Should You Make a Second YouTube Channel

First, you might be on the fence as to whether or not you need to make a second YouTube channel.

If you want to make content which is completely unrelated to your existing YouTube channel, then it’s obvious that you’ll want to make a second channel.

It becomes less obvious when you want to make peripherally content.

In other words, this is content which is still relevant to your main channel, but different enough to have you considering a second channel.

Obviously it’s a bit more work managing a second channel, and it means starting from scratch, even though you have that initial channel to use as a promotional source for it.

The main reason to start that second channel is to make each channel more niche or focused in the content they feature.

The result is that each channel’s content becomes more targeted for its intended audience. Combining all of this content under one channel means risking losing two audiences rather than growing one as you risk losing existing subscribers or potential new subscribers when they see too broad a variety in terms of the kind of content you offer.

Only you can decide whether if it’s worth creating a second channel.

If, after you’ve weighed the pros and cons, you’ve decided you want to move forward, follow this short guide on how to make a second YouTube channel.

How to Make a Second YouTube Channel

The first thing to realize is that to simplify the process, you can create a second channel using your existing Google account.

This makes transitioning between the two channels simpler as you don’t need to create a new Google account and it helps to keep the two connected.

To do this, navigate to YouTube.com while logged into the account tied to your existing YouTube channel.

Click on your profile picture icon in the top right to reveal your account menu. From there, click on the “Settings” option a little more than halfway down.

From here, select “Add or Manage Channels” midway down the page under “Your YouTube Channel”.

This will take you to a page which shows the Google account you’re logged into as well as any existing channels made through it. Your existing YouTube channel will appear here. Click on “Select New Channel”:

Lastly, you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll be prompted to title your new channel:

This is where you title your new channel. Note that, as the page suggests, you can change your channel name at any time.

Once your channel is live, you can go to the YouTube Studio page to make a new profile image, background banner, and all of the relevant information for the page as well as adding your first content.

If it’s relevant, then you should use your existing channel and its connected social media accounts to promote your new channel time to time.

Be sure to follow my SEO for YouTube guide to start ranking your new channel and its content, as well.

A couple of key moments you’ll want to reach include:

100 Subscribers and 30 Days – Once you reach this threshold, you can create a custom URL for your channel.

1,000 subscribers and 4,000 Watch Hours (in the Last Year) – Once you reach this threshold, you can monetize your channel.

If you’ve got a relevant existing channel with a strong following, you should be able to reach these thresholds quickly.

And remember that both channels should now benefit from featuring more targeted and relevant content for their respective audiences.

This will result in more new subscribers and less lost ones, resulting in more views, engagement, and better rankings.

While you can’t do anything about receiving negative comments, you can choose what you do about them. You have a few options, as well, so let’s talk about the best way to respond to negative comments on YouTube.

Don’t Take Negative Comments on YouTube Personally

First, before we get to the practical portion of your response to negative comments, here is just a friendly reminder to not take it personally.

I get it – it’s easy for me to tell you. But when someone is critical of something you maybe put a lot of work into and care deeply about it’s hard to not take it personally.

And I’ll admit, when I see a negative comment on a YouTube video I’ve made, it stings at first, even today and on a channel I’ve been making videos for for over a decade now.

Regardless of how much effort you’ve put into your video, and how good you think your content is, negative comments always feel like a personal attack.

The newer and less established or successful your channel is, the more painful it can feel. This is only natural because, alternatively when you have a successful channel, you know that the proof is in the pudding, or in this case your channel’s success.

When you’re just starting out or maybe even trying something new on your channel and you get negative criticism, you will doubt yourself and those comments cut deeper.

Types of Negative Comments on YouTube

Before we talk about what to actually do about negative comments on YouTube, let’s remember that virtually all negative comments fall into one of three categories.

When you understand what each of them are, it can give you perspective to help you deal with them.

Full Trolling

These hurt for a second but are the easiest to roll off your back because there’s no merit to them; they’re just designed to get a rise out of you.

Comments like:

• This video sucks.
• I hate you.
• … etc.

Are just examples of trolling, and lazy trolling at that. I’m not saying they’re not annoying, but it’s important to be able to easily spot these for what they are.

There are all kinds of motivations behind the comments trolls leave. Typically these people are either:

• Immature and think it’s funny.
• Angry because they’re not happy with their own life so they want to take it out on someone else.
• Jealous of the content you’ve made or the results you’re getting.
• Some combination of some or all of these.

Trolls tend to not put a lot of thought into their comments, and the more vague it is, the more obvious it’s a troll.

Things You Can’t Control

This middle group consists of the comments which arguably hurt the most, because they’re typically things which you cannot change.

For example, if someone leaves a comment to say “your voice is grating”, that is obviously something you can’t control.

The distinction between this and pure trolling is that there’s some actual substance to this comment.

You might even agree with some criticisms here which is also why they can hurt the most.

It’s easy to take one comment, particularly if you don’t get many comments, and believe that that speaks for everyone watching your video. An isolated, one-off comment like this should be taken with a grain of salt.

But again, if there’s nothing you can do about the issue they’re raising, there’s no point in dwelling on it.

Constructive Criticism

Even constructive criticism falls under the umbrella of negative comments because it’s still someone being critical of what you’ve created.

Note that this is different from the last category, because in this case there is something we can do about the criticisms people raise.

And just like the other two examples, your first instinct may be to get defensive or dismiss their comment.

If you’re going to be successful in anything in life, let alone on YouTube, you’ve got to learn to take criticism WHEN it is constructive, i.e. it doesn’t fall into those last two categories.

It’s the key to growth in any walk of life.

Here’s a simple example.

Years ago I had someone comment that I had too many ads on my videos. My initial emotional response was anger at someone telling me my business or how to manage my own channel, and I was going to ignore them.

Then I thought, well, let’s see how many ads the video they commented on was running. I figured it was just a difference of opinions on how many ads was too many for a half hour video.

It turned out that I had told YouTube to automatically place the ads on that video as I normally did, but that YouTube took it upon itself to put about 20 ads on that one 30 minute video.

I subsequently learned that the “automatically place ads” feature of YouTube is garbage, and even to this day it will jam pack your video with wall to wall ads if you don’t do it manually.

I admitted the error to that commenter (who thanked me for actually listening and doing something about it) and went back and cleaned up all of my past videos.

I hate to think how many viewers and subscribers I lost out of ignorance and laziness.

Since I did that, I saw my subscription rate begin to increase over what it had been on past and present videos.

If I had followed my emotions in that moment, that channel wouldn’t be the size that it is today.

Options for Dealing With Negative Comments on YouTube

Okay, we’ve talked about the three major categories that virtually all negative comments fall into.

Now let’s go over your options. As a content creator, you have full control over the comments people leave.

Can You Delete Comments on YouTube

Yes, you can delete comments on YouTube, at least comments left on your videos.

Depending on what page you click the three dots next to the comment itself (the comments section of your channel, the video itself, etc.) you’ll get at least the first three options:

Remove

The “Remove” option with the trashcan icon is the easiest way to delete comments on YouTube. This is the best way to deal with the “full on trolling” comments. If someone says something generically rude but otherwise innocuous, this is the best option.

Report

If someone says something offensive or spammy, then you might want to bring it to YouTube’s attention by clicking the “Report” option. This will bring up a menu where you can specify the nature of the offense:

The categories here are all self-explanatory. If you feel the comment falls into any of these, mark them accordingly and submit it. If YouTube agrees, they might ban that user.

Note that this also causes the comment to instantly disappear from your video as soon as you report it, regardless if YouTube agrees with your report.

I tend to mostly use this to mark spam as occasionally I’ll get a comment which is just there for spam promotion.

Hide User From Channel

The “Hide User From Channel” YouTube feature allows you to effectively shadow ban someone on your channel.

This means that the comment (or subsequent comments) from that user will disappear for everyone EXCEPT that user.

In other words, it’s a sneaky way to remove something you don’t like without them knowing.

This is the best option for removing comments which fall under the “things you can’t control” category. The person believe their fair criticism still stands and for your purposes, no one else has to see it.

How to Reply to Negative Comments on YouTube

Besides removing, reporting, or just hiding negative comments, it’s important to mention that you have another couple of options: reply or ignore it.

It’s not a good look to just begin deleting every comment you disagree with on your channel.

At best, you’re removing comments from your video which isn’t wise considering YouTube loves engagement which includes having as many comments on your video as possible.

At worst you might make an enemy or (several) in people who will make it their job to down vote every new video you make.

Now if there’s no substance to the comment, then by all means remove it with any of the above options.

If it falls more into the realm of constructive criticism, then I suggest replying to it.

Give the criticism some thought, and if you still don’t agree with what they’re saying, then leave a civil response (even if their comment didn’t seem it) and note that you understand where they’re coming from, but explain why you do things your way.

I got the entire idea for this article today based on a negative comment I got.

I have a series on another channel where I use a gimmick or two to create videos on a well covered subject matter. The like to dislike ratio is above 90%, so I know between that and the positive comments I get that most people really like the series.

I got a comment on a recent video from someone saying they didn’t like one of the gimmicks I used. I kindly replied with a joke and added that I appreciated their opinion on it, but that I was just trying to do something different.

Shortly after, they responded saying they appreciated my honesty and that they had subscribed.

You’d be surprised how well taking the high road and leaving a well written response works to someone who has been critical of your video, even if they weren’t nice about it in the first place. If they were trying to combat you in the first place with their comment, that sort of response from you is very disarming.

Remember also that a well thought out response is not just for that person’s benefit.

Anyone else who reads how well you handled a bad comment rather than getting prickly over it will appreciate you more as a content creator.

And best of all, responding to every comment, even the bad ones, is an easy way to get the comment count on your videos up which again helps your videos rank better.

Also note that bad comments will often get down votes from other people, or at the very least no up votes. This will generally keep these videos at the bottom of the comments section so very few people will see it in general, anyway.

In Conclusion

The next time you get a negative comment on your YouTube video, decide if there’s any merit to the comment.

If not, either remove it or report it (or, in some cases, just hide the user from your channel).

If there is merit to the comment, keep a cool head and remember that you’re better off taking the time to respond to it diplomatically. This gets your comment count up and sets a good example for your channel to the commenter and anyone else who visits the comment section.

Check out my complete guide to SEO for YouTube to ensure that your videos rank well so you can get lots of comments!

As I discussed in my complete guide on SEO for YouTube, one of the best things you can do to help your video rank better and get more views is to improve its accessibility.

I even recently gave 3 specific reasons to use YouTube chapters and how each benefits your videos.

The bottom line is that adding chapters to your YouTube video is one of the things you can do to make your video more user friendly. This allows people to see what different sections of your video are about on its timeline and jump to find what they need accordingly.

Let’s talk about how to make chapters in a YouTube video.

How to Make Chapters in YouTube Video

Step 1 – Decide Where You Want Your Chapters to Be

The first step in how to make chapters in a YouTube video is to decide where you want them to be.

Remember that if you use chapters correctly, Google may even create rich snippets (see what are rich snippets) in its search results when your video ranks well.

This means that someone might have the option to click from Google to a specific chapter in your video. As such, you want to be sure that the content they’re expecting begins with that chapter.

If you are giving a tutorial on DIY door replacement and you have a chapter devoted to wood sanding as part of the process, do you want that chapter to begin when you talk about the importance of wood sanding, or do you want it to begin when you actually do the sanding in the video?

Chapters are made from timestamps you put in your video’s description, so remember that people will be navigating your video using these, as well.

The point is to be deliberate with your timestamp placements. Put yourself in the shoes of your viewer and think about what content you would want to begin with that shortcut.

One more thing to keep in mind, though obvious, is that each chapter stretches until the the beginning of the next chapter.

So if you go off on a tangent into another topic halfway through a chapter, it’s still part of that labeled chapter. It’s just a reminder to be as specific as possible when labeling chapters and create more if necessary.

Step 2 – Use the Correct Format

Once you have a list of the time points during your video you want each chapter to begin, head to the description of your video.

Make sure that you put your timestamps (which is the official term for the point a chapter begins) in the correct format.

The correct format for YouTube chapters is a title for the chapter, a divider of some sort, and its start time (in minutes and seconds). Each chapter should get its own unique line.

Here’s an example:

Intro – 0:00

How to Remove Old Door – 2:46

How to Sand a Door – 4:23

How to Paint a Door – 5:35

How to Put on New Door – 7:36

When entered like that, in your video’s description in the actual video as people see it, it looks like this (minus the different titles used in this image):

This format works for how to make chapters in a YouTube video with the break points but it also gives a good description of each section. This title displays when you hover over that section on the timeline for your video.

As an added bonus, someone can easily navigate your video as each of this timestamps in your description becomes a live link to that point in the video.

Step 3 – Use Keywords for Chapters

You’ll notice in that last step on how to make chapters in a YouTube video that I used clear descriptive phrases for each chapter’s title.

Not only does this effectively convey what each chapter is about, but it also gives you a chance to rank for those keyword phrases.

Like I mentioned in the first step, Google ranks videos and adds links to specific chapters in its organic search results for certain keywords. Here’s an example:

Clicking the video takes you to that exact moment in the video which is relevant to your search thanks to the chapters the creator used.

The fact that Google features these are rich snippets makes perfect sense for two reasons.

One, Google owns YouTube, so they’re perfectly happy ranking a video atop their organic search results as that means more traffic on Google.

Two, people love videos, particularly for certain searches. Even better, your chapter allows Google to link to the precise moment in your video related to that keyword which likely holds the solution to the person’s search query.

Google’s mission is to provide the best resolution to someone’s search query.

So what’s more efficient than offering a one-click link to the exact second in a video someone is looking for?

Design your chapter titles to be keyword rich and enjoy the extra traffic which will come with them.

YouTube Chapters Not Working

YouTube chapters not working? 99% of the time it comes down to one of these three issues:

You Didn’t Include 0:00

Most of the time, the reason you find your YouTube chapters not working is because you didn’t add a 0:00 timestamp.

This makes sense, because YouTube needs to be able to label each section of your video. If your first timestamp isn’t until a few minutes in, it won’t be able to label the first few minutes before it.

While the first timestamp you’ll want to include won’t be until you get farther into the video, just include an “Intro – 0:00” before it.

You Didn’t Include Three or More TimeStamps

Chapters will not show unless you include three or more timestamps.

Chapters in a YouTube video are meant as an organizational tool to help people find what they’re looking for more quickly.

If you only want to include one or maybe two timestamp links in your description, that doesn’t necessitate creating chapters.

Remember to put at least three timestamps in otherwise chapters will not display.

Your Format is Wrong

Lastly, the reason your chapters in YouTube aren’t working might be because your formatting is wrong.

Remember, it’s one timestamp per line, in the 0:00 format. If you have a video which is longer than an hour and want to include a chapter beyond the hour mark, format it like 1:23:58.

Also remember to put some kind of title on the same line next to the timestamp for that chapter. A timestamp alone on a line will not display.

In Conclusion

Now that you know how to make chapters in a YouTube video, make it point to add this feature every time you upload a new video.

Use more specific keyword phrases related to the theme of your video as the chapter titles in order to both be more descriptive with those titles and have a chance to earn some extra traffic to that video.

What Are YouTube Chapters?

First, let’s identify what YouTube chapters are.

You’ve probably watched a video which uses YouTube chapters just in the course of using YouTube.

YouTube chapters were launched in May of 2020. They allow you to create points on the timeline of the video which breaks the timeline into labeled segments:

3 Reasons to Use YouTube Chapters

They Help People Navigate Your Video

Let’s start with the most obvious reason to use YouTube chapters. First and foremost, they help people navigate your video.

Whether they want to skip over the intro to get to the actual meat of your video or they’re looking for something more specific, YouTube chapters allow someone to find the exact moment they want in your video just by hovering over the timeline.

Chapters are built from a sort of table of contents you make out of timestamps in the video’s description, so viewers can use this to easily find what they’re looking for, as well.

They Help Your Video Rank Better

YouTube, just like its owner Google, wants to provide the best possible user experience on their platforms. For them this means featuring the most user friendly content as possible.

This is why they added features like chapters for video creators to begin with; they want their creators to use the feature to make their videos more navigable.

With that in mind, all things being equal, YouTube is going to give a video which uses this feature a better ranking than a video which doesn’t.

This is one of many features you can add to your videos to make them more accessible, which in itself is just one of many ranking factors you can take advantage up to get more views on your videos (see my complete overview on SEO for YouTube).

They Help You Rank For Other Keywords

The titles you give to YouTube chapters have a chance of appearing in Google search for the keywords you use.

Again, Google owns YouTube and likes serving up YouTube videos atop organic Google search results. With rich snippets, sometimes Google shows a link to a specific chapter in a video when it’s a more specific, longer tail keyword.

Here’s an example of YouTube chapter rich snippets appearing atop Google:

Oftentimes it’s the specific questions that people type into Google which make for great titles. And while it might only get a handful of searches a month, make every single chapter in one video a very specific low competition keyword like this and you’ll suddenly be ranking for dozens of keywords you weren’t before.

The more videos you have, the number of keywords you rank for goes up exponentially.

If the content in your video is helpful you’ll earn lots of positive engagement in likes, comments, and viewer retention, all of which will help your video rank better in YouTube, as well.

Should I Use YouTube Automatic Chapters

You have two options when creating chapters for your video: manually adding them or ticking the box for automatic chapters:

I recommend that if it makes sense to use chapters in your video, that you manually add them in yourself.

For one it’s not a guarantee that YouTube will even add them with this box ticked and if you don’t add your own.

And secondly, this feature does its best to determine where chapters should go, but it’s not going to be as accurate as the chapters you’d come up with yourself.

What is YouTube Analytics Research

Located in the “Analytics” section of your dashboard, the YouTube analytics research feature allows you to see what your viewers and other YouTube users are searching for on YouTube:

It’s essentially the closest thing creators have to a keyword tool from YouTube itself.

The concept is simple enough – you input a topic and the tool shows you actual search terms related to that topic which people use.

How to Use YouTube Analytics Research to Get More Views

The two main areas of this feature are “Searches Across YouTube” and “Your Viewers’ Searches”. Their purposes and practical use vary quite a bit, so let’s talk about each one separately.

Your Viewers’ Searches

I’ll briefly start with “Your Viewers’ Searches” which anyone would understandably think would be invaluable data to have.

The idea that you could know the specific search terms that your own viewers are using on YouTube would be a godsend for ideas on content creation.

Unfortunately based on my experience, these results are either too vague or too irrelevant to the focus of my or anyone’s channel to be useful.

Here is a sampling of the results I pulled from a channel of mine which has been around for nearly a decade and has thousands of subscribers:

You would be hard-pressed to determine what my channel is about based on these results. When I tell you it’s in the gaming niche, these results are even more baffling.

What’s more, YT only gave me 30 search terms, and they were all as varied and random as these.

This feature needs a lot more work before it has any practical applications. If they could let you filter out search terms based on category so I could only keep searches YT deems relevant to the gaming niche, it would certainly be more useful.

Unlike with the Searches Across YouTube feature within the YouTube analytics research section which I’m about to cover, there’s no built in search bar.

Add that and you’ll have a feature worth using, otherwise it’s just a random and useless assortment of data.

Searches Across YouTube

This is where the YouTube analytics research tool is more useful. The searches across YouTube’s search bar allows you to take a keyword, topic, etc. and get actual searches related to it:

In the example above, I searched for “dessert recipes” which gives me 30 related keywords and an estimate of the search volume on YouTube for each.

As I scroll down, I see results like “healthy dessert recipes” “mango dessert recipes” and “quick dessert recipes”, all of which would make for great video titles and keywords in general to employ some SEO for YouTube around.

You can save any search term by clicking on the symbol on the left and it gets added to the “Saved” section. You can use this as a reminder for keywords you might want to use or just to find out more information on later using a free keyword tool.

If we click on the dots over to the right of any of these keywords, it provides a shortcut to the Google trends on that keyword.

Not surprisingly, we can see that searches for “dessert recipes” skyrocketed in March and April of 2020 when everyone was stuck at home and doing more cooking and baking.

The “search volume” amount only comes in a vague “high”, “medium”, or “low”.

These estimations are specific to YouTube, because I’ve looked up keywords in each of these tiers using Google’s keyword planner to get search volume estimates for these keywords in Google itself, and the results were not always consistent.

In other words, keywords which the YouTube analytics research feature lists as “low” often showed more search volume in Google itself than some of the keywords listing “medium” volume.

This makes sense given that some keywords are much more video friendly than others, so it’s something to keep in mind when comparing these estimates with those from a keyword tool.

