How to Rank for Fortnite on YouTube to Get More Views

I assume you're a Fortnite player if you’re reading this post so you’ll want to know how to rank for that content on YouTube, right? Here are 6 ways you can rank for Fortnite topics on YouTube right now:

1. Find a trending topic around the game i.e. 'fps boost on Fortnite' and double down on it
2. Create content ahead of a new season or feature
3. Jump on a live stream if a Fortnite topic is trending or about to!
4. Edit the livestream to create more content for your gaming channel
5. Optimize for keywords like ‘Nexus Orb’ or ‘Season 10’ (or both together)
6. Create evergreen content designed to inform and entertain over a period of time

I think it's fair to say that Fortnite has been going through a downswing in recent months, and we'll come back to that later. But it is still one of the most popular games on YouTube to make videos about. And it helps that new items, and secrets, and seasons are always being announced and released that keep the Fortnite topic fresh with new content on YouTube. And Fortnite season 10 is being released on the 1st of August, 2019.

How to Rank for Fortnite Topics on YouTube Now

Now we have already talked about small YouTube channels trying to find their niche in this huge Fortnite area. And, once again, I have a perfect example. There is something about Fortnite and boosting frames per second that YouTube viewers really get a kick out of. And this enterprising video creator with less than 500 subscribers stuck a video on YouTube a month ago, and now it ranks top of the list with 50,000 views (video has been removed from YouTube).

Now, it's probably a little bit of a creative license with the title there, I mean, how could you make this video when season 10 wasn't released a month ago? But it is getting positive engagement, so the content must be providing value. Also the second channel and video in the search rankings, we've come across this chap before. You might call him the YouTube authority on frames per second boost on Fortnite, because he pivoted his entire channel to the endeavor and has gained tens of thousands of subscribers and millions of views over the past 12 months from it. And how do we know all of this? Well it's because we did a case study on the channel last year. And you can watch it here.

Jump on the Demand for Trending Fortnite Content

Now that was an example of Evergreen content. It's designed to be relevant and valuable to viewers for awhile, say, two or three months. But what I want to show you now are the extreme gains you can potentially get from trending content that may only have a shelf life of a couple of days.

Now I will confess, I am not a Fortnite player, so I don't know all of the jargon and terminology in the game. But when I did a search on YouTube for Fortnite, this particular video and its title caught my interest.

First and foremost, it's a live stream and the title suggests something is happening right now in the Fortnite universe. Interesting, yes. But what is happening? And what are people likely to be searching for? Season 10 or season X I understand is a new release, but what's this Nexus Orb thing mean? That sounds like the most specific keyword phrase in the title, so I decided to find out what that was all about.

Now forgive me, I'm probably gonna get this explanation a little wrong because I don't play Fortnite. But, as far as I understand it, this orb is integral to the launch of season 10 of Fortnite. People have been seeing it on teaser videos in the last couple of days. It's exploding, it's giving you stuff, it's melting stuff, something along those lines. The bottom line is, for a very short window of time, probably around about 72 hours, everybody who's playing Fortnite wants to know what this orb is and what's gonna happen and they want as much information as possible and they want it now. And that's why that search term has gone through the roof.

How to Find the Best Fortnite Keywords to Use on YouTube

Using vidIQ's own keyword inspector tool, we can click on keywords video creators are using and see how a term is trending over time. As you can see, Nexus Orb didn't even register as a term until a week ago, and now interest is spiking because of what's happening on Fortnite right now. And remember, I'm not a Fortnite gamer. I do not understand how that world works. But with a little keyword research intuition, I've been able to identify at least one keyword phrase that looks particularly juicy and if I was a Fortnite gamer, I would be making a video on it right now.

And you know what? When I have a second look at this title, there is another keyword of interest: Dusty Depot. To be honest, I'm not sure what it means because I'm a complete Fortnite noob. But what I do know through vidIQ is that this is another trending keyword phrase - so let's have a look at the keywords individually first.

We've got Fortnite at the top as your topic. That's not going anywhere, it's been around for years. Now we've got something of relevancy today: Season 10. But a lot of other video creators are gonna be using that. Then we're gonna go really specific with those two keywords that started to trend in the last week because potentially, people didn't realize they were gonna be trending more than a week ago. That's Nexus Orb and Dusty Depot. And what happens when you start to put those keywords together? Well that's when channels of all shapes and sizes can have viral moments.

