Last week I wrote about the different steps in optimizing a YouTube channel. Now, I’m going to show you how to promote a YouTube video to get more views, likes, and comments. All this engagement will bring you more viewers, increased authority on YouTube, and in turn more traffic to your site.

Having one viewer comment on your video is hard enough, getting that same viewer to do that for your other videos is even more challenging. But you can make that process a little bit easier if you follow these steps

6 Steps to Promote Your YouTube Videos

1. Collaborate with Other Video Creators

Do a collaboration video with another YouTuber on a similar or non-competing niche. In this set-up, you and your collab partner will agree on a topic that serves both of your audiences. Then you will work together on a script, and get together—location and schedule permitting—to film the video. If an in-person collab doesn’t work, you can film each of your segments separately then just work on the edits together online.

Collab videos are a great way to gain exposure to another YouTuber’s audience. Your audience also gets a different point of view, which adds some variety to your video’s content.

Bonus benefit: If your collab partner is has more subscribers than you, ask him for niche-specific strategies on how to promote a YouTube video.

2. Get Active on Social Media

Like blog posts, YouTube videos can use the extra exposure social media brings. Posting your video on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest widens its reach to a different audience and platform.

This process doesn’t need to take too much time. Just use Buffer and IFTT to automatically share your new videos on your social media accounts.

If you belong to online groups in these platforms, you can also post your videos there if the community guidelines allow it.

Posting your videos on Quora or Reddit also works, especially if your video answers a how-to question.

3. Transcribe Your Video

In the first part of this series, I wrote about how transcribing your video makes it easier for YouTube and other search engines to index it. Well, that’s not the only benefit of adding a video transcription.

Not everyone who sees your video will have time to watch it right away. Sometimes, they need the info now but can’t watch the video because they’re at the office or running errands. In this case, you want to make your content accessible by adding a transcription of the video on its description, or via a link to a blog post.

Using your video’s transcript as a blog post is a good cross-promotion technique because it brings people to your website. Some of these viewers will also come back to watch the video itself, a few hours or days after reading the transcript.

Conversely, you can also embed the YouTube videos to the transcript-turned-blog-post, so your current blog readers can see the video and in turn, check out your other YouTube content.

4. Be a Guest on a Different YouTube Channel

Like collabs, guesting on another YouTube video involves reaching out to YouTubers in a similar niche. In guest appearances, another YouTuber will interview you about a specific topic you both agreed on beforehand. This is very similar to appearing as a guest on a talk show or podcast.

Another way to become a YouTube guest star is to contribute a video of your own to another channel, like one blogger would write a guest post for another website. In this case, you will pitch a topic to the host of the YouTube channel where you want to be featured in, and you’ll create the whole video from start to finish. Then the host will just add a short intro about you at the start of the video.

Both strategies work to expose you to a different audience. You’ll also get a link back to your YouTube channel or website, either on the description of the resulting video, or as a call-to-action overlay on the actual video.

Because this strategy works wonders, popular YouTube channels get inundated with guest appearance pitches. So you have to do your research and take time to engage with the host’s channel before sending in your pitch.

Here’s an example of a guest appearance YouTube video, where Tim Ryan Interviews Neil Patel:

5. Use a Customized Thumbnail

You only have a few seconds to catch a viewer’s attention. That’s why you need a good video thumbnail.

Create a thumbnail image that accurately describes your video, while enticing viewers to watch. Here are some basic guidelines:

• Thumbnail image resolution should be 1280 x 720, with at least 640 pixels in width
• File type must be jpeg, bitmap, PNG, or GIF
• File should be less than 2 MB
• Use a 16:9 aspect ratio

Following these guidelines will ensure your thumbnail is clear and works on all devices.

You can use any photo editing app to create a thumbnail image in five minutes or less. Canva, PicMonkey, and YouZign are good options.

Watch this quick video to learn how you can add a thumbnail image to your videos.

