Are you thinking on creating your own Youtube channel. Kudos to you. I think it is a wonderful idea as Youtube can help you express yourself, share your thoughts and opinions, grow your fans, business and income.
Whatever the reason may be for you to start a Youtube channel, you need to implement these following tips to make sure your channel is well setup and ready to help you grow it into a successful medium.
Essential Tips for Building Your Youtube Channel
Remember, according to Youtube algorithm you’ll have about 30 minutes to optimize the channel. That’s why the most important thing here is to prepare everything you need before actually creating a channel or uploading the first videos.
Channel name
The ideal channel name must start with your main keyword, which will make it clear what your channel is about and easier to find and grow your YouTube channel.
Channel description
Prepare a unique description for the channel up to 1,000 words long. Put your main keyword in it at least twice. Make sure the text starts and ends with the keyword. It’s also where you should place the link to your blog, social channels and etc.
Pre-build Content
The important thing is to prepare at least several videos (6-10) before you launch the channel because an empty channel looks poor. Besides, having more than one video to show lets you use the cards and endscreen functions. This way people will keep watching your videos and improve the channel’s statistics.
After 30 days, you can customize the URL of your channel, which will never hurt and make it look neat and professional.
Additional Tips for Growing your Youtube Channel
1. Name files after the keyword
Before uploading videos to YouTube, rename the files using corresponding keywords WITHOUT spaces. It looks ugly, but that’s what it takes to properly optimize the video.
2. Write a description
All videos on YouTube require a description. As usual, it should be a unique text that starts and ends with a keyword. Try to make it at least 1,000 words long, but if you manage to write 3,000, that’s great!
And don’t forget to put your affiliate link in an appropriate and visible place.
3. Fill in all the fields
When you upload a video, you are offered to fill in several fields. Make sure to leave none of them empty. Here you can give your video a good-looking name which other users will see, but don’t forget that it should start with the keyword you chose for the video.
More Tips To Consider…
Watch time is the most important ranking factor on YouTube. It is the total amount of time users spend watching a video. For a video 10 minutes long, it should be at least 45-50%. Otherwise, YouTube will think that people don’t like the video and will offer them another one. For longer videos, 18-20% is considered a good rate.
Good videos get a click through rate (CTR) of 5-10%. That’s your landmark.
Only 6-7% of viewers like videos. So, if it got 1,000 views and only 60-70 likes, it’s a good result.
YouTube ranking is also based on the number of comments, shares in Facebook, Instagram and other social media, and of course the number of views.
YouTube’s algorithm also takes into account what users do after they watch the video. When they like it, leave comments, watch other videos from the playlist or subscribe to your channel, YouTube is happy.
The number of subscribers doesn’t always reflect the quality of content. Certain types of videos get few followers but tons of views. For example, how-to videos.
VidIQ or other similar extensions are great tools for video search optimization. They can show you the current ranking of your channel / videos.
If your video managed to get 300 likes within the first 4 hours after the publication… you’re awesome! It’s actually pretty hard, which is why you want to grow the traffic by any means – sharing in social media, using discovery ads or by sending emails to existing customers.
If you want to grow your YouTube channel, always use endscreen links to encourage users to see other videos from your channel. Otherwise, YouTube will offer unrelated videos. And don’t make the endscreen too long! 5 seconds is usually enough to make a decision, while making it longer may hurt the watch time because most people close them long before the video ends.