In Summary

The YouTube analytics research feature is one to keep an eye on in the future to see if it can serve up more relevant information about our specific viewers.

In the meantime, we can use it to get ideas for keywords to base future videos around which are related to our niche.

The fact that this tool is taking into consideration the actual searches people are doing on YouTube and that information is coming from Google itself along makes it worth checking out when you’re not sure what to make your next video on.

There’s an audience for literally anything you’re passionate about, and it’s a great way to drive more traffic to your business or personal site.

One of the best ways to do this is via an end screen; the not-so-originally named feature you can run for the last 5-20 seconds of your video where you can add custom links to videos, playlists, or even your own website.

Today we’re going to breakdown the best possible way to use the end screen on YouTube.

What is the End Screen?

YouTube rolled out the end screen feature in late 2016 to replace the annotations system it previously used. You can still spot a video from before 2017 from the awkward rectangular images and video clips which use to be highlighted via an annotation link. Now they just awkwardly sit there in those videos with no interactions possible.

The end screen is a similar idea, but they’re much more versatile:

Using them, you can add a link to three or four (depending on the resolution of your video) of the following elements to pop up at the end of your video (though at least one has to be a video or playlist on YouTube):

• Video – Links to a different video. It can be yours or someone else’s.
• Playlist – Links to a playlist. Again, it can be yours or someone else’s.
• Subscribe – This encourages someone to easily subscribe to your channel.
• Channel – This allows you to link to a channel on YouTube, including yours.
• Link – This allows you to link to virtually any website. This can even be a specific URL/page on your website.

You can change each element out as you like at any point, as well, using them to promote your latest or most relevant or important content.

Many creators make a specific image or video to draw extra attention to the elements/links in their end screen.

These “end screen templates” have cutouts/designated spaces for the various elements you might want to include in your end screen.

Best YouTube End Screen Time

You can set the length of your end screen be anywhere between the last 5 and 20 seconds of your video.

Note that just because you can use the full 20 seconds doesn’t mean you need to.

For my own videos, I set the length on a situational basis.

For videos where I didn’t create a specific image/video at the end of the video with an end screen in mind, I make the end screen the minimum 5 seconds to not distract from the content in the end of the video itself.

I have a channel where I create a lot of multipart video series. For videos part of a series but with a specific ending video I’ve created for the end screen (which I tack on to the end of the normal video), I only use about 10 seconds.

In that 10 second video, I encourage people to subscribe, like the video, and comment on it.

Engagement like this is the single best way to get your video to rank better in YouTube, resulting in more views, video revenue, and traffic back to your site for you.

These are all things I covered in my complete guide to SEO for YouTube which I strongly recommend checking out.

Getting back to end screens, when creating a specific image or video where you solicit people to engage in your video like this, you generally want to make your point as quickly and effectively as possible.

Otherwise you’ll either annoy or bore your viewer and risk alienating them from taking that action to begin with.

Just as importantly, you risk losing a view on your next video if someone has autoplay turned on in YouTube (which is the default setting). For channels with a lot of videos or at least a relevant video to the current video, there’s a good chance that YouTube is ready to play another one of your videos next. Shorter end screens retain viewers better than the alternative.

End Screen Template

I put together an example end screen template which I use for most of my videos:

Note that these sizes are all specific to a 1920X1080 resolution video. Also note that each “block” on here is just to demonstrate the size of said element in how it appears. It’s the blank space that you want to fill up with your branding.

As an example, in the actual image I use, I include the word “Subscribe” underneath that top left area with an arrow pointing to it to draw some attention to it.

Let me explain my use of this configuration:

• Subscribe – I put this in the top left as this is generally where the eyes gravitate first, making it the most visible element. Growing your channel’s subscriber base is like growing an email list; it pays dividends down the line and should be your first and main order of business, hence the best exposure spot.
• Link – You should always include a link back to your website. As I mentioned before, you can do deep linking rather than having to stick to the top page URL. With that in mind, you can create a specific page for viewers of that particular video or just for viewers of your content on YouTube in general.
• Video/Playlist – These are self explanatory but you should link to relevant video content of yours here. If the video is part of a series, I put the playlist that video belongs to in the lower left spot, with another relevant video or relevant playlist over on the right.

Obviously this is just the layout which I prefer; you don’t even have to include 4 elements in your end screen. You can feature less elements to bring more attention to the ones which do show.

I always have relevant videos and or playlists to link to, so I want to get the most out of the end screen and use all four elements.

You also don’t need to spread your elements out to the corners. I do this to free up the middle space where I show (in my background image at that point at the end of the video) the URLs for all of my social networks and encourage people to check me out there.

With the end screen template I included above, you know exactly how big each element shows up in the video, so the rest of the image can be used however you like.

I like every inch of my end screen to be working for me. Obviously you don’t want it to be TOO busy so that the viewer can’t make sense of what is what, so keep that in mind.

In Conclusion

• End screens allow you to add links to other videos, playlists, your channel, or even your website in the last 5-20 seconds of your videos.
• Creating a designated end screen (from an end screen template, for example) can be a great way to make your end screen/the end of your video look more professional and draw more attention to the elements you include.
• Include a pre-recorded message to play as part of your end screen/the last 5-20 seconds of your video to encourage more engagement.
• Keep your end screen as short as possible to efficiently deliver that message to keep from annoying or losing viewers.
• Prioritize driving more subscriptions to your channel with the Subscribe element in particular.

The two main factors which affect click-through rate of a video on YouTube are its title and thumbnail image. We’re focusing on the former today, so let’s talk about how to make a good title for YouTube.

How to Make a Good Title for YouTube

Include Your Keyword

YouTube is a search engine, just like Google. It serves up results based on a keyword or keyword phrase.

So a big part of how to make a good title for YouTube is doing keyword research to find a great keyword for your topic, then including that keyword in the title to help you rank for it in YouTube.

I use KeySearch (see my KeySearch review) for my keyword research in part because it has a YouTube specific keyword tool, but I’ve covered a lot of free tools in my free keyword tool comparison.

Once you have a good keyword, work it into the title.

It’s important not only because it further establishes the link between your video and that keyword for YouTube, it does the same thing for people searching for it.

If they see their keyword they searched for in the title of your video, they’ll know it’s relevant to what they’re looking for.

That’s just a start, however.

Clickbait For the Win

Clickbait is the cornerstone of how to make a good title.

A lot of the biggest YouTubers making content rely almost exclusively on clickbaity titles.

Making a wild claim is a great way to earn more clicks. Making an unbelievable claim which someone has to see to believe essentially demands that the person click on it.

Of course if you can’t back up that claim in your video, your up to down vote ratio will reflect this. This will communicate to YouTube that you’ve got bad content, meaning it will quickly lose its visibility.

This is the Best Tip

I’m going to continue from that last point, but titles with superlatives also garner a lot of clicks.

By titling your video “This is the Best/Fastest/Cheapest Way to…”, you’ll essentially be communicating to anyone who sees it that you have the de facto best video on your topic.

This piques curiosity from your viewers and can lead to a lot of clicks.

And while this is still subjective, meaning your opinion on the subject, make sure you’re backing up the content of the actual video to meet the expectations of the viewer.

Make Em’ Laugh

Another good way to capture someone’s attention is to make them laugh with your title.

It’s somewhat of another continuation on the clickbait point because you’re essentially subverting someone’s expectations on a topic to catch them off guard, pique their interest, and entertain them before they’ve even clicked on your video.

This needs to pair nicely with a comical thumbnail to reinforce the joke, but it can be an effective way to convey your personality again before they’ve even seen a frame of the video itself.

Learn From the Pros

Wikipedia has a list of the most-subscribed to YouTubers. While you won’t learn much from the pop-stars on that list, there’s still plenty of be gleaned from the biggest original content creators.

There’s the valid argument that these YouTubers get tons of views just from their name at this point. That’s true. But they’re still masters of titles and thumbnails which get people to click through every time.

Going back to the earliest videos these YouTubers uploaded is a masterclass in how to grow a channel through great titles.

List Videos

When in doubt, stick to the classics. I call these evergreen titles because they never go out of style and always garner clicks.

Number/countdown style videos are one such example which always encourage clicks because they again create curiosity.

Everyone always wants to know what’s going to rank number 1.

More than that, they want to know if their opinions will coincide at all with the author behind the video’s.

Virtually every niche lends itself to seemingly limitless topics to make list videos out of.

How To Videos

Another oldie but a goodie in how to make a good title for YouTube is the “How To” format.

Everyone wants to learn a new skill, this post itself is a prime example!

Beginning your title with “How To” establishes the expectation of your potential viewer.

This effectively communicates to them that if they click through to your video, they’ll learn whatever skill the title promises.

That’s a good reminder to end on: The last thing you want is for someone to be unclear on the focus or even value of one of your videos after seeing your title and thumbnail.

Anytime you can create an expectation for someone without them even having to click, even if that means piquing their curiosity, your click-through rate will be healthy.

I’ve put together this complete tutorial detailing everything you need to know to rank atop YouTube. It will cover everything from keywords, technical details about your videos themselves, promotion, and much more.

Because I cover so much, I recommend that you bookmark this page and come back every time you’re creating a new video to ensure every video is optimized for YouTube.

SEO for YouTube

There are so many aspects to SEO for YouTube that I’ve broken it down into seven chapters in this article:

Chapter 1 – YouTube Video Quality

Chapter 2 – YouTube Keyword Research

Chapter 3 – How to Use Keywords in Your YouTube Video

Chapter 4 – How to Promote YouTube Videos

Chapter 5 – YouTube Branding Tips

Chapter 6 – How to Increase YouTube Engagement

Chapter 7 – Learn From Your YouTube Analytics

YouTube Video Quality

SEO for YouTube begins with the quality of your video itself. This applies to both its resolution as well as its content.

What is the Best Resolution for YouTube?

It’s a no-brainer, but the best resolution for a YouTube video is the best resolution you can produce.

When YouTube first began over 15 years ago, 240p was the norm. Nowadays those videos look grainy, blurry, and lower quality by comparison to current videos.

Today, it’s expected that your video is at least HD quality, meaning 720p, if not 1080p.

In the next few years, 4K and 8K videos will become the norm.

For what it’s worth, 8K is roughly about the limit to what the human eye can distinguish. As such, there likely won’t be a huge market for 16K (until the implants start).

