Recent changes to YouTube means the longer viewers watch your dental videos on YouTube the more it helps your dental video marketing efforts.

YouTube announced on their blog this week that they’ve started adjusting the ranking of videos in YouTube search to reward the videos that viewers keep watching.

This recent change is a continuation of Google’s ongoing efforts to focus YouTube video discovery features on watch time, and follows changes that were made to Suggested Videos earlier this year and adjustments to YouTube Analytics, YouTube reports.

What this means for your dental video marketing is the more time viewers spend watching your video, the better chances your video has of ranking higher in search.

YouTube states, “The experimental results of this change have proven positive — less clicking, more watching. We expect the amount of time viewers spend watching videos from search and across the site to increase. As with previous optimizations to our discovery features, this should benefit your channel if your videos drive more viewing time across YouTube.”

What type of videos do YouTube viewers most like to watch?

1. How-to videos.
2. Inspirational.
3. Humorous.
4. Music.
5. Motivational.
6. Informative.
7. Insider secrets.
8. Feel good.
9. Challenging a belief about something.
10. Competitions.

Even though watch time has now become an important part of ranking on YouTube, other marketing factors that are still important when placing videos on YouTube. They are —

1. A keyword rich title that tells the viewer exactly what they will be getting from your video.
The title should be less than 60 characters. If you aren’t sure what keyword phrase best describes your video, do a search in YouTube and see what YouTube suggests to you in the search window. “Dental makeover” is a popular search term on YouTube. Combine a popular keyword phrase with a “How to” statement and you have a winning title.

2. A fully maximized description under your video.
The very first line of your description should be your dental practice name and website address (with http:). Treat your description area like a blog post and make sure you include your keyword phrase in the content. If your video is about dental makeovers (for example) make sure the term dental makeover appears in your description more than once. End with a call to action and your phone number, or an email address for your dental practice.

3. Maximizing quality tags.
Tags are the keywords to YouTube. Make sure you use tags that your potential viewers may search for. Also think in terms of geo-targeted tags that include your city name and your dental practice name. Create at least 10 tags and make sure you use both the singular and plural. For example, if your dental video was about dental makeovers, you’d want a tag for both dental makeovers and dental makeover.

4. Creating joint ventures.
Partnering with other businesses related to your dental practice to create a dental video is a great way to increase your audience share. For example, maybe there is an orthodontist that you always refer your dental patients to for braces. Do a video together that you and the orthodontist can share on each others’ websites and social media channels. Maybe you interview each other about how to know when it is the right time for braces, what’s involved in taking care of your teeth with braces, and how to choose the right braces. It could be a part of a dental makeover video series. Joint venture videos allow you and the orthodontist to share audiences and reach a wider demographic than your video might not normally reach.

5. Writing your own dental video transcription.
When you upload a video, YouTube will attempt to transcribe your dental video for you. Sometimes it is pretty good at transcribing, but many times it will miss important words like your keyword phrase and not complete your sentences. You can create a text transcription of your dental marketing video and upload it to YouTube. When you are signed into your YouTube channel, the video transcription falls under the Caption tab. Click on the Button that says, “Upload caption file or transcript” and upload the text file of your transcript. This will make your video closed captioned. Also make sure that your transcript includes the same words as your tags.

6. Include links to your videos in your emails and newsletters.
Help your videos be found by your dental patients by including links to a particular video (or your video channel) in your dental newsletters and your dental practice email correspondence.

7. Featuring your videos on other media.
Feature your videos on your dental practice website and on your social media channels like Facebook. Create a press release about your video if you think that traditional media might be interested in what you are sharing with the public.

Dentists sometimes wonder why dental videos and blogging are an important part of their dental marketing plan. Dental videos and blogs create trust and instant rapport with the visitor. A dentist can quickly set themselves up as the authority for their profession in their city through the use of effective dental videos.

Potential dental patients are also able to connect with the dentist and the dental practice before they walk into the waiting room for the first time.

The Internet Dental Alliance web portals allow dentists to easily add a Video Gallery page to their dental website. See the Dental Video Marketing page for more details on this exciting way to incorporate video dental marketing into an IDA dental website.