As a content creator on YouTube, one of the things that matter the most are views. More views mean more traffic, more traffic means more conversions.
But what if you are already putting your heart and soul into your content but aren’t getting enough views? Your content might be original, high-quality, informative, or entertaining, but sadly, your efforts might be getting wasted, if nobody is watching your videos.
So, if you have got the content creation side covered, what exactly are you doing wrong?
Optimization.
The major issue that might be holding you back from being discovered by a large audience is the lack of optimization.
If you want consistent popularity and success on a platform as highly competitive as YouTube, you are going to have to up your game by optimizing your YouTube channel. Optimizing your channel for the first time will require you to make quite a few changes at first, but once you are done, you can sit back and relax in the future.
In this article, we will uncover the strategies through which you can take advantage of the considerably huge number of viewers on YouTube and grow as a creator.
The 10 ways that we would be covering in detail in this article are:
- Using keywords in your titles and descriptions
- Adding transcripts
- Using the keywords in the video
- Adding hyperlinked citations for key moments
- Creating impressionable thumbnails
- Including relevant hashtags
- Adding cards for cross-promotion
- Utilizing end screens
- Creating playlists
- Adding closed-captions
1. Using Keywords in Your Titles and Descriptions
What you name your video obviously has a big impact on your popularity. We are not just talking about funny or witty names here. To be ranked high in searches, you have to think about the keywords that apply to your content.
Your YouTube video should have an appropriate keyword that your audiences will be searching for when looking for the type of content you have created.
Optimizing video titles is important if you want to rank high on Google searches. The keyword shouldn’t be forced through, ideally, it should fit the context.
Your aim should be to come up with phrases of keywords because you want the titles to be specific.
For example, “affiliate marketing for Instagram influencers” is much more targeted and makes a better use of keywords than just “affiliate marketing”.
Keywords can also be used in video descriptions. Try to write at least 250 words in your description. Using keywords in descriptions will also help you show up in more searches and be found by a bigger audience that might be searching on YouTube instead of any other search engine.
Not only in main searches, but you also stand a chance to show up in the suggested videos list if you have an optimized title and description. Showing up in suggested videos is a great way to boost your views.
You can further make good use of the description space by guiding your audience to your website, other channels or videos through links.
2. Adding transcripts
If your video comes with a transcript, be sure to include that in the description space too.
Transcripts are an easy and convenient way of adding captions to your video. And if your video content has lots of keywords that show up in the transcript, so much the better. This will contribute to the YouTube SEO.
There are two ways of creating a transcript: either you can create one using the features that YouTube provides or you can create a transcript file using Google, which can later be uploaded to your video.
3. Using the keywords in the video
To find keywords, you can make use of SEMrush or the Keyword Tool.
Once you know your keywords, use them everywhere. Put them in the title, description, tags as well as your transcript.
Use the keywords in your video to steer the content in that direction as well as to make it appear in the transcript.
4. Adding Hyperlinked Citations for Key Moments
Marking key moments helps the viewers quickly find the most important moments in the video by clicking on the timestamps of those particular moments.
This enhances the experience and convenience of the viewers as well as gives you an opportunity to use keywords.
In the description space, provide the timestamp and name of each relevant topic referred to in the video.
5. Create impressionable Thumbnails
Showing up in more searches is important, yes, but even more important is to be truly visible.
Your thumbnails should be such that they immediately grab the attention of the viewer and compels them to watch your content.
The visual impact created by good thumbnails can make a lot of difference. What your thumbnails will look like and what they will communicate by means of pictures depends on the type of content you have created.
YouTube provides you suggestions about what you can potentially upload as a thumbnail but these aren’t always the best options.
You can either capture a moment from the video or create custom thumbnails by editing photographs and adding easily readable text etc.
Do not go for clickbait because it irritates the viewers and fosters distrust in them. Your thumbnail should be related to your content and work in tandem with the title.
6. Include relevant Hashtags
You can further spice things up by including relevant hashtags in your video descriptions. This will make your videos easy to find by topic.
Hashtags are not that common on YouTube but they work in much the similar ways as any other social media platform.
You can add tags to your videos before uploading them to a specific box. The hashtags can be added to video descriptions.
While choosing hashtags, it’s a good practice to go for the ones related to your keywords as well as having medium popularity, so that your videos are not lost in oblivion.
7. Adding Cards for Cross promotion
YouTube has a handy feature that you can employ to promote your videos through your other videos. By adding cards of the videos, you can tempt the viewers to check out specific pieces of content that might be related to their wants, while they are watching one of your videos.
Each of your videos can have up to 5 cards placed in them, which you can then use to promote either specific videos or playlists of your channel.
8. Utilizing end screens
Another useful feature of YouTube that you should be taking full advantage of is an end screen.
An end screen is something that typically appears in the last 5-20 seconds of your video.
End screens perform a function similar to the cards. End screens have thumbnails of specific videos or playlists that you want the viewer to check out after they are done watching the current video.
Not only videos, you can also use end screens to promote any external website of yours or maybe ask them to purchase your merchandise.
In this way, end screens give a direction to the viewers by showing them other related videos that they might like to see.
9. Creating playlists
Playlists are another great feature of YouTube that can be used to keep the viewer hooked in as well as make their search easier.
Playlists help you to organize your content into different categories and topics. As each playlist contains videos of a common theme, the viewers will be encouraged to spend more time on your channel by easily find more of the type of content that originally attracted them to your channel.
It also makes it easier for them to find various kinds of videos on your channel, which makes the overall user experience pretty enjoyable and simple.
Playlists also give a clean, organized look to your channel and also assist with SEO.
Even your playlists can be arranged by different parameters like importance, appeal, and popularity, and that’s all up to you.
10. Adding Closed-Captions
As search engines can read the captioned text, adding these to your videos will certainly help your chances of ranking well in searches.
You might want to consider using a professional service to get the transcription added to your videos but of course, you can do it manually too by using your own files.
Following are some of the benefits of closed-captioned videos:
Increased views: According to a YouTube study, closed-captioned videos earned 4% more views as compared to the ones without them.
Inclusiveness: Deaf viewers or those who have weakened hearing will be able to access your content and understand it if they have captions to assist them.
Credibility: Having captions reduced the risk of being labeled as spam, which is detrimental for your channel.
The Road Ahead…
Some of these strategies are pretty basic in nature and, as such, can be easily implemented. If you put in the necessary work today, you will reap the benefits tomorrow (well, not exactly tomorrow, you’ve got to give it some time) in the form of increased subscribers.
In addition to optimizing your YouTube channel, you will have to work on maintaining consistency and quality on your own.
The efforts and time you put into your YouTube channel optimization now will definitely pay off in the future.
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