6. Add a Call to Action Overlay

In YouTube, a call to action (CTA) is added either via a clickable box somewhere in the video, or as the last slide of your video. The call-to-action can prompt viewers to subscribe to your channel, watch another video, visit your website, or anything else you can think of.

Both strategies—the call to action overlay at the bottom of the video and the final slide—has their own uses and benefits.

• CTA overlay: works well in directing people to a third party site, like your social accounts, email sign-up, online store, or website. Annotations can also be used as pop-ups on the video.

Below is an example from Fight Medicocrity, the end of this video shows two clickable boxes, one prompting viewers to subscribe and a smaller one prompting them to watch another video.

• End slide or final slide: useful for suggesting related videos or channels, and asking viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Use a combination of these two CTA strategies to get better results.

Engage, Engage, Engage

Learning how to promote a YouTube video is just part of the process.

And all these strategies won’t work if you ignore your viewers. So take time to thank people for liking and sharing your video. Answer questions and comments posted in your channel.

Visiting other channels to comment and share their videos also helps you build a relationship with other YouTubers. Leaving insightful comments on their videos adds to your image as an expert on that subject, and it can entice others to find out more about you.

YouTube is a social media community too, so you need to engage with your viewers if you want them to come back.

Last week, I wrote about YouTube optimization, or what you need to do if you want your videos to attract viewers and get indexed in YouTube and Google search results.

Today, I’m going to show you easy ways to optimize your YouTube channel. This is similar to a website, with different sections and features. The only difference is, instead of a collection of articles and images, your channel will be filled with videos.

Just like creating a website, you have to consider your target audience first. What do you want users to know when they visit your channel? What videos do you want to feature? In which topic do you want to build authority? Think about these first before continuing with the steps below.

Optimize YouTube Channel Homepage

The channel’s homepage includes the channel’s name, description, icon, and channel art. To change these items, just hover your mouse over the item you want to change until you see a pencil icon.

Here’s an example from my account:

(I’m not yet using this account so it doesn’t have a lot of videos)

Channel Icon

The channel icon is the square image at the upper left hand side of your channel, and it will also appear as the uploader’s icon on every video uploaded to your channel. By default, your channel icon will come from your Google account.

Channel Art

Think of the channel art as the header image of your channel. You can use your company logo here, and even add some text such as, your video posting schedule and business phone number.

Just remember that the channel art’s size varies per device, so use an appropriate image size. YouTube recommends an image size of 2560 x 1440 pixels. Don’t max it out though, as parts of the image are cut off sometimes, depending on the device. The ‘safe area’ where you can put all the text and logos is at the center of the image, 1546 x 423 pixels.

Description

Your channel’s description should explain who you are, the type of videos you will upload, and what viewers can expect when they subscribe to your channel. Don’t forget to add keywords and a clear call to action.

Link Your Website and Social Channels

You can only do this after verifying your YouTube account. After that, click the gear icon at the right side of your description, then click “Advanced Settings.” From there you can enter the URL of your website and other social channels.

Here are the steps from Google’s support page:

You can also just click on the pencil icon that appears at the upper right hand side of your channel art, then click, “edit links.”

Here’s what it looks like once the links are added:

From HubSpot

As you can see the website and social icons are added as an overlay to your channel art.

Set Featured Channels

You can select any channel to feature, such as your other channels; channels you’re subscribed to, or channels you collaborate with.

You’ll see this on the right side of your channel’s homepage. Just click the pencil icon, and choose “edit module.”

After that, you’ll see a pop-up window where you can edit the section’s title (i.e. Featured Channels, Related Channel, etc.)  Below that you can enter the username or the URL of the channels you want to feature.

Here’s what it will look like once you add the featured channels:

Optimize YouTube Channel Using a Trailer for New Viewers

A trailer video is shown at the top of your YouTube homepage, but it only appears to viewers who are yet to subscribe to your channel.

Your trailer video can be about anything, but ideally it should tell new viewers what your videos are about, and why they should hit the subscribe button.

Tips for creating a hit trailer video:

• Assume the viewer has no idea who you are
• Start with a great hook to catch viewer’s attention
• Keep it short
• Demonstrate what you do, don’t just tell them
• Use annotations for your website and call to action

Here’s an example of a great trailer video from Brian Dean of Backlinko

Optimize YouTube Channel with Sections

Your YouTube channel can be organized into different sections, such as an about page, home page, videos, playlists, and channels. To enable this feature, click the gear icon on your channel’s description, then turn on the “Customize the layout of your channel” feature.

After that, you’ll see the following tabs below your channel name:

If you want to add a section, just click the “Add a section” button on your home page.

Then you’ll be prompted to choose the type of section you want to add, and the layout. Items under the “Other” and “Videos” section are filled by YouTube, based on your activities. The “Playlists” and “Channels” are populated according to the playlists you create and the channels you’re subscribed to. All of these can be chosen and added as a section for your channel.

For example, let’s say the first section I want to add is my subscriptions. Here’s what happens when I choose that option:

As you can see, my subscriptions are the first section you’ll see on my channel, followed by “Uploads.”

Be careful though, some devices only show the top section of your channel. So put all your important videos at the top section of your channel.

Sections can also include content from other channels, as in the case of subscriptions and playlists. You can use this to cross-promote content from your other channels, or build authority as a source for curated content in your niche.

Optimize YouTube Channel with Keyword-Rich Playlists

To create a playlist, just click the “Playlist” tab on your channel, then click “New Playlist” button.

You’ll be prompted to create a playlist title, and then you’ll be redirected to a screen where you can add videos and a description to your list. Use keywords on your playlist title to help YouTube and Google determine what the videos are about.

For example, Neil Patel’s YouTube channel is neatly organized into different playlists, each with a specific keyword that immediately tells both viewers and YouTube what to expect when watching the playlist.

Allow YouTube to Recommend Your Channel

Enabling this option allows YouTube to show your channel to other viewers outside of your current subscribers. To do this, just click the gear icon on your channel, then click “Advanced Settings” then scroll down to channel recommendations and choose the “Allow my channel” option.

It Doesn’t Stop Here

Of course, as with anything to do with online marketing, it doesn’t stop here. There are many more ways to optimize and promote your YouTube channel, the ones listed here are just the basic and easy steps. If you want to learn more strategies to promote your videos, stay tuned for next week’s blog post, where I will show you how to promote your YouTube videos for better ranking and engagement.

YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world, a huge source of traffic with millions of viewers every day.

It’s also crowded with thousands hours of video uploaded every day. So it’s hard to convince users to watch your video instead of the dozen others available.

Like other search engines, you need to learn how to upload a YouTube video, including how to optimize your videos for SEO if you want it to appear in the search results.

Optimizing your videos is your best chance to get more views, and in turn build your authority in the video sharing platform.

How to Upload a YouTube Video

It’s easy to upload a video on YouTube. Just click the upload link, then choose the “upload video” option. You’ll see a pop-up window where you can select the correct file.

Click on the file you want to upload. Your video will start uploading and you’ll be notified of its progress. Don’t close the window until the video is completely uploaded. In the meantime, you can start optimizing the video while waiting for the upload to complete.tk

5 Basics of YouTube Video Optimization

1. Always Write a Catchy Video Title with Keywords

Write a descriptive and clever title that tells people what your video is about, while still leaving something to the imagination. Don’t give it all away, or they won’t watch your video!

It also helps if you capitalize important words, and insert relevant keywords in the title.

Beware, though, YouTube only allows 100 or so characters in the title. For example, we have a video about developing an SEO action plan specifically for lawyers. The target keyword is: “Law Firm SEO”

Here are a couple of keyword ideas based on that keyword:

• 12 Steps to Create an Effective Law Firm SEO Action Plan for 2017
• How to Develop an Effective Law Firm SEO Action Plan for 2017
• Complete Guide to Creating Your Law Firm’s SEO Action Plan

Because How-to videos are more popular on YouTube, we went with the How-to title.

