Twitch SEO: What’s To Know In a Video-Centric World

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Young streamer gamer playing at e-sports competition - Male guy having fun gaming and streaming online - New technology game trends and entertainment concept - Focus on smartphone

How to Optimize Your Twitch Account for SEO: A Guide for Streamers

Young streamer gamer playing at e-sports competition - Male guy having fun gaming and streaming online - New technology game trends and entertainment concept - Focus on smartphone

By now, you’re likely aware that videos are becoming rampantly more essential to everyday business content production.

Additionally, you might even realize that many of the videos you see are derived and archived from Twitch, a widely popular international streaming service. 

Twitch is for so much more than streaming video games. You can find content creators streaming about a plethora of subjects and topics ranging from crafting, business discussions, voice acting, and more. 

Twitch’s voluminous and diverse streams, library, and utility grow daily. In fact, per month, Twitch is home to 140 million unique visitors. Twitch also houses 2.2 million broadcasters. Daily, Twitch has a total of 15 million active users.

That’s an audience too big and promising to miss out on. What do you do with such a sea of eyes and ears? Engage them and bring them into the comfortable, beneficial fold known as your brand. If you’ve not set up a Twitch account for your company, certainly consider the benefits and, if it’s right for your company, set up a profile. After you’ve joined, we can help get your Twitch SEO in the right direction.

Also Read: 13 Steps to More Advanced SEO

Optimizing Twitch SEO

Young female blogger with laptop recording video at home

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Or, the optimizing of your content in a manner that can affect the order that your site appears in on a search engine results page on Google. SEO is an art form that requires a constant, consistent gathering of knowledge.

For a deeper delve into the basics of SEO, check out our article What is SEO: Back to Basics.

Google doesn’t freely publish what its algorithms search for when ranking. So, SEO is based on a collection of data that we have confirmed or established about what these algorithms are looking for. 

It’s a bit of a puzzle, but experts have slowly figured out what algorithms are programmed to seek out and have disseminated that knowledge to the general public.

Here are some jumping-off points Twitch streamers can do to optimize their SEO.

Titles

According to Livespace, Google doesn’t focus much on the title you choose for your Twitch videos.

Although Google doesn’t focus much on the title of Twitch videos, it does consider the description. Ensure you use relevant keywords in your titles and descriptions, but avoid keyword stuffing. Here are some tips:

  • Be brief and accurate in your titles and descriptions.
  • Use relevant keywords, but don’t overdo it.
  • Include a brief summary of your content to entice viewers to tune in.
  • Double-check your spelling and grammar for accuracy.

However, making your stream title coherent, clever, and creative is best. A good title may drive viewers to tune in, but it won’t help your Twitch SEO. 

Titles are mostly used for internal Twitch sorting and grouping. Twitch sorts the streams and videos into content categories. Your video title is a determining factor in how and where your streams get organized.

Also Read: Geotagging and SEO

Panels

Video footage of the training program from a young business coach. Becxtage from recording a video of a businessperson's lecture. Record a TV program with a young handsome male presenter.

You can edit panels by clicking on your drop-down menu in Twitch’s upper right-hand corner. Click Channel and then scroll down to where Panels live, beneath the video feed. There’s a small button that says, “Edit Panels.” Click the box just to the left of “Edit Panels.” Doing this toggles the panel editing on.

Returning to normalcy much more similar to “regular” SEO, Google loves text. This focus on text is true across the board for SEO, regardless of platform.

Here’s where you can start “actioning”:

Make sure that your account’s “Panels,” or the images and text that displays beneath your Twitch stream, are accurate and concise.

Here are some places to start on what you can fix in regards to images and text.

  • Create an About Me Panel. About Me pages are a backbone necessary to any SEO operation. Twitch is only different in that you create a Panel rather than an entire “About Me” page or landing page.
  • Include keywords describing your streaming style and brand. What kind of streaming do you do? Your keywords must be relevant to the type of content you provide. Make sure you mention the terms that describe your stream in your Panels. Keywords are essential to Google’s ranking system. With well-thought-out and researched keywords, you will likely boost your ranking on Google’s search engine result page (SERP) and increase brand visibility.
  • Keep Panels brief. Google wants a description of who you are and what you’re doing. Make sure your panels read well but aren’t too long.
  • Make sure your information is correct. Check your Panel info. Both Google and your viewers need and want your information to be accurate. Correct information drives SEO, so drive it harder and make sure your information delivery is perfect. Whether a Twitter link or a spelling, give it at least a twice-over.
  • Hire an editor or coach. Whether you’re hiring an editor to review your Panels or a coach to help you with all of your Twitch endeavors, you need another pair of professional eyes on your Panels.

Descriptions

picture of description in dictionary

While Google may not care much about your titles, it is curious and even interested in what you have to say in your video and stream descriptions. These descriptions are an often missed opportunity: use your description to outline and discuss briefly.

While Google can’t interpret videos, it can interpret text. Make sure you are using keywords in your descriptions but beware of keyword stuffing.

Twitch descriptions that Google utilizes in its algorithm:

  • Channel description
  • Video descriptions
  • Panels

As with all SEO, use the following guidelines in your descriptions:

  • Be brief.
  • Be accurate.
  • Be concise.
  • Use accurate keywords, and use them appropriately.

Usernames

Real Python code developing screen. Programing workflow abstract algorithm concept. Lines of Python code visible under magnifying lens

When you search a name in a search engine, using Google, especially, it searches various platforms for that name. Twitch is one of those platforms.

Not only is it a way to find your channel, but it’s Google’s primary way to find your channel.

When selecting a Twitch username, consider the following:

  • Be brief. For the sake of memorability and searchability, don’t make your Twitch username too long.
  • Be consistent in your name across all platforms. If you’re Buster2000 on Twitch, you should be Buster2000 on other social media platforms. If you do this, Google will collectivize your name. Search engines are looking for that one name that was typed in by the searcher. So, if you’re Buster2001 on Twitch and everything else is Buster2000, your Twitch isn’t likely to show up with your name. That could be a potential missed opportunity for traffic to your Twitch channel.
  • Be unique. Use your brand and create an original username and identity. If you’re too similar to other accounts, you can easily be misidentified. Uniqueness is more of a Twitch-specific one than Google and SEO, but we thought it bears repeating.
  • Make it appropriate. Don’t use unprofessional names. Keeping your username family-friendly will not deter anyone from viewing your page and content.
  • Made a mistake? Change your username. As of early 2017, you can change your username if needed. Don’t settle with a misspelling or poorly-branded name. Get the validity and recognition from Google that a well-thought-out username can help provide.

If you can create the ideal Panels, descriptions, and usernames for Twitch, you are sure to see increased traffic to your channel.

Titles may not matter in Twitch SEO, but virtually all other aspects of text are relevant to how you are sorted and ranked on Google’s search engine result page.

Optimize your Twitch account with our suggestions, and you’ve significantly improved the possibility of a higher rank on SERPs.

Rank Up

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Are you still looking for more guidance for both your brand and your brand’s platforms? 

At Romain Berg, we have cumulative decades of experience in perfecting brand SEO.

Whether you’re cultivating evergreen content for your blog or reworking a page that needs improvement, we are happy to help. Use our Discovery Form today, and let’s dominate your competition.

About the Author

Sam Romain

Sam Romain

Digital marketing expert, data interpreter, and adventurous entrepreneur empowering businesses while fearlessly embracing the wild frontiers of fatherhood and community engagement.

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