How To Do Keyword Research For YouTube Videos (The Exact Method That Got 17,000 Organic Views)

A brand-new YouTube channel, zero promotion budget, 631 total subscribers. Then one video drops and pulls 17,000 organic views while two more collect 9,000 and 3,000 views respectively. Over 200 of those subscribers came from that single upload. I want to show you the exact keyword research method behind those numbers, because it works for any niche and most of it costs nothing.

This is not a theory video. I ran this experiment on a real channel called Start the YouTube Channel, which I created on September 20, 2021. Less than two months in, I was gaining over 100 subscribers in a single day. Social Blade logged it. The channel was not monetized. I had done zero outside marketing. The only thing I did differently was keyword research, and I am going to walk you through every step.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The YouTube autocomplete alphabet trick that builds a 500-keyword list in one to two hours for free
How to use TubeBuddy’s Keyword Explorer to score every keyword on your list
The difference between weighted and unweighted TubeBuddy scores, and which one to use when your channel is new
How to build a Google Sheet with conditional formatting so you always create the highest-value video first
Why replying to comments matters for the YouTube algorithm beyond just being polite
Real proof from a two-month-old channel: one keyword-researched video, 17,000 organic views, 200-plus new subscribers
How to figure out which niche topic is right for you before you ever hit record, using the free tool at finder.platformproof.com

The Proof: What Keyword Research Actually Produced on a Real Channel

Before I show you the method, I want to ground it in real numbers. The channel I am referencing is called Start the YouTube Channel. You can verify the subscriber history on Social Blade. At the time I recorded this, the channel was only two months old and had 631 subscribers. That is a very small channel. The oldest video on it had 25 views.

Then I uploaded one video built entirely around a keyword I had researched using the method below. Within two to three days it went viral relative to the channel’s size. It hit 17,000 organic views. The video behind it collected 9,000 views. The one behind that had 3,000. All of this happened without monetization, without paid promotion, and without doing anything on other social media platforms. I just created the videos, uploaded them, and let the algorithm work.

On one Monday in December 2021, that single channel picked up over 100 new subscribers in a single day. On Wednesday the same week: 104 subscribers. Other days logged 49, 72, and 28 subscribers. For a 631-subscriber channel with no outside push, those numbers are real. And they came entirely from choosing the right keywords before I ever hit record.

This Works for Any Niche, Not Just YouTube

I want to say this clearly before walking through the steps because people assume keyword research only works for YouTube-about-YouTube channels. It does not. The examples I use in the video include health topics like “how to lose 10 pounds in a month,” finance questions, affiliate marketing tutorials, and anything else people type into the YouTube search bar. The platform works the same regardless of niche.

The keyword research strategy below works for health and wellness, wealth and finance, relationship advice, hobby content, product reviews, basket weaving. If people are searching for it on YouTube, you can find the low-competition entry points and build a content library around them. What changes between niches is only the seed phrases you start with. The mechanics are identical.

Step 1: Build Your Keyword List with YouTube Autocomplete

Go to the YouTube search bar. Type a phrase that represents your niche combined with a question structure. A few examples from my channel: “how much is [blank] making with their YouTube channel,” “how to start affiliate marketing on YouTube,” or “how to lose 10 pounds in a month.” Then add an underscore or space where the variable would go and type each letter of the alphabet one at a time.

For example, type “how much is a” and see what autocomplete surfaces. Then type “how much is b” and record those results. All the way through Z. Every suggestion YouTube autocomplete shows you is a real search query that real people are typing into the platform right now. Copy every single one into a Google Sheet, even the ones that seem dumb, even the ones with names you do not recognize, even the ones that seem too simple to be worth making a video about.

My Google Sheet ended up with close to 500 keywords for one channel. Yes, there were duplicates. That is fine. The goal at this stage is completeness, not quality control. You are casting a wide net. Quality control comes in Step 2. If you skip keywords that seem obvious or too basic, you will miss some of the ones that get the most views. The autocomplete method is not about finding what seems promising to you. It is about recording what YouTube’s own data says people are searching for.

