Shawn P. Mitchell

YouTube’s First Video was Uploaded 13 Years Ago Today

In the past 13 years, YouTube has grown into the world’s predominant video platform and the second largest search engine. This article offers a few content strategy ideas for uploading to YouTube, including velocity, descriptions, tags, and cover photo.

Shawn P. Mitchell

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On April 23rd, 2005, YouTube’s first video was uploaded.

The video titled, “Me at the zoo,” was 19 seconds long and features YouTube’s co-founder, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego zoo.

YouTube Statistics

YouTube has grown dramatically since 2005. Today, YouTube:

  • is owned by Google.
  • is the world’s second largest search engine.
  • has over 400 hours of video uploaded each minute.
  • is used to watch over 1 billion hours of video each day.

YouTube and SEO

Despite competition from Facebook, YouTube is still the ideal platform for hosting video content — particularly for the purposes of search engine optimization (SEO). 

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when trying to maximize the probability of being found in Google and YouTube search results:

  • Velocity — The rate at which your video is viewed, shared, liked, and commented on determines a video’s rankings. The faster the engagement, the faster it moves up on search engine results pages (SERPs). Most videos are given a boost when first published. Take advantage of this lead and share vigorously across your network.
  • Complete Descriptions — YouTube allows 5,000 characters for a video’s description. If you’re looking to help viewers find your video, a good keyword-optimized description will help.
  • Tags — Add tags to fully describe your video. This text box allows 500 characters for relevant keywords. Also, you can add clickable #hashtags in the description section. However, it is difficult to tell whether they offer much SEO value.
  • Cover Photo — Use a branded cover image to help your video stand out on search pages. Take a few moments in Photoshop or Canva to create a template that can be used for each new video you create. I use a black triangle in the lower left corner for my branding.

The Future of Video

YouTube has come a long way in 13 years and it will be interesting to see what the next 13 bring.

It is a safe bet that the number of video uploads will continue to grow rapidly in the years ahead and that YouTube will be a primary destination for those videos.

Therefore, I would recommend taking a few extra moments on your videos to ensure they stand out.

Good luck and happy YouTubing!

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