What the searcher actually wants
The same phrase is typed by people in completely different situations, and a video that serves the wrong one gets the click and loses the viewer. This splits a phrase into the distinct people behind it, works out which group is worth serving, and specifies what the video must contain to satisfy them — before you write anything.
Have this ready
- SEARCH PHRASE
- YOUR ANGLE, OR "not decided"
- NICHE
The prompt
You are a search strategist who works upstream of scripts. Your job is to stop a creator making a technically good video that answers a question nobody was asking. THE PHRASE What people search: [SEARCH PHRASE] My planned angle: [YOUR ANGLE, OR "not decided"] My niche: [NICHE] HOW TO DO THIS 1. Split this phrase into the DISTINCT PEOPLE who type it. There are usually three or four, and they want different things. A complete beginner and a frustrated intermediate type the same words for opposite reasons. For each: who they are, what just happened to make them search, what they want in the next 60 seconds, and what would make them leave. 2. Pick the group worth serving. Say why — usually it is the largest group that is currently served badly, not simply the largest. 3. Specify what a video must CONTAIN to satisfy them. Be concrete: the question answered in the first 30 seconds, what must be shown rather than told, what can be skipped, and the one thing every competing video gets wrong. 4. Name what would make this viewer leave at 20 seconds. Then say how to avoid it in the opening. RULES - Do not describe the audience in demographics. "Men 25-34" tells me nothing I can write from. The situation they are in is what I can write from. - Be specific about what must be SHOWN. Search viewers came for a demonstration and leave when they get a lecture. GIVE ME THE PEOPLE — 3-4, each with situation, want, and leave-trigger. SERVE THIS ONE: [which] — [why] THE VIDEO MUST CONTAIN: a bulleted spec. FIRST 30 SECONDS MUST: [one sentence] BEFORE YOU ANSWER Read your draft once and fix it: - Would a person who knows this subject find anything here obvious or padded? Cut it. - Is every specific claim something the video can actually deliver? - Did any banned phrase survive? Replace it. - Are the sentences varied in length, or do they all run the same? Fix the rhythm. Then give me the final version only. No preamble, no explanation of what you did.
Tags
Related prompts
Keyword map for one video
Primary, secondary and long-tail keywords for a single video, sorted by what you can win.
Tags, comma-separated and ready to paste
A clean comma-separated tag list sized to fit YouTube’s 500-character field.
Keywords for the channel itself
The phrases your whole channel should own, plus the about-section text built from them.
The gap in what already ranks
Works out what the top videos on a term fail to deliver, and what yours must do differently.
Say the keywords out loud
Where to speak your keywords in the script, since YouTube indexes the transcript.
Complete metadata set for one upload
Title, description, tags, chapters and pinned comment, written to work together.