After you go through each letter once, take your top result and add a space bar to drill deeper. For instance, “how much is YouTube Premium family” becomes “how much is YouTube Premium family UK” becomes “how much is YouTube Premium family UK per year.” Each layer of the tree is a more specific keyword with potentially even less competition. When I looked up “how much is YouTube Premium family UK,” I found small channels getting real traction. That is where you want to be as a new creator: answering a specific question that large channels have not bothered to address.

Set aside one to two hours for this step. Go through every letter of the alphabet for each seed phrase. Record everything. Do not filter while you are building the list. At the end of this step you will have a large raw list that looks messy and overwhelming. That is the right outcome. Step 2 is where you turn it into a content plan.

Step 2: Score Every Keyword with TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer

TubeBuddy is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. It is free to get started. I recommend installing it before you do anything else because the Keyword Explorer feature is what turns your raw list into a ranked action plan. You can find it by searching “TubeBuddy” and installing the extension directly from their website.

Once installed, go to YouTube and look for the TubeBuddy panel. Click on Keyword Explorer. Then take each keyword from your Google Sheet, paste it into Keyword Explorer, and hit explore. TubeBuddy gives you a score from 0 to 100 that represents your likelihood of ranking in the top 10 or 20 results for that search term. The higher the score, the better your chances.

Here is the critical setting that most people miss: there are two score types, weighted and unweighted. If you are running a new channel, use unweighted. Weighted scores factor in your channel’s current subscriber count and watch history, which means a keyword that scores 85 for a 100,000-subscriber channel might only score 40 when weighted for a new channel with no history. Unweighted gives you a true picture of how competitive the keyword is for any channel starting from zero. Once your channel builds some authority, you can switch to weighted scoring.

On the free TubeBuddy plan you are limited to 25 keyword searches per day. If you have 500 keywords, that means 20 days to score them all at the free rate. Alternatively, upgrading to the first paid tier costs roughly nine to ten dollars per month and gives you unlimited searches. With the paid plan you could score every keyword in a few hours and have your complete ranked content plan ready within two days of starting this process.

I also use Morningfame alongside TubeBuddy, primarily to help write video descriptions. Morningfame gives additional context around a keyword and suggests related terms. But for the scoring step of this process, TubeBuddy’s Keyword Explorer is the primary tool. Run every keyword through it and record the score next to the keyword in your Google Sheet.

Step 3: Set Up Your Google Sheet with Conditional Formatting

Once you have scores next to every keyword, you need to organize the sheet so it tells you at a glance which videos to create first. This is where conditional formatting saves you. Set it up so that any score above 90 turns the cell green. Scores between 80 and 89 turn yellow. Scores between 70 and 79 turn red. Anything below 70 you can filter out or move to a low-priority section.

Then sort the entire sheet by score, highest first. Now the top of your list is green, meaning these are the keywords where a brand-new channel has the highest probability of ranking. These are your first videos. You work your way down the list over time, but you always start at the top. The conditional formatting system removes guesswork from your editorial calendar. The spreadsheet tells you what to make next.

My Google Sheet also has columns for script status, voiceover status, and upload date, but those are optional workflow columns. The essential ones are: keyword, TubeBuddy score (in the green/yellow/red conditional formatting column), and the video’s view count once it is live. That last column closes the feedback loop. Over time you can see whether TubeBuddy’s predictions matched reality for your specific niche, which helps you calibrate your expectations and refine your strategy.

Step 4: Create Videos in Score Order and Let the Algorithm Work

This step sounds obvious but it is where most new creators abandon the process. They do the keyword research, they build the spreadsheet, and then they make a video about something they feel like making instead of the highest-scoring keyword on the list. Do not do that. The spreadsheet is your content plan. The top green keyword is your next video, full stop.

The video that drove 17,000 views on my test channel was not the video I found the most personally interesting. It was the one with the highest unweighted TubeBuddy score. I made it, uploaded it, and within two to three days it was pulling nearly 1,000 views per day from a channel with 631 subscribers and no promotion. That is what trusting the data looks like in practice.

