaps are a great way to quickly find topics that are screaming out for new content. Before you dive in, identify whether it’s a case that videos don’t exist on the topic or if the content that does exist is outdated/low quality.
If content doesn’t exist – take a look at what currently ranks in Google for this term, identify common talking points around this topic you can use as the basis of your video.
If videos do exist but they’re outdated or of low quality, look at what new information or improvements can be made to create a video that will be useful to users searching that topic.
Build a content roadmap based on your keyword research
One great way to turn your keyword list into something actionable is to develop a content plan. This will give you a clear roadmap for video creation, ensuring your time is spent creating content that you know there is demand for.
Leverage Google Trends data for deeper insights
The YouTube Research Insight Tool allows you to explore any of your saved keywords in Google Trends. This allows you to see the trend data from YouTube Search for that term stretching back to 2008.
This is great for identifying seasonality or whether a trend is growing or has passed. This will help you refine which topics are worth including in your content plan. Ideally, you will want to target searches that are seeing a steady increase in interest if your goal is to grow your channel.
Finally, Google Trends will also show you related topics and related queries for the keyword you’ve selected which can be used to quickly identify additional trending topics that can be covered in your videos.
Use viewer search data to identify collaboration opportunities or expand your niche
Another great way to grow your channel using the YouTube Research tool is to use the viewer data tab to discover what your viewers are searching for and then use that information to find possible collaborations with other channels.
For example, if you run a channel that produces videos on cooking for beginners and you can see that a high number of viewers of your channel and other channels like yours also search for baking tutorials then there’s a great opportunity to collaborate with a baking specific channel.
You can also use the viewer data to identify areas where you expand your channel’s niche. For example, if you were a channel that reviews PC games, and you can see that a high number of your viewers also search for monitor reviews then creating videos around this topic would be valuable to your existing audience as well as potentially drawing in new subscribers.
Recap
Using the YouTube research insights tool is a great way to develop a more strategic approach to content creation and helps you create better videos. The four steps to getting started with the tool for keyword research are –
- Locate the tool in the YouTube Studio dashboard – the YouTube Research Insight tool can be found under the analytics tab in the YouTube Studio dashboard.
- Enter your seed keyword or explore viewer search data – use a seed keyword to check search volumes for specific topics and find related queries or discover new topics based on your viewers’ search data.
- Save and compare your keywords – save any relevant keywords that can be viewed later under the save tab. You can also compare these keywords with Google Trend data.
- Use the keyword data to improve your videos – use your keyword list to develop a content plan and identify content gaps for quick wins in growing your channel.