How To Get Keywords From a YouTube Video
Published on July 30, 2025
Ever wondered what keywords your competitors are using to rank their YouTube videos? Knowing this information is a goldmine for your own channel's SEO strategy. While many paid tools can extract this data, there's a simple, free method to find a video's hidden keyword tags just by using your web browser. This guide will show you how to do it manually using Mozilla Firefox.
Why Finding YouTube Keywords Matters
Keywords are the foundation of YouTube SEO. When you know what tags a successful video is using, you can:
- Understand their SEO Strategy: See what terms they are targeting to attract viewers.
- Discover New Keyword Ideas: Find relevant keywords you may have missed in your own research.
- Improve Your Video Rankings: Use similar, relevant keywords to help your video appear in suggested feeds alongside popular content.
Step-by-Step: How to Find YouTube Keywords Using Firefox
This manual method involves looking at the page's source code. It sounds technical, but it's surprisingly easy. Follow these steps:
- Open the Video in Firefox: Navigate to the YouTube video you want to analyze in the Mozilla Firefox browser.
- Open Page Source: Right-click anywhere on the page and select "View Page Source" from the context menu. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U (on Windows) or Cmd+Option+U (on Mac).
- Find the Keywords: A new tab with the website's HTML code will open. Don't be intimidated! Press Ctrl+F (on Windows) or Cmd+F (on Mac) to open the "Find" tool. In the search box, type "keywords" and press Enter.
- Extract the Tags: The search tool will highlight the part of the code containing the video's keywords. They will look something like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">. The text inside the "content" attribute is the list of tags for that video.
That's it! You can now copy and paste these keywords for your own research.
Video Tutorial for a Visual Guide
For a visual walkthrough, check out this step-by-step video:
What About Google Chrome?
The process is almost identical in Chrome. The only difference is the term used. In Chrome, you also right-click and select "View Page Source" and use the find tool to search for "keywords".
Limitations of This Method
While this trick is useful, keep these points in mind:
- Not All Videos Have Tags: YouTube doesn't require creators to add keyword tags. Many popular channels focus more on optimizing their title and description and may leave the tags section empty.
- Tags Are Just One Part of SEO: A video's title, description, thumbnail, and audience retention are far more important for ranking than keyword tags alone.
"Analyzing competitor keywords is smart, but copying them exactly is not. Use them as inspiration to find the best, most relevant terms for your unique content."
Best Practices for Using Competitor Keywords
Don't just copy and paste your competitor's tags. Instead, use them as a starting point.
- Select Relevant Keywords: Only use keywords that accurately describe your video's content.
- Find Your Niche: Look for more specific, long-tail keywords that your competitor might be ranking for, but that have less competition.
- Focus on Quality: The best SEO strategy is always to create a high-quality, engaging video that people want to watch.
By learning how to extract keywords from YouTube videos, you've added a powerful free tool to your SEO arsenal. Use this knowledge to refine your strategy, better understand your competition, and create content that has a higher chance of being discovered.