TubeBuddy is not perfect. No scoring tool is. But for the most part it has been accurate in predicting which of my keywords would gain traction. The point is not to follow the scores blindly. The point is to remove your own guesswork and subjective preferences from the equation and let viewer search behavior drive your editorial decisions. Your opinion about which topics are interesting is less reliable than 500 million users’ search history.

Not sure which niche or topic to build your channel around?

Answer a few questions and find out what you should be selling or teaching online with the free tool at finder.platformproof.com.

Step 5: Reply to Every Comment to Signal the Algorithm

After you publish the video, your job is not done. One of the most consistent practices I follow on my keyword-researched videos is replying to every comment, or as close to every comment as possible. On the Start the YouTube Channel test channel you can see that comment section looks active because I responded to nearly all of them. This is not just good community management. It feeds the algorithm a signal it cares about deeply.

Here is the principle: algorithms are built around emotion. Emotion on YouTube gets expressed as likes, comments, subscribes, and dislikes. When people leave comments and you respond, you are increasing the total comment count and the ratio of comment interactions per view. YouTube’s algorithm reads that as evidence that viewers are emotionally engaged with the content. Emotionally engaged viewers watch longer and come back more often, which is what YouTube wants.

There is an important distinction worth understanding here. A video can be engaging for the algorithm without being the highest-quality piece of content ever made. Content that is technically average but generates strong emotional reaction will outperform technically polished content that leaves viewers passive. So when you are starting out and your production quality is not where you want it, prioritize creating an emotional response. Ask a question at the end of the video. Make a bold claim that invites debate. Give people a reason to leave a comment.

Honest Drawbacks: What This Method Does Not Do

I want to be straightforward about what keyword research alone cannot accomplish. It gets your videos in front of people who are already searching for the topic. It does not automatically make those people subscribe, buy anything, or trust you. Getting 17,000 views on a single video is exciting, but notice that the channel only had 631 subscribers. A relatively small percentage of viewers converted to subscribers. That is normal, but it means keyword research is a traffic strategy, not a relationship strategy.

Keyword research also does not fix a bad thumbnail or a bad hook. If your video shows up in search results but the thumbnail looks amateur and the first 30 seconds of the video do not hold attention, your watch time will be low. Low watch time tells the algorithm the video is not delivering on its promise, and your rankings will drop. Keyword research gets the video found. Execution determines whether it stays found.

The free version of TubeBuddy limits you to 25 keyword searches per day. With 500 keywords on your list, you are looking at 20 days to score everything at the free rate. That is a real time cost. The $9-10 per month paid tier removes the limit entirely, but that is a real money cost. Neither is a dealbreaker, but factor it into your planning. The method works at the free rate, it just takes longer to complete the scoring phase.

Finally, the alphabet method surfaces all the keywords that exist, including highly competitive ones. A keyword like “how to lose weight” will score low because massive channels dominate it. TubeBuddy’s scoring should filter those out, but you still need to read the results and apply judgment. If a keyword scores a 59 out of 100, that is below the green threshold. Do not make that video yet. Find the 90-plus score version of the same question and start there.

A Real-Numbers Breakdown: What the Scoring System Looks Like in Practice

To give you a concrete picture, here is what the scoring threshold means in terms of ranking probability. A TubeBuddy unweighted score above 90 means your video has a strong chance of ranking in the top 10 to 20 search results for that keyword as a new channel. Scores between 80 and 89 are solid but more competitive. Scores between 70 and 79 are marginal and should be deprioritized. Anything below 70 should be dropped or revisited when your channel has more authority.

In my Start the YouTube Channel experiment, the video that hit 17,000 views came from a keyword that scored in the top green range. The videos that scored in the yellow range pulled 9,000 and 3,000 views. The lower-scored videos got 25 views. That single data point confirms the model. Higher TubeBuddy scores produced more views. The spreadsheet predicted the outcome before the first video was uploaded.

When you are sorting your list, your first 10 to 15 videos should all be green. That means every single upload in your first three months is targeting a keyword where you have a strong ranking probability. You are not guessing. You are executing against a ranked plan. After those initial green videos are live and accumulating views, your channel’s authority grows, and keywords that were yellow or red start to become viable. You use the early green videos to build the foundation that makes later videos competitive.