Take this search that combines Season 10 and Dusty Depot. It may be some way down the search results, but this channel with its 250 subscribers has had its own viral moment from a video with 3,000 views. Of course, in the grand scheme of the Fortnite universe, 3,000 views on a video is not a big deal. But it is for the channel itself. If you are a gaming channel that's trying to find its way on YouTube, and you create a video that does 100 times better than your previous video, that's a signal to create more content on the subject, which the video creator has done. And hey, it may only be 200 views. But for a channel with 250 subscribers, that's still pretty good.

Now if Dusty Depot, when, who thought I would ever say Dusty Depot in a YouTube video, if Dusty Depot is an interesting keyword, then Nexus Orb is a fascinating keyword. First of all, the average age of videos appearing at the top of the YouTube search results is just nine days. This is extremely rare, and it means two things. Not only is the search term very hot, but it also means that YouTube is recycling content frequently because there is a lot of fresh stuff coming onto the platform.

Fortnite Live Streams: The Key to YouTube Success

Now I have a question for you. What do a lot of these videos have in common as I scroll through these search results? Have you spot it yet? Yep! I notice that too. A significant number of these videos are actually live streams. And when I tweak the search term to Nexus Orb event, every single video in the search results was a live stream. Yeah, this isn't a trick, I'm not filtered by live stream only videos. And I'm not sure I've ever seen this before. What all of this tells me from a YouTube perspective is that this Nexus Orb event, was so important to Fortnite gamers that Fortnite video creators wanted to stream the event live to capture as many people as possible as they were searching for this new release. And, when you do a live stream, YouTube favors that in a search term.

So while you're currently live, you will find yourself higher up in the search terms. And we've actually discovered this with our own content. Every Tuesday at 11 A.M. PDT for around about an hour, we do a live stream channel audit. You're welcome to join us next time we're on. And every time we have that live stream running, for the hour, we rank much higher in the search term ‘How to Get More Views’. Because that's part of the title of our live streams. If you don't believe me, next Tuesday, 11 A.M., search for how to get more views and you should find us near the top of the search rankings.

Now in all fairness, there's never going to be a surge of interest for the search term How to Get More Views. But, when there is a trending event that has a very small window of opportunity, 24, 48 hours, perhaps even less, it might be more advisable to do a live stream to capture that event, and then you could take the best bits of that live stream and create a smaller, dedicated, specific video a couple of hours later.

Now, let's step back for a second. Why am I advising you to go after trending topics and potentially do that through live streams? Well remember, Fortnite is a huge gaming topic on YouTube with channels that have tens of millions of subscribers. And you've got to find your own little edge to compete against them.

All of which brings me back to the video that first caught my attention. At nearly 200,000 subscribers, by no means is Ayvak a small channel. But it's not a huge one either in the Fortnite grand scheme of things. But by creating a super keyword-rich video, and making it into a live stream, this channel finds itself at the top of the search rankings. And because it's at the top of trending search rankings, there are thousands of people watching it which is pretty incredible for a channel of this size.

BUT, here’s where you have to be careful both as a viewer and a video creator. On closer inspection Ayvak’s livestream was a 15 minute looped video created a couple of days before the event, which YouTube decided was the best livestream to share amongst viewers searching for that topic.

It is unfortunate that there are many video creators who game the YouTube search system in this way. It is your job as a video creator to give you audience something of real worth and value. After further research into the topic we did find genuine livestreamers who were giving their audience great content. Creators such as Dotz and his 10 hour livestream that ranked highly for the topic and earned his 20k subscriber channel 65k views:

Livestreams & Trending Topics on YouTube: Capture the Viewer Interest Now!

If you are going to go after a trending topic, and do it as a live stream, make sure you're doing it for the right reasons and you're giving your audience something of value. Now we have used Fortnite as the example here, but you could apply this to any topic on YouTube. For example, the announcement of a new piece of technology such as the next iPhone. A reaction to the latest movie trailer release, or indeed, a wrestling event.

We always get reactions to the latest pay-per-views such as Summer Slam. Can you tell I'm a wrestling addict? Yeah, you can smell what I'm cooking. I think ultimately, the question you need to ask yourself is this: do I need to know this information as soon as it's available? Do I crave it? Do I need to find out before anyone else? If the answer is yes, then there's probably thousands if not millions of people who feel exactly the same way, and that's where a live stream might be advantageous to your content.

Want To Get More Views on YouTube?

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