YouTube knows its users want to view videos in the highest possible definition.

For this reason, you want to be as ahead of the curve as you can to ensure your videos remain relevant for as long as possible.

FPS, or frames per second is also important. The more frames per second, the smoother and more flawless the video will be.

Videos in some niches such as travel are a must for the highest possible resolution. That said, there isn’t any particular niche which wouldn’t benefit from better looking videos.

Fortunately, the latest smartphones can film in 4K so most marketers have that at their fingertips.

Alternatively, if you’re filming your screen, capture in at least 1080p.

So, the point is to make your videos as high a resolution as possible. This will satisfy viewers today and tomorrow.

What Makes for a Good YouTube Video?

The other half of the quality coin is content.

Satisfying the Search/Title

The best YouTube videos deliver on the promises which their titles present.

If it’s a “how to” video, make sure your video clearly shows how to do what you’re demonstrating.

If your title is clickbaity, make sure it doesn’t mislead the viewer. Clickbait is fine as long as you deliver to the expectations of the viewer.

Remember that Google owns YouTube, so they know EXACTLY how people interact with your video.

This is actually a huge YouTube ranking factor as they let their viewers decide what’s quality for them.

If Google sees people giving your video down votes and leaving early because you misled them, don’t expect it to rank well.

Have Good Audio

The quality of any talking or music in your video should be just as good as the picture.

Invest in a decent microphone if you’re doing a screen capture; they’re very affordable these days.

Record in a quiet environment if possible. Make sure to speak clearly and without rushing.

If you need third party music, check out the YouTube Audio Library for lots of free quality music that won’t get you in trouble.

Speaking of which, it should be obvious, but don’t use music you don’t own the rights to.

At best you won’t be able to add ads to your video once you qualify for them. At worst, it can get your channel suspended.

Don’t Go Overboard With Ads

Speaking of ads…

You need 1,000 subscribers to your channel before you can run ads on your videos. Once you hit that threshold, don’t go overboard with your ads.

As the video owner, you can choose whether or not you want to show ads on your video.

You can choose how many ads, and when they appear (before, during, and/or after).

While you might think packing your video with ads will bring you in a lot of income, it’s more likely to just alienate and lose your viewer.

Put yourself in the shoes of your viewer when placing your ads.

If it’s a relatively short video at just 10 or 20 minutes, maybe only put one video in midway through the video or none at all.

I like to allow ads before and after my video. And, depending on the length, I’ll put just one at the midway point.

One VERY important word of warning:

Don’t leave it up to YouTube to automatically choose the ad breaks during your video. If you allow ads during your video but don’t specify when they show, it’s done automatically.

This has led to about a dozen ad breaks in a half hour video for me before. I understandably had annoyed viewers leaving comments letting me know before I began manually doing it myself.

Remember, the ads are ultimately a part of the experience. Too many ads will detract from that experience and hurt that video’s analytics. This in turn will hurt its ranking.

What is the Best Length for a YouTube Video?

Much like keyword density, one of the most common questions about SEO for YouTube involves optimal video length.

This is a complicated question because it involves two opposing forces: YouTube’s preference for longer videos to keep users on their platform longer, and the attention span of your viewers.

As I’ll get into later, user retention is a big ranking factor. The more of your video which people watch on average, the better YouTube will rank it.

A good pocket is 8-15 minutes. That’s not too long that it will deter people from watching your video, but there’s enough time to create some decent substance and depth on your topic.

Of course this isn’t a one size fits all approach, because some niches will require more or less time to effectively cover their subject.

Ultimately, the best length for a YouTube video is as short as possible to fulfill its promise.

Think back to the “how to” example. People are watching your video for a solution to their problem.

They don’t want you to drone on for 5 minutes about why the problem’s a problem. They know it’s a problem; that’s why they tuned in.

Hit the ground running from the start by getting to or into the solution in the first minute.

Do this and you’ll be amazed at how many people thank you in the comment section and reward you with more up votes which will help it rank better, as well.

This is proof that most YouTube content creators don’t take this advice to heart by comparison. Be the creator that cuts to the chase and over delivers on their promise.

So again, there’s no best length for a YouTube video. It’s about giving your viewer what they want as efficiently as possible. Keep their time in mind.

Keep Your Content Presentation Dynamic

In addition to the quality of the content you’re showing, it’s important to keep your presentation dynamic.

By this I mean you should keep routinely vary the way you’re displaying the content you’re presenting in your video.

No one wants to stare at your recorded screen or even just you on camera talking for any period of time uninterrupted.

This makes your content boring, even if the topic is interesting, and it makes people tune out.

Instead, break up how you’re presenting your content. A few ways to keep your video dynamic are:

• Display graphics and use transitions throughout your video
• If you’ve got a list video, cut to the number of the list you’re on as you introduce a new item
• If you’re on camera, show different camera angles, zoom in, or just switch back and forth between being on and off camera

Even relatively uninteresting topics can be a lot more exciting with a more dynamic presentation.

YouTube Keyword Research

Just like traditional optimization, SEO for YouTube revolves heavily around keyword research.

Keywords in YouTube are just as important as in Google itself. Good YouTube keyword research and implementation can help your video dominate both YouTube as well as Google’s SERPs.

