Algorithm, Search & Distribution

Keyword stuffing

Also called: tag stuffing, metadata stuffing

Padding a video's metadata with the same phrase over and over, or with terms that have nothing to do with the video, falls under YouTube's spam rules on misleading metadata. Repetitive, irrelevant tags and hashtags can cost a channel reach and, at the far end, the channel itself.

The habit survives from an era when creators believed the tag box drove ranking. What it does now is make a title read as spam to the person deciding whether to click, while the description stops describing anything useful. Write the metadata for a human who wants to know what the video contains.

More in Algorithm, Search & Distribution

All 118 Algorithm, Search & Distribution terms

Trying to put this into practice? The Chewbr Knowledge Bank walks the whole upload workflow, phase by phase.