Thanksgiving is a beloved holiday in the US, and a hugely important occassion for friends and family to come together to indulge in food, fun, gratitude, and football. Hundreds of thousands of creators have already been publishing content around the topic on YouTube, but there are still big opportunities to create new videos around the tentpole event, or rank again for content created in previous years. Let's take a look at the top keywords that YouTube viewers have been searching for in the last 30 days.
Top 10 Thanksgiving Keywords on YouTube
If you are planning on publishing Thanksgiving content, you need to know what keywords YouTube viewers are searching for right now. Of just as much importance is when they are searching for that content so you can maximize your ability to rank on YouTube. Running the keyword 'Thanksgiving' through the invaluable vidIQ Keyword Tool, we can confirm that the following are the most searched for Thanksgiving keywords and phrases on YouTube in 2019:
Thanksgiving recipe
Thanksgiving food
Thanksgiving dishes
Thanksgiving turkey
How to make stuffing
How to make turkey
Thanksgiving turkey recipe
Thanksgiving dinner
Thanksgiving stuffing
Turkey recipes
When are Viewers Searching for Thanksgiving Content on YouTube?
Over the past few years, YouTube has become one of the go-to resources for almost any and every topic you can think of. However, viewer interest in that content is often seasonal, particularly when it comes to annual events.
Since 2014, according to Google Trends for YouTube, interest from YouTube viewers in Thanksgiving starts to peak about a week before Halloween, and lasts right through to the end of December. No big surprises there of course but a good strategy would be to publish 2 to 4 weeks ahead of November 24th to attracts those views and engagements.
Don’t forget that engaging tentpole content is typically evergreen in nature so if you’ve published any Thanksgiving clips on YouTube in the past, and you believe the videos are still relevant, update your titles and custom thumbnails to see if can leverage the interest in the content that always comes this way this time of year.
Finding Opportunities to Create Thanksgiving Content on YouTube
When viewers are searching for content on YouTube, it’s usually with a clear intent to get an answer to a particular query. Those searching will often use a baseline keyword to start and then build off that search to find the best videos.
A look at top most searched-for keywords for Thanksgiving shows that users are most interested in content around traditional Thanksgiving food, especially the old favorites, turkey & stuffing. Let’s take a deeper dive into what viewers are interested in around this category:
Top 10 Thanksgiving Food Keywords on YouTube
Turkey
Stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Thanksgiving recipes
Butternut squash
Gravy
Thanksgiving sides
Pumpkin pie
Mukbang
Mashed Potatoes
If you want an idea of the type of Thanksgiving food and recipe ideas that YouTube viewers love, take a look at this upload from BuzzFeed's Tasty, published in November 2016. To date, it has generated over 2.1M views, and is still generating over 150 views per hour at time of writing:
Top 5 Thanksgiving Decor Keywords on YouTube
Apart from the glorious food, Thanksgiving is also a time when homes and offices are decked out in a wonderful array of festive decor. Video content around table decorations, and Thanksgiving DIY decor is incredibly popular with viewers as they turn to YouTube for inspiration. Here are the top 5 keywords in this category:
Thanksgiving decorating ideas
Thanksgiving decorations
Thanksgiving dinner table
DIY Thanksgiving decor
Thanksgiving tablescape
This enthusiastic video about decorating your Thanksgiving home celebrity style was only uploaded by Amber Scholl on November 6th 2019, and has already generated an impressive 304K views:
Want To Get More Views on YouTube?
If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and get more views on YouTube then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps click here to install now!
Carla Marshall is the Head of Content Marketing at vidIQ. She has 10+ years of experience in video marketing, social media management, content marketing, DRM, and SEO. She was previously Editor in Chief at ReelSEO.com, and as a journalist and video marketer, she's covered news stories, creator journeys, and digital-first publishing initiatives across all the major online video platforms. She is YouTube Certified and a judge for the Shorty Awards, as well as the UK, US, Canadian, Global, and EU Search Awards.
