What YouTube ranks on
Click-through rate on the impression, average view duration and percentage viewed, session continuation, and topical match between the query and your title, description and transcript. Views alone are not a ranking factor - retained views are.
Titles and thumbnails are one unit
They are tested together. A title should carry the query near the front and promise a specific outcome; the thumbnail should add information rather than repeat the title. Changing one without the other makes results impossible to interpret.
Metadata that actually helps
The first two lines of the description are what viewers and crawlers see - put the query and the value there. Add chapters, because they generate key-moment links in Google search. Upload an accurate transcript or caption file; YouTube's auto-captions misread product and brand names, and the transcript is a real ranking input.
Ranking videos in Google, not just YouTube
Google shows video results for 'how to' and demonstration queries. Embed the video on a page that also answers the query in text, add VideoObject schema with a description and upload date, and keep the on-page copy substantive - a page that is only an embed rarely ranks.
Video and AI answer engines
Assistants cite transcripts. A clearly spoken, well-structured video with a published transcript can be quoted the same way a written article is - which is why saying the direct answer out loud early in the video matters more than it used to.