 1:00:2

2. Find Good Keywords Specific for Videos

Before I show you the next step in how to upload a YouTube video, let me first show you how to find the right keywords for your videos.

Not all keywords work well for videos. In general, you should only use keywords where Google already displays YouTube results on the first page of the SERP, these are called ‘video keywords.’

Here’s an example:

How do you find these video keywords without testing every keyword related to your niche?

Google often incorporates YouTube videos in search results for the following:

• Product or service reviews (Samsung S8 review)
• How-to keywords (How to do a regulator recovery)
• Sports or fitness videos, because it’s hard to demonstrate how a certain exercise is done on text.
• Funny videos (bloopers, cute animals, pranks)

Basically, anything that’s better understood or seen in video.

If you choose a keyword where the Google SERP doesn’t show any YouTube videos yet, your traffic will only come from people already searching on YouTube. That’s not bad per se, but you’re severely limiting your video’s reach, especially if you don’t have a lot of subscribers.

Now, once you find a video keyword, the next step is to check its search volume. You have to make sure it gets enough searches a month, ideally 300 or more, to get you decent traffic both in Google and YouTube.

You can use Google Keyword Planner, or any keyword tool of your choice to check the search volume and competition.

Note that your chosen keywords doesn’t exactly need to have the words “how to,” “reviews,” or “tutorials” on it. As long as the main keyword shows up with videos in the search results, that’s counted as a video keyword. You can just add the “how to” or “reviews” as a variation of the keyword or a phrase match.

For example, if you search for “duck dive” instead of “how to do a duck dive,” you’ll still see YouTube videos on the search results.

3. Write a Clear Video Description

The next step is to write a description for your video. This is very important, because unlike blog posts and articles, Google and YouTube can’t watch or listen to your videos properly. They will rely on the text in your description to understand what the video is about.

Unfortunately, YouTube doesn’t have an official limit for the number of characters in your description. So you just have to adjust the description’s length as you type it in.

Tips for writing a clear and informative description that helps both YouTube and your viewers:

• Place your chosen link at the first sentence of the description to maximize clicks.
• Include the keyword in the first sentence, and if possible and logical, a few times in the description.
• Aim for at least 300 to 500 words in the description
• Include a “subscribe” link to encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel
• Add other calls-to-action, such as visiting your website, commenting, or following you on social media.
• Write a description that tells viewers what the video is about, why viewers should watch it, and what they can learn from it. But don’t tell them the solution or answers you’ll discuss in the video.

Here’s the description for the video example I used earlier:

4. Choose Relevant Tags

Adding the right tags will help your YouTube video appear in search results for related keywords. So in the previous example, the keyword is “Law Firm SEO,” while the words related to it are:

• SEO
• SEO Action plan
• SEO best practices
• SEO tutorial
• Law firm marketing

Using the right tags also helps your video appear in the side bar of related videos on YouTube.

5. Upload Closed Captions

YouTube allows users to add closed captions or subtitles in their videos. If you don’t upload a closed caption yourself, YouTube will create one using their speech recognition software.

Of course, as with anything done automatically, these captions are less than perfect, so YouTube doesn’t use this to index your video.

That’s why you need to take time—an extra 15 minutes or so—to upload your own captions. Just choose “Subtitles and CC” then follow the instructions on this article about creating closed captions.

Invest in Creating a Top Quality Video

Of course, without a great video, all your optimization efforts will be wasted and your authority diminished. With Google and other text-based search engines, there are backlinks to signal the quality of a website’s content.

YouTube doesn’t have such quality signals. They can only base the video’s quality based on how people interact with it. If your video stinks, no one will like it and subscribe to your channel. No one will comment on it and add it to their favorites. Soon your video will be left in the dust with almost no views.

Optimize your video as best as you can, but first create a good video worth optimizing and promoting.