How to Optimize Your YouTube Channel [Infographic]

It doesn’t take long to spot a weak YouTube channel.

The images might look stretched or amateur, the titles might be inconsistent, or the video thumbnails could be boring. Whatever it is, you know a lazy YouTube channel when you see it, and it makes it much less likely that you will spend your time with its content.

Given that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, you should already be using video for your business no matter what your size is. When you do, make sure to do it right and take the time to manage your channel like a professional.

On the surface this seems easy enough.  Creating unique and attractive channel art for your banner and logo should be a given because these represent your channel in key places. These don’t have to be intricate graphics – simple and clean visuals are enough to put a good foot forward.

So what else is there to do?

As with any other online property, you should be thinking about user experience, and how you will be discovered by new audience members.

The most common way that viewers will find your content is through search results.  Every time you post a new video, you should be adding relevant tags, and optimizing your titles and descriptions to include related keywords to maximize your views.

Much like Google SEO, this does NOT mean keyword stuffing. Just make sure that your keywords are present at least once. YouTube’s search algorithm has become sophisticated and takes into account things like view time and even words spoken in your video so written words alone won’t send you to the top.

You can also impact your search results by improving your conversion rate of clicks when people do see your video.  The more often viewers select your video, the more likely it is that your video will show up in more results – YouTube wants to surface content that people are interested in watching.

You can boost this with catchy titles that make it clear what value your video offers and offers an immediate benefit (for example: “How to create a winning social media strategy today”).

Channel art here is also important in the form of video thumbnails.  Using eye catching thumbnails that reiterates the value proposition of your video will increase your chances that a viewer will choose your content over others.

Vlogging Guides provides a detailed roadmap on how to optimize your YouTube channel below: