Consistency is key with uploading & getting discovered. But there’s also more to it. In this chapter we will take you through must-haves for uploading content & ensuring you get discovered.
Uploading your videos is fairly straight forward, but if you really pay attention to detail and you’re very intentional about what you put in that title, description, and tags field, you can really dominate search results even as a new channel.
Be the best.
Discoverability is keyand search results are one thing that you have semi-control over. YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine in the world, right behind Google. You can’t take that for granted. Getting noticed on YouTube is hard, but if you increase your discoverability in search results, then you increase your chances of getting views, and in this world, views = subscribers. You only have a true chance to convert people to subscribers if they’ve viewed your video. What’s an easy way to get more subscribers? Get more views. How do you get more views? Title, describe, and tag your video with intention and purpose.
Something to note, even though YouTube is a search engine at its core: The technology behind it is incredibly intelligent. When uploading, you need to title your videos, describe your videos, and tag your videos like you would expect a human to search for those videos. Don’t play to the search engine, play to the human brain. Use real phrases in ways that make sense and are engaging to a person. You’re not trying to get YouTube to click on your video. You’re trying to get a person to do it.
Video title
The title is your first REAL chance to start ranking in search. Here are a few rules to follow to make sure your titles are optimized:
- Your title should be very descriptive and tell the viewer exactly what the video is about.
- Your title should be engaging enough for someone to WANT to click on it.
- USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR TITLE, for example, if you’re playing a specific game in your gameplay video, include the name of the game in your title.
- Your title should NOT be misleading
It’s important to remember that you can always change your titles in the future. Experiment a little and don’t be afraid to tinker and find what works for you.
Video description
This is something too many creators seem to ignore, and if you use description text correctly, you give yourself another chance to start ranking.
- Your description should let people know what’s in that video, obviously
- Your description should be creative
- The first two lines are the most important
- USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR DESCRIPTION
- DON’T spam tags in your description. It doesn’t work, it looks bad, and it’s against YouTube TOS.
- Include any helpful links for the viewer. Anything you mentioned in the video, sources, social media links
Not only does the first couple lines of your description show up in search results for people to see, but YouTube also scans your descriptions to better determine what your video is about and how your video relates to others.
Video tags
Believe it or not, there’s a right way to do your tags and a lot of wrong ways. Don’t tag your videos as if you’re trying to cater to Google’s search engine. Cater to humans and the way that they would search for things. It’s simple: people don’t search for things in one-word increments. They search in whole phrases and sentences. That’s how you need to tag your videos.
Since this guide is about starting on YouTube, let’s use that as an example. Use the YouTube search bar to your advantage. It will show you the most relevant search terms in the order that are the most popular at the time.
Seeing those popular search terms, you can use them for your tags. Start playing around with different phrases that pertain to your video.
“how to start a youtube channel”
“start a youtube channel”
“how to get started on youtube”
“how to get 100 subscribers”
By using this simple trick, you’d be surprised on how well your videos will rank in search.
Video thumbnails
ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS upload a custom thumbnail. If you ignore this option, then you’re asking to be ignored. People interact with things that are engaging and visually appealing. It doesn’t matter how great your video is if no one clicks on it. Create a thumbnail that catches people’s attention and entices them to look further into the video.
As I stated earlier, it’s great to brand your thumbnails and keep that branding familiar and consistent. Outside of branding, your thumbnails should certainly pertain to the video itself. If you try to mislead people with thumbnails, by the time they realize that they’re not getting what they thought they were, they’ll stop watching and leave the video.
Create thumbnails that give a clear representation of what to expect from that video and stand out amongst the hundreds of other videos that will be displayed next to yours.
Now that we’ve discussed how to develop a strategy it’s time to move towards building your channel.
Chapter 8