HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL?
- McBusiness
- May 24, 2021
- 8 min read
YouTube is the second most-visited site on the web, with more than 1.9 billion active monthly users. Mastering it is a must for any digital marketer. But how do you make the most of this fast-growing platform? While advertising offers lots of paid ways to promote your channel, it isn’t the only option.
Here are some of our favorite tricks for optimizing your YouTube content. Each of these tips is simple, effective—and, better yet—100% free.
How to promote your YouTube channel:
1. Choose Google-friendly keywords
A great YouTube channel starts with great SEO. And great SEO starts with understanding what users are searching for. It turns out, people don’t just look for videos on YouTube; they use Google too. “YouTube” was the second most popular search term in 2018. Google now prioritizes video over other content for many searches. There’s no set rule for which keywords will help your YouTube video rank well. But a bit of reverse-engineering can go a long way.
Here’s how to find a Google-friendly keyword for any video:
Identify possible keywords with a tool like the Google Ads Keyword Planner.
Google one of your options.
Scan the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for each keyword. Are the top-ranking results videos or written content?
Tweak your keyword and try again. Try adding words like “How to” or “Tutorial” if you’re having trouble getting video results.
Choose a keyword that prioritizes video and suits your content.
For example, Photoshop Tutorial” turns up far more video results than “Photoshop Tips”.
Search results for "photoshop tutorial" search results for photoshop tips
2. Use concise, descriptive titles
The title is the first thing users see when they find your content. And if it isn’t punchy, it might be the last.
Here are some basic tips for writing strong YouTube titles:
Keep it short and sweet. The most popular YouTube videos tend to have the shortest titles. Stick to 60 characters or less or some of your titles may get cut off when displayed.
Include your keyword(s) in the first half of the title to avoid losing valuable information. Most online readers focus on the beginning of the sentence and skip the rest.
Engaging doesn’t mean clickbait. The best headlines offer an obvious benefit or create an emotional reaction. Clickbait is tempting but can damage your channel’s reputation in the long term.
Still can’t come up with a title? YouTube’s autocompleted feature is a great way to find popular keywords. Start by searching for a particular theme or topic, and see what title YouTube suggests. Search suggestions for "best youtube SEO"
3. Create custom thumbnails
Thumbnails matter, maybe even more than titles. That’s because our brains are hardwired to notice visuals first. We process them in less than 13 milliseconds, according to one MIT study. YouTube produces automatic thumbnails for all videos, but they can be blurry or out of focus. To boost views, create an eye-catching custom thumbnail for every video you post.
We recommend these simple “rules of thumb” for best results:
Resolution: 1280 x 720 px (but any 16:9 aspect ratio should work)
Format: .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG
Size: respect the 2MB limit
Use high contrast images
Add text and colors to encourage clicks
Choose a close-up image, if you can
Use a stock photo when in doubt
Be consistent with another branding
Which of these two thumbnails are you more likely to choose? The blue graphic below is brighter, more eye-catching, and much more clickable! Comparison of two YouTube thumbnails
4. Fill out your profile
Many YouTubers skip the profile section and get straight to content creation. But a compelling profile is one of the easiest ways to promote your YouTube channel—and boost your SEO.
Here are some best practices for creating an effective YouTube profile:
Be consistent. Use a similar color palette, writing style, and layout as you do on your website and other social channels.
Optimize your YouTube channel description. This is a great place to add keywords. YouTube penalizes “tag stuffing,” but including a couple of keywords can go a long way.
Keep viewers coming back for more. When and how often will you post new content? Let fans know your schedule—then make sure you stick to it.
Include contact info. You never know who might want to reach you. Make it easy for them and you could land some great partnerships.
5. Optimize your descriptions
We have a complete guide to writing effective YouTube descriptions, which has tips for both individual video descriptions and channels. Here are a few of the key takeaways:
Front-load your keywords in the description and title
Stick to the 5000-characters limit
Create a “contents page” with timestamps that help viewers find what they’re looking for
Add links to relevant playlists (more on this later)
Include a few relevant hashtags. Be sure to follow YouTube hashtagging rules before you post.
You can also mention keywords in the video itself. But just like with text, people lose attention quickly. Use a couple of keywords during a brief intro for best results.
Chillhop Music’s descriptions make the most of timestamps. Cute emojis too!
Chillhop video description
6. Don’t forget about metadata
YouTube’s metadata guidelines emphasize two things when it comes to using keywords:
Be honest.
Choose quality over quantity.
These rules also apply to features like tags and categories. Only include tags in the “tags section” of your upload—not the video description. Add one or two categories to help YouTube understand who to recommend your video to.
7. Offer real value
This may seem obvious, but it’s still worth saying.
Great content is the best way to keep viewers engaged—and the most effective way to rank well in search. That’s because YouTube’s ranking system prioritizes the viewer’s experience.
Before you publish any video, ask yourself:
What problem does this video solve?
Is it entertaining?
Will it improve viewer's lives in any way?
8. Create high-quality videos
Poor video quality can undermine even the best content. So make sure your content looks professional before you post it. Use a decent camera, do a soundcheck before recording, and learn some basic editing skills. Of course, not everyone is a natural filmmaker. Brush up on these best practices for social videos if you’re a little rusty.
9. Interact with your fans
Real engagement doesn’t end at content creation. The most successful YouTubers constantly monitor and interact with their fans.
Respond to viewers’ comments—even the negative ones—and “heart” your favorites. Post response videos. Use analytics to identify your top fans and show them some extra love.
Your viewers—and your subscriber count—will thank you for it.
