How to SEO optimize YouTube videos?

Research has also shown that people are becoming more and more willing to watch a short video about topics they are searching on, so as a result Google is trying to provide results that satisfy their customers (i.e. You doing the search). When you factor in how easy, and how inexpensive it is to produce videos, it’s easy to see why video content is coming up in search results.
For example many smart phones now let you create video content (i.e. the new iPhone 4s) with the touch of a button. Once recorded you can then easily upload it directly to websites like YouTube. It’s been reported that the amount of video content being uploaded every 48 hours equals the amount of video content produced since the television was invented. Let that sink in for a moment because that statistic is pretty staggering.
OK, so you want to create a video and have the world watch it… And let’s say you love potatoes so you decide to make a quick video with your iPhone in your backyard garden.
Great! However after you make your video don’t just upload it and hope the world comes to watch because sadly that isn’t going to happen… Just like optimizing your Web page for the search engines (called “search engine optimization” or “seo”, of course), you need to take some specific steps to ensure that people can find your content easily.
First up, pick a keyword phrase that is specific to your topic. If you choose to title your video ‘Gardening Tips’, while it’s related your new Hollywood production, it’s simply too generic. You need to be as specific as possible.
You need to find a keyword phrase that is 3 or 4 words in length, or even longer in some cases, because that will greatly increase your chances of being found on YouTube and Google. A better title would be Potato Gardening Tips for Beginners. See how that’s specific?

Title, Description, Tags and Category on YouTube

While you’ve created a nifty title you’re still not quite done because you still need to add the phrase you’ve selected in the description box, in addition to adding an interesting and engaging describing of the video itself. You could say something like:

In this video I talk about my best potato gardening tips for beginners. Make sure you watch the entire video because I even throw in some tips for those who are a bit more experienced. If you follow these guidelines it will add life to your garden, make you smile, and make your neighbors jealous…;o)

We then need to take this phrase and also add it to the tags section of the video. This is know in SEO circles as “keyword reinforcement”.
We’re almost done.
You need to make sure you select a ‘Category’ that YouTube provides that best describes your video. Since you’re giving gardening tips you would choose the category “How To & Style”.
What we are doing is we are telling YouTube and Google, and more importantly people we want to watch our video, exactly what our video is about.
Remember how I pointed out above that every 48 hours the amount of video being uploaded to the web equals all video content produced since the beginning of TV? To you and I that means there is a LOT of competition out there. So while these extra steps may seem like a bit of extra work, if you follow them you will greatly increase your chance of your video getting watched on YouTube, or even ranking on page one of Google.
Good luck!