Optimising your YouTube channel

21st March 2018

Did you know that the average user spends six hours per month viewing video content on YouTube?

The Google-owned sensation began uploading content from 2005, and is now the worlds most popular online video website. So with approximately 1 billion users each month, it is highly likely that someone will come across your video, without directly searching for it in the first place.

As a business, you need to make sure that you make the most of these kinds of opportunities. Therefore, Here are a few brief tips to help make sure that your YouTube channel looks the part, and increase your chances of retention and enjoyment from your viewers.

1) Make your channel art consistent and match your business’ branding, including font choice and colour palette. Having them both look as identical as possible immediately improves your professionalism as a business, and that you think a lot about detail.

2) Include links to all of your social media channels in the ‘about’ section, and within the footer of your videos. If a viewer likes the video they’ve just seen, there is a chance they may visit your page, so having links to Facebook, Twitter and your website gives them the option to explore your business further.

3) A Featured Video makes a great addition to your channel. These essentially act as an advertisement for your page, and appears at the top of your channel. It is a welcoming introduction, and helps make the site feel more robust and professional, rather than simply having your latest upload at the top.

4) A monetized YouTube account allows you to upload custom-made thumbnail displays for the video. Thumbnails are the images which appear on a results page, showing a link to your video. Custom thumbnails allow you to include anything you’d like on the image, so make sure that it at least contains a relevant image. Text in your thumbnail can also have great results! If it contains the phrase similar to what to the user searched for, the likelihood of them viewing your video will significantly increase.

5) Suggest users to subscribe to your channel whereever is seems appropriate, but never go over the top. Subscriptions means that any of your uploads will appear on the users YouTube home page, so you’re video is instantly gaining reach! Just be sure to never seem desperate, as this may put potential subscribers off.

6) For channels who post regularly, consider monetising your account. This means that you can in fact earn money from publishing your work on the site! It is important to bare in mind though, that Youtube do not simply give away money.

Having your account monetized allows YouTube to include adverts both before and during your videos, and in a range of formats, including pre-rolls and in-video adverts. Here runs the risk of the consumer becoming annoyed about the presence of an advert. However, the typical computer user is likely to be used to advertising appearing on their screens in today’s age. YouTube has an algorithm which aims to show adverts, including how long it has been since the last advert appeared to a use – they usually aim for around 7 minutes of video content until another advert is shown.

7) Analysing your viewing data can be very beneficial for you. YouTube analytics is free to use and visually shows the performance of your video, including geographical hotspots and average retention length. This way, you can really see which videos your viewers prefer.

8) When choosing the title of your video, make sure that it is relevant and tidy, whilst at the same time, not too wordy. Remember that having custom thumbnails gives you the opportunity to visually indicate what the video is about as well! We would also recommend choosing a particular set of punctuation to separate parts of your title. For example, choose either dashes or brackets, rather than both.

With our projects we deliver to clients, we can offer assistance with some of the tips listed above, including thumbnail creation and upload help if you need it. If you feel that your Youtube channel could do with an uplift with more engaging, high quality video content, contact us today.

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0113 220 5265 hello@featuremedia.co.uk
Feature Media
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