No matter how brilliant your video may be, simply uploading it on YouTube without first taking the time to optimize it means you’re unlikely to get any kind of views. Here we look at the ten steps to ensuring you get the most views possible.
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Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0
What good is making a video if no one sees it? Regardless of how well-made your video is, that’s what can happen if you just post it without thinking about how to optimize it first. Here are 10 steps to optimize your video on YouTube so it has the best chance of being seen by the most people.
1. Select a good title. This means that it must describe the video and have enough pertinent information and keywords. In the case of a music video, that means both the song title and the artist, but in a live performance video that could include the venue as well.
2. Upload a custom thumbnail. You can’t depend on YouTube to select the best one for you. Since this will be a viewer’s first impression, a good thumbnail may be the difference if the video is seen or not.
3. Add a card. This provides interactivity during the video that causes the viewer to take some action, like clicking to your website, social media, or buying some merch.
4. Add a brand watermark. YouTube provides the means to automatically add your logo as a watermark on the lower right of every video on your channel. If a viewer clicks on it they’ll be able to subscribe to your channel.
5. Add relevant tags. This means all the keywords from the video, including artist name, director, band members and even song mood. This all helps for the video to be found during a search.
6. Provide a thorough video description. This is the real key to search ranking. The more text here the better as long as you add a lot of keywords, meaning the names of everyone involved in the video, as well as a live clickable link at the end (always use https:// or https:// in the URL).
7. Upload at the highest resolution. That means a minimum of 720P but preferably 1080P.
8. Provide annotations. This is another good way to interact with the viewer or provide a call-to-action to click on a link.
9. Add your video to a playlist. This provides multiple ways for potential viewers to find the video on your channel.
10. Add an end card. Here’s one final way to provide a clear call-to-action to subscribe, or click to another artist-related URL.
These steps take additional thought and time after the YouTube video is uploaded, but are well-worth the effort when you’re rewarded with additional views.
You can find a nice infographic of the above steps here.
You can read more from Social Media Promotion From Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.