You’ve just finished up spending an untold number of hours scripting, filming, and editing your YouTube video. You’re finally convinced you’ve created the ultimate work of video art. (Well, either that, or you’re so sick of working on it at this point that you’re pulling the plug before you lose the last of your sanity… hey, we’ve all been there.)
Great job! But you still have work to do, influencers and content creators.
Yes, having a great quality video should always be your main focus. But there’s an art to uploading your video and sharing it, too. If you want to increase your views and give your videos the widest reach, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about how to promote and optimize your videos, too.
In this article, we’ll focus on some of the biggest bang-for-your-buck ways to make sure your videos get as many views as possible. This includes maximizing how you present your video (the title, the thumbnail, and the description) and how you optimize your video to make it more likely to show up in search results and video suggestions.
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. But who among us hasn’t wandered around a bookstore (I guess in this scenario we’ve all time-traveled back to 2003) and picked up a book just because of a provocative title? Guns, Germs, & Steel; Naked Lunch; Where the Wild Things Are; Toilet Paper Origami. You’re curious to know what’s inside, right? And in video form, that means you’re curious enough to give a click.
Other than your video thumbnail (more on those below), your video’s title may be the only thing your potential audience sees. A good catchy title is pretty much essential to get people to click on and watch your videos.
What makes a good YouTube video title? Here’s what the social media experts recommend:
“How to” videos are extremely popular because they help viewers solve a problem, for example. A solid formula is “How to [do this task] to [get this benefit].”Your title should make it clear to the viewer that they’re going to get something out of watching your video.
(Tip: Although it’s not specifically geared for YouTube, you could try running your title past a Headline Analyzer tool to see how clickworthy it might be.)
Ok, ok, so we know that the words “Search Engine Optimization” can sometimes prompt an automatic Pavlovian response where your eyes immediately glaze over and you suddenly desperately want to do anything else right now than think about Search Engine Optimization (SE0).
But, alas, if you really want to increase your views and grow your audience, it must be done, friends. Think of it this way: the key to increase your YouTube views is to make your videos as easy as possible to find. You want them to show up whenever someone is searching for something like your video. The higher they rank in YouTube’s internal search and in Google searches, the more traffic you’ll get.
The first step is to make sure you’re including the best keywords possible for your videos. (“Keywords” is another way to describe the search terms, or the words that someone types into a search box when they’re looking for something.)
Here are a few ways to help figure out what your keywords should be:
Once you’ve got a good sense of what your best keywords are, you can include them in multiple places to optimize your videos:
Important note: Don’t assume that more keywords is always better. These days, having too many keywords might make Google flag your video or site as spam. Choose 1-2 top keywords and sprinkle them in gently rather than splattering them all over the place.
Once you have a great title for your video, the second half of capturing your audience’s attention right off the bat is having a good thumbnail image. As eyes are the window to the soul, so the thumbnail should be a window into your content. Give them something worth gazing at!
A thumbnail image is the image that is displayed along with your title in search lists. YouTube creates automatic thumbnail images for you when you upload a video, but this is just a random screenshot of your video. YouTube actually gives you a few auto-generated options to choose from, in fact.
But an auto-generated thumbnail is never going to be as good as a custom one! Here’s a few tips for how to make your custom YouTube thumbnail eye-catching:
There are also plenty of opportunities to increase your views and boost your engagement by writing a really good video description for your YouTube video. On YouTube, the description is the text that appears below your video on the video’s main page.
What makes an effective video description? Here are a few things to keep in mind:
(Assume that most people will never actually click that “Show more” button to read below the fold.)Front-load your video description with the most important or clickworthy text and calls to action.
Also, hopefully this goes without saying, but each description should be unique! Even if you have more than one video on a similar topic, make sure you don’t just copy-paste the same description for each of them.
Captioning for the hearing-impaired and hard-of-hearing is more than just common courtesy; it’s good business sense! There are any number of reasons why a person might need to watch your video with the volume off. Let those who haven’t watched a makeup tutorial at church step forward and cast the first stone.
Generating a transcript of your content for closed captions will help you single out keywords and increase your search optimization -- a crucial step in growing your audience.
Subtitles take your reach a step further, making your content accessible to speakers of other languages and reaching markets you’ve barely dreamed of.
One great service YouTube provides is automatic caption generation for content creators. This isn’t always perfect. It involves relying on a computer to interpret the sounds coming out of your mouth, so unless you have the diction of Professor Henry Higgins there will occasionally be mistakes. But it’s a great shortcut for people getting started or those just learning the technical side of YouTube. It’s certainly a better option than no captions at all.
Of note, this service doesn’t extend to translation and foreign language subtitles (wouldn’t that be something!) To add your own subtitles or captions, just follow these steps.
Don’t just stop at YouTube! What if the Beatles only went on Ed Sullivan and didn’t follow it up with a tour? You gotta take your act on the road. And these days that means other social media sites. To grow your following and build a wider audience, you should be promoting your YouTube videos on at least one other major social media platform too.
Of course some of the best sites to promote yourself don’t entirely lend themselves to posting full-length videos. Your Twitter followers need to know your latest opus has dropped, but they probably aren’t going to watch it on Twitter. That’s why you’ll make your announcement with a homemade teaser trailer on Twitter. Or you might make a short highlight reel and set that up on Instagram.
Sure, you could just paste a link to your YouTube video on your other social channels. But, as we wrote in our article on repurposing your YouTube videos, there’s a major benefit to creating shorter videos/teasers of your full video. By posting a unique video directly on a site like Instagram or Twitter (rather than simply linking a YouTube video), your post is more likely to show up in your followers’ feeds.
The point is to cast a wide net. Not everyone who adores you is hovering around YouTube 24/7. Go out and find them!
To get more views for your YouTube videos, it all starts with an irresistible title that captures your audience’s attention with a powerful keyword. Include your keywords in as many places as possible, including in your video’s description. You’ll also want to make sure you have a great custom thumbnail image. Another often-overlooked secret to optimizing your videos is making sure you add closed captions or subtitles to make your videos more searchable. Finally, promote your YouTube videos on your other social channels (such as by creating a shorter teaser video for Instagram, for example). The more you promote and optimize, the more those viewers will start rolling in!
Are you ready to build stronger connections with your audience and more?
Toosa, a powerful new audience communication platform, will be launching soon. Don’t miss out! Get on the waiting list now for updates and find out how to be one of Toosa’s first users.