So, you are all set to make your videos, you have decided the topic, you have rehearsed sufficiently, and you are a natural in from of the camera, and there you go pronto. You publish, you shoot, you publish, this continues for a while and what happens next? If you are frustrated and seeing not any traction nor action on your channel, you are not alone. I was also in your shoes till sometime back, however I decided to educate myself.
Happy to share a set of key features that optimizes your YouTube channel in totality and specifics that you need to keep in mind while posting each video.
- Banner:
The part of the screen in the red rectangle below is the banner of your homepage. It is the first interaction with your user, so make sure it conveys who you are and what you do in you in an attractive visual layout. Less content but telling visuals is the key. Use the Customize Channel option >> Branding to alter your banner image and similarly use the next tab >>Basic Layout to add your social media links that will be displayed as part of the banner.
2. About Us:
You have a 1000-word channel description to fill in as part of the About section of your channel. You can find it in the top menu right under the Customize Channel and Manage Videos tabs. Use this space judiciously to tell the world who you are by leveraging key words. The SEO comes in handy here, as the key words as part of the About section gets picked up by Google algorithms.
3. Title:
Are you solving a problem for the viewer? This is a question that you need to ask yourself when penning the title. Most often as video creators the title comes out sounding from our viewpoint, but an outside in approach for titling will do a world of good. For example, ‘5 cool tips that makes you write better’ is far more effective than Writing Tips, right? So be specific, detailed, and short and keep asking yourself if it will hook the reader.
4. Description:
Most often what we tend to do is miss out on the description that is part of the video. Agreed, your user is not here to read articles, but to view a video. However, that said this is your chance to explain what this video contains and how the viewer will benefit.
5.Tags:
Under Settings tab you have the option of selecting tags that is a gold mine for SEO and for YouTube to select your channel. Be smart and specific about using these tags, do not overstuff the key words, instead select the 8 to 10 maximum that neatly describes who you are. Also keep the key word of optimum length and do not use a sentence as a key word.
6. Playlists:
This is a very useful way of staying organized with your videos. As you continue making videos, your repertoire increase leaving your channel flooded with your videos. It could be a daunting task for anyone to sieve through and pick up the relevant ones although your content is valuable. So, playlists are an option where you can group videos of a similar category into one single header. Look at like a library where you will keep books related to business, self-development, fiction, auto biographies and similar arranged in neat shelves. Playlists is exactly that.
7.Trailer:
The Channel trailer video is the one that is flashing on your channel for the non-subscribers to view. So, imagine you are speaking to them and inviting them to subscribe and telling them what they will find and how they will benefit by subscribing to the channel. Be succinct yet sharing the key points that will compel them to stay and subscribe.
8. Duration:
There has been enough discussion on the video length, the fact remains that longer the viewing the better the ranking of videos. While the earlier belief was short videos will be the game changer, however now, with more and more people consuming content in video format, longer videos are welcome. What is important though is if your content is not niche and valuable irrespective of whether its 50 seconds or 15 minutes it does’nt matter. So pay heed to the duration and build a fairly long one but also make sure it is highly relevant to your target market
9. Thumbnails:
This is like the front page of a magazine, so use this option provided by YouTube to make your own cover or a branded cover that has your company logo and credentials. It does not necessarily have to be an animated, state of the art masterpiece, but something with a screenshot of the video with a title incorporated even from MS Paint will do the trick.