YouTube Keyword Research Tools (Free)

You can use one of the free tools I covered in my free keyword tool review to get volume and in some cases competition stats on the keywords you might want to use.

Here are a couple of free tools I like to consult when I’m creating a new video in terms of SEO for YouTube.

Keyword Tool Dominator

As I mentioned in the aforementioned review comparison, Keyword Tool Dominator is a free tool with a specific YouTube application.

You enter a base keyword for your topic and it shows relevant keywords related to it. Note that it doesn’t give you volume results on these keywords, but you can see what people are most often searching for as it relates to the keyword:

It’s a great tool for getting ideas to create your video(s) around based on what you already know people want to see.

You can also use it to identify the most popular (and relevant) keyword to target in your title, tags, etc. (more on this in a moment).

Note that this tool has a limit to how many searches you can do per day.

Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is another free browser extension which is useful for seeing the keywords which existing popular videos are using.

Open any YouTube video and this free extension for Chrome and Firefox shows info on the video and channel:

Below the insights are every tag which the video is using.

Highlighting the optimization score shows how effectively the video is using its keyword(s):

This makes it a great tool for spying on your competitors and replicating what’s working for them.

Just be sure to one up them with the previously discussed video quality tips with your video itself.

Keep in mind that you should also use this tool to ensure that your own video is optimized when finished.

How to Use Keywords in Your YouTube Video

Now let’s talk implementation, or how to use keywords in your YouTube video in each section.

Keywords in Audio

YouTube is getting progressively better at transcribing your audio for its own automatically generated captions.

While this is no substitute for adding your own captions (more on this later), the point is to mention your keyword early on in the video.

You should be doing this anyway to go with the context of the video, but this will serve as another signal to YouTube as to what your video is about and will help it rank for that keyword.

Keywords in YouTube Video Filename

I’ve heard that YouTube has explicitly said that the filename of the video doesn’t affect rankings at all. Obviously that’s purely anecdotal, but regardless, anything they tell you should be taken with a grain of salt.

Oftentimes if you’re not sure about something in SEO for YouTube or otherwise, use your common sense.

There’s no reason to think that making your video’s filename the same as your title would adversely affect its ranking.

In my mind, it’s just one more step in describing to YouTube what your video is about.

So, when producing your video in your software, choose a title with the keyword in it.

Keywords in YouTube Video Title

Your title should contain your main keyword you hope to rank for. Make sure to use it organically/naturally, however.

Keep in mind that the main purpose of your title is to encourage people to click on and watch your video.

Don’t sacrifice an enticing title for the sake of awkwardly fitting your keyword in.

Ideally they can both work together, but again remember the title is arguably your best chance to convince someone to click, making it arguably the most important part of your video.

I’ll talk more about why this is so important in a moment, but let’s continue with how to use your keywords.

Keywords in YouTube Video Description

The description should contain your main keyword as well as some related keywords. Just like with the title, use your keyword(s) organically.

Remember that the purpose of the description is to provide context about the video for the viewer.

I’ve heard claims that YouTube prioritizes roughly first 200 characters of the description. This is the bit which appears “above the fold”, or above the “show me more” tab in other words.

You should certainly prioritize explaining what your video is about and using your main keyword both at the beginning of your description.

Any links you want to include or other information should follow this farther down in the description.

Keywords in YouTube Video Tags

The tag section is where you can put dozens of terms as they relate to your video.

This section is purely to help YouTube categorize what your video is about.

Note that it prioritizes the title and description (in that order) before the tags.

Still, I find the tag section to be a great place to pick up a bit of extra traffic as I’ll now explain.

Start off by putting your main keyword you want to target and any relevant keywords here as tags.

If you’re not sure what else to put here, enter your main keyword into a free tool like AnswerThePublic.

Here’s what the results look like as a visual diagram, sorted by question type:

This shows you the exactly the kinds of questions people are asking related to that keyword.

I like the tag section in YouTube to fit in some long tail (but relevant) keywords. These are keywords which aren’t being targeted by many (or any) other creators.

As such, if someone searches for that exact phrase on YouTube or even Google, your video might appear. This is due to the relatively low or non-existent competition for that phrase.

It may not add up to a ton of traffic, but it’s as simple as adding the keyword as a tag.

It might only be a trickle, but it’s well worth the time if you get new subscribers out of it.

Note you should only do this if your video answers the question(s) that people are asking.

You get up to 500 characters to use in the tag section, so make use of any extra characters you have after your main keywords for your more long tailed (but relevant) keyword phrases.

Use Your Competitor’s Tags

One more thing to mention is that using the tags that other relevant ranking videos are using will increase the likelihood that your video will show up as a suggested video alongside it.

Suggested videos are the other videos you see thumbnails and titles for while watching a video.

Therefore you should use a free tool like the previously mention Keywords Everywhere to see the tags your competitors are using.

Use some of the tags the most popular, highest ranking videos related to your keyword are using and that will tell YouTube your video is similar to theirs.

YouTube will then show your video in the suggested section when someone is watching that popular video.

Use a super clickable title and thumbnail image to steal some views from the bigger fish in this way.

Speaking of thumbnails…

Keyword in YouTube Video Thumbnail

Create a relevant image, title it as your keyword, and upload it as the thumbnail for your video. The image should be 1280X720 pixels in size.