Find Your X

Keyword research is only half of the equation. You also need to know which niche is the right fit for you before you start building a 500-keyword spreadsheet. Choosing the wrong topic wastes months of work. If you are not sure whether to go into health, wealth, relationships, hobbies, or something more specific, take two minutes to use the free finder tool at finder.platformproof.com. It matches your existing skills and interests to online income paths that actually work, so you can spend your keyword research time on a niche that has real earning potential for you specifically.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to pay for TubeBuddy to make this keyword method work?

No. The free plan gives you 25 keyword searches per day, which is enough to complete the scoring process over 15 to 20 days. If you want to finish faster and score 500 keywords in a couple of days, the first paid tier costs roughly nine to ten dollars per month and removes the daily search limit. Both approaches produce the same ranked content plan. The paid plan just gets you there faster.

What does the unweighted score mean versus the weighted score in TubeBuddy?

The weighted score factors in your specific channel’s authority, subscriber count, and history. This is useful for established channels evaluating whether a keyword is realistic for them. The unweighted score removes your channel from the equation and shows the raw competitive landscape of that keyword for any channel. If you are brand new, always use unweighted. A keyword that scores 90 unweighted is genuinely low competition. The same keyword weighted to your new channel might score 40, but that number is less useful at this stage.

How long does the autocomplete alphabet drill take to complete?

Expect one to two hours per seed phrase to go through each letter of the alphabet and record all autocomplete suggestions. If you are working in a niche with multiple seed phrases, budget several hours total. This is a one-time investment that produces your full keyword list. After that, you can add to it over time as you spot new question patterns, but the initial alphabet drill is the most intensive part of the process.

What TubeBuddy score threshold should I target as a new channel?

Target 90 and above (green) for your first wave of videos. If you run out of green keywords, move to the 80 to 89 range (yellow). Avoid creating videos around keywords that score below 80 until your channel has built some authority through the earlier green-tier videos. The order matters. High-score videos establish your channel’s credibility with the algorithm, which makes future videos more competitive.

Do I need to add every autocomplete suggestion to my spreadsheet, even the weird or obvious ones?

Yes. Record every suggestion without filtering. The ones that seem too obvious or too niche are often the exact keywords where large channels have not bothered to create content. A keyword that seems too simple for a big creator is an opportunity for a small channel. You will filter by TubeBuddy score in Step 2. During the collection phase, capture everything.

Does this keyword research method work for short-form content like YouTube Shorts?

TubeBuddy and the autocomplete method are built around standard YouTube search behavior, which primarily surfaces long-form videos. Shorts have their own discovery mechanics, primarily through the Shorts feed rather than search. That said, the keyword research you do for long-form videos can inform your Shorts content because covering the same topic in short form can drive traffic to your main videos. Use the keyword method to build your long-form library first, then consider Shorts as a complementary traffic driver.

Why does replying to comments help with YouTube algorithm rankings?

The YouTube algorithm treats engagement signals, including comments, likes, subscribes, and dislikes, as evidence of viewer emotion. Higher comment counts signal that viewers felt strongly enough about the video to respond. When you reply to comments, you double the comment count and increase the time viewers spend interacting with your content. The algorithm reads this as a positive signal and is more likely to recommend the video to additional viewers. It also encourages more people to comment when they see that the creator actually responds.

How do I pick a niche if I am not sure what to make YouTube videos about?

Start with what you already know or have experience in. Use the free tool at finder.platformproof.com to match your existing skills to online income opportunities. Once you have a niche direction, go to YouTube, type in your niche plus a question structure, and run the autocomplete alphabet drill. The search volume behind those autocomplete suggestions will tell you whether people are actually looking for answers in your space before you commit to building a channel around it.

Sources

TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer (Chrome and Firefox extension): tubebuddy.com
Social Blade subscriber tracking: socialblade.com
Morningfame video description tool: morningfame.com
YouTube autocomplete search data: youtube.com search bar
Start the YouTube Channel case study (created September 20, 2021)