Ranking Video In Google Observations/Questions

What's up guys - hope everyone's good and ready for the new year!

Here's my question: Can anyone confirm (or refute) that the difference I see between ranking well in youtube and not in google is simply a matter of backlinks? My video is ranked ~5 on youtube for a competitive keyword. The bloke above me however, ranked #4, is ranked #2 on google while I'm nowhere to be seen, lol.

Interestingly enough, if I search just in the 'video' section is google, the guy above me (surprise, surprise) is ranked #1, while I'm down on page 5. Our backlink profile is very similar, so I'm just wondering what the 'X' factor I'm missing seems to be.

I have more views and likes while he has more subs and comments - however, I really don't think they have any bearing on ranking in google. Regarding backlink portfolio, the main difference I can see is that while I have more links (according to majestic, not ahrefs), his url rank and the number of referring domains, IP's and subnets is higher.

So, to tie all of the together and put it in a sentence: To outrank this guy, my focus should be on links, specifically increasing the aforementioned factors (referring domains etc...), right????

Thanks very much for any input

Don't check videos in google through "videos", rather use site:youtube.com keyword. From my experience it shows you better results than searching in video section... at least more often than not.
However, since you are ranking in YT already well and not in Google, then yes, it's a matter of backlinks and possibly of social signals. You can push low competetive videos with pure spam, for some higher medium competitions you will need some high PR backlinks here and there.

Thanks Nargil, just what I was after. Using your method I show up on page 2. Looks like its going to be a backlink battle for #1 spot

Let us know how that goes, we'd all benefit from the case study

Yeah absolutely. If I can just crack this and figure out what the difference is then I'll make a separate case study for all you guys to see Until then, I gotta get some more backlinks!

jamesjk1 said:

Here's my question: Can anyone confirm (or refute) that the difference I see between ranking well in youtube and not in google is simply a matter of backlinks?

Click to expand...

NO. Video embeds on other websites and social signals (shares on social media) also play a very important role in the ranking of YouTube videos on Google.

Thanks for your input Tommy, I nearly forgot about those. Embeds are essentially the equivalent of a backlink and while I haven't seen any direct proof for ranking video in google with social media/shares, it should be considered part of a balanced campaign. Will keep you guys posted with results

I think social signals work well but embeds did nothing for my youtube videos

Any idiot can Rank a youtube video lol just get fake views + comments + subs