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The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Tags for New Videos in 2025 (Do They Still Matter?)
If you're a new YouTuber just starting out, you've probably heard a lot about optimizing your videos for search. You've focused on catchy titles, compelling thumbnails, and writing detailed descriptions. But what about tags?
It's a question many new creators ask: Do YouTube tags still matter in 2025? Or are they a relic of a bygone era of YouTube SEO?
Let's cut straight to the chase. While tags are still a feature YouTube provides, their direct impact on your video's discoverability and ranking is significantly less important than it used to be. For new channels struggling to get initial traction, obsessing over tags won't be the magic bullet for growth.
However, that doesn't mean you should ignore them completely. Think of tags as a minor piece of a much larger puzzle that helps YouTube (and potential viewers) understand what your video is truly about.
The Evolving Role of YouTube Tags
In the early days of YouTube, tags were a primary way creators told the algorithm what their video contained. Stuffing your tags with keywords was a common, albeit often spammy, strategy.
Today, YouTube's algorithm is far more sophisticated. It relies heavily on:
- Video Title and Description: These are YouTube's main textual cues to understand your content.
- Video Content Itself: What's actually in your video (analyzed through transcription, object recognition, etc.).
- Audience Interaction: How viewers engage with your video (watch time, likes, comments, shares). This is arguably the most critical factor for discoverability.
- Channel Authority and Niche: YouTube understands what your channel is generally about over time.
Given this, the role of tags has shifted. YouTube itself has indicated that tags are now mainly helpful for correcting misspellings and providing additional context, especially if the content of your video could be easily misunderstood.
For a new channel with zero to a few hundred subscribers, your focus needs to be on creating high-quality content that keeps viewers watching and engaged, and optimizing your titles and descriptions. Tags are a distant third in this hierarchy.
Should You Still Use Tags on YouTube in 2025?
Yes, you absolutely should still use tags.
While their direct ranking power is minimal, they take very little time to add and contribute to the overall metadata package for your video. Think of it as leaving no stone unturned. For a new channel needing every bit of help with discoverability, filling out the tags box correctly (which takes under a minute) is a worthwhile minor optimization.
The key is to be efficient and strategic, not to spend hours agonizing over them.
How Many Tags Should You Use on YouTube?
YouTube gives you up to 500 characters for tags. You should aim to use a good portion of this limit, but only with relevant tags. Don't stuff tags just to fill the space. Using irrelevant tags can actually hurt your video by confusing the algorithm about your content's true topic.
Focus on using relevant keyword phrases until you hit the character limit or run out of genuinely applicable terms. There's no magic number, just use the space wisely and relevantly.
What Are the "Best" Tags for YouTube?
The "best" tags aren't necessarily the most popular ones, but the ones that are most relevant and descriptive of your specific video content and the terms your target audience might use to find it.
Based on expert advice, aim for a mix of tag types:
- Specific Video Terms: These should directly describe exactly what your video is about.
- Example: If your video is a tutorial on making sourdough bread from scratch, specific tags might include:
sourdough bread recipe,how to make sourdough starter,baking bread at home,beginners sourdough guide.
- Example: If your video is a tutorial on making sourdough bread from scratch, specific tags might include:
- Niche Terms: These relate to the broader category or niche your channel belongs to.
- Example: For the sourdough video, niche tags could be:
baking tutorial,home cooking,bread making,food.
- Example: For the sourdough video, niche tags could be:
- Search Terms: Think about phrases viewers might type into the YouTube search bar. These might overlap with the previous two categories but focus specifically on search intent. Include variations and potential misspellings if relevant.
- Example:
easy sourdough,starter guide,bake bread tutorial,sourdough for beginners.
- Example:
The most valuable aspect of this process isn't just putting words in the tag box, but the keyword research you do before that. Thinking about what terms to use for tags forces you to consider what your audience is searching for. This research is crucial and should inform your video title, description, and even the content of the video itself – these are the elements that truly drive discoverability.
Tags and Discoverability for New Channels
For new channels (0-1000 subscribers), getting discovered by the right audience is the biggest hurdle. You're trying to signal to YouTube where your content fits and who would enjoy it.
While titles, descriptions, and watch time are paramount, tags still play a small supporting role in this signaling process. They provide one more layer of information to help YouTube categorize your video and show it to potentially interested viewers.
Think of your video metadata (title, description, tags, thumbnail, content) as a complete package. The stronger and more consistent this package is, the better YouTube can understand and distribute your content. Tags are a small but easy-to-optimize part of that package.
Leveraging Research for Better Tags (And Better Videos)
Instead of using random tags, the most effective approach is to base your tags on actual research into what people are searching for and how successful channels in your niche describe their content.
Tools like Subscribr's Research Assistant can help you gather information and understand your "keyword universe." By researching topics and analyzing successful content, you'll naturally identify the terms and phrases that are most relevant to your niche and video topic. These are the terms you should then use in your title, description, and tags.
The real power comes from using this research to shape your entire content strategy, not just filling the tag box. Understanding search terms helps you:
- Identify video ideas that people are actually looking for.
- Craft titles and descriptions that are both accurate and searchable.
- Ensure your video content directly addresses the questions or needs behind those search terms.
This holistic approach, focusing on audience needs and comprehensive metadata, is the modern way to approach YouTube SEO and discoverability, especially for new channels.
Don't Get Stuck on Tags – Focus on What Matters More
It's easy to get bogged down in the technical details of YouTube SEO when you're starting out, especially when you're struggling to get views. But remember, tags are a low-priority optimization.
For new creators facing the pain points of understanding the algorithm and getting initial traction, your time is far better spent on:
- Improving Content Quality: Make videos that are engaging, well-produced, and deliver value to the viewer.
- Mastering Hooks and Retention: The first 15-30 seconds are critical. Learn how to grab attention and keep viewers watching longer.
- Crafting Compelling Titles and Thumbnails: These are the first things people see and heavily influence click-through rate.
- Writing Detailed Descriptions: Use relevant keywords naturally in your description and provide helpful information and timestamps.
- Understanding Your Audience: What are they interested in? What problems can you solve for them?
Optimizing tags takes minimal effort and provides minimal direct return. Focus your energy on the high-impact areas that truly influence watch time and audience satisfaction.
Monetization Angle: Every Little Bit Helps
While tags won't make a video go viral on their own, optimizing all available SEO levers, even minor ones like tags, contributes to the overall discoverability of your channel. For new creators aiming for monetization, every view and every subscriber counts. Ensuring your videos have complete and accurate metadata, including relevant tags, can provide a marginal gain that adds up over time by helping the right viewers find your content.
Think of it this way: if two equally good videos compete for attention, and one has slightly better, more relevant tags that help YouTube understand it better, that might be the tiny factor that tips the scales in its favor for a few extra impressions. Over many videos, those small advantages can contribute to faster growth towards monetization milestones.
Conclusion
In 2025, YouTube tags are not the primary driver of discoverability they once were. Their importance has waned significantly compared to factors like watch time, audience engagement, titles, and descriptions.
However, they are still a layer of metadata provided by YouTube, and for new channels needing every bit of help to signal their content's topic to the algorithm, they are worth using. Spend a minute or two adding relevant, specific tags that describe your video and niche, using the 500-character limit wisely.
Don't dwell on tags or expect them to solve your growth problems. Instead, focus your energy on creating high-quality, engaging content and optimizing the more impactful elements like your video's title, thumbnail, and description. Use the process of researching potential tags as a way to better understand your audience's search intent, which will ultimately help you create better, more discoverable videos overall.