Gamer MattShea created this video in response to his “biggest hater”. It got a lot of attention: both for Mattshea and his adorable nemesis.
10. Try a Q&A
Audience Q&As are one of the most effective ways to build community. Ask your subscribers to send you questions by comment, email, or tweet. Then create a video to address them.
By showing your fans that they matter, you’ll boost watch time, view counts, and engagement. Plus, Q&As can be lifesavers when you’re out of fresh content ideas.
This 13-year-old YouTuber did a Q&A to celebrate hitting 100,000 subscribers. She gets things started with a cute non-alcoholic toast.
11. 1 How to use TubeBuddy?
Using TubeBuddy is very simple. It’s offered for both Chrome and Firefox, so once you’ve chosen which browser to install the extension on, use that browser to install TubeBuddy. Then, you’ll need to create an account, log in, and that’s it! Once you’ve installed it and are logged in, head over to your YouTube dashboard and you will notice completely new YouTube SEO tools
For me, the best part of TubeBuddy is the huge amount of YouTube SEO features it has packed in. These features can help your videos get into the YouTube Algorithm and get millions of suggested views...
2.In-depth Analytics
TubeBuddy's in-depth analytics help you to grow your channel by understanding what works and what doesn't. The data allows you to focus on creating content that drives views and increases your earnings.
Productivity Tools
TubeBuddy helps save your time by speeding up a lot of the manual actions you normally have to take on YouTube. VERDICT
I genuinely can say that TubeBuddy was a major factor in my channel’s success. It would have been a lot harder without all of the YouTube SEO tools it provides.
TubeBuddy is essentially a certified YouTube SEO tool and chrome extension that connects directly to your Youtube dashboard. Once you install it on your browser (which is very easy!) and log in, your YouTube dashboard becomes entirely upgraded! (with tons of new features!).
It’s YouTube certified so you know it’s 100% safe and it’s easy to install too.
When you combine all of these tools with the hard work required in building a channel, you can dramatically increase your views and subscribers (and earnings!). I did it, and so can you. With TubeBuddy, the hard work becomes a little bit less, and that makes a huge difference.
The TubeBuddy extension is free and includes the basic tools (which I love the most!), then costs anywhere from 9$ to 49$ per month for different plans. Bonus: TubeBuddy is offering discounts of up to 50% off if your channel has less than 1000 subscribers, so it ends up being very affordable if you’re just starting out! The RisingStarBuddy plan goes for only $4.50 per month!
Their free extension offers a ton of functionality that is great for when you’re first starting your channel, and their paid plans offer even more tools to help you grow faster.
TubeBuddy has over 65 features that can help you boost your videos into the YouTube algorithm. The below are my favorite TubeBuddy features I’ve been using for the last 4 years!
THE UPLOAD SUITE & KEYWORD EXPLORER
Check out the full TubeBuddy upload suite that connects to your YouTube upload page! Tubebuddy upload suite and dashboard. The upload suite is where a lot of the YouTube SEO magic happens. The Keyword explorer is part of this and is the essential TubeBuddy tool that helps you grow your channel and gain views. It helped me grow a ton just by discovering what keywords to increase my output on! Just this tool alone makes TubeBuddy worth it! You’ll gain tons of views!
This is how it works:
Tubebuddy keyword explorer is a popular feature
Just type into the search box your video idea, and it will tell you what related keywords you can use in your title that have high search volume! It also tells you what is trending so you can double down on anything trending!
It gives you a ton of keywords and video ideas! If the overall score is “poor”, that’s even better! It means it’s very competitive (with lots of potential views!) and all you have to do is create an amazing piece of content and you will get into the YouTube algorithm! Remember, if you read my guide on how to grow your YouTube channel, the goal is not to rank your videos in search, but to get suggested views. TubeBuddy can help you do this!
SUGGESTED TAGS
This complements the keyword explorer perfectly. The suggested tags tool embeds itself into the video upload page and gives you suggested tags based on your main target keywords.
Suggested tags on Tubebuddy
ADVANCED VIDEOLYTICS
The TubeBuddy extension gives you a deep look into the rankings and tags of other videos. You can spy on other people's videos and see their tags and add those into your video as well to gain some traction from their views!
Tubebuddy videolytics tool
Here you could use some of the tags in this video and try and gain some of the suggested views that come to viewers after they watch this video. You can grow your channel from 0 just by “drafting” millions of views from these successful tags! It works!
VIDEO A/B TESTING
TubeBuddy’s legend plan (my current plan) is worth it to be solely for this feature. The A/B testing feature is the ultimate tool to gain you millions of views. It allows you to compare different thumbnails and titles on the same video and see which one performs better. All you do is give TubeBuddy two different thumbnails and titles, and it will automatically change them for you on alternating days and then measure which one got more views.
In the end, TubeBuddy creates a report with the click-through rates for each one. You can then start using the better performing one! Over time, across your whole channel, this can add up to millions of views, and can make or break a video, because the thumbnail and title are so important!
BULK PROCESSING
This feature saves your time and can help you make you money. The bulk processing feature can:
Bulk change your descriptions, titles, or thumbnails
Bulk change cards
Bulk update end screens
Let’s say you have a video library of 100+ videos and you want to update the description to include a new product you’re offering, your new website, or sponsorship you’re working with that gets you affiliate commissions. Across your entire video library, this could add up to a ton of traffic.
You could go to each video manually and change it one by one, or, you can use TubeBuddy’s bulk update descriptions tool. It’s super easy and saves you a ton of time, and has helped me also earn some money on the side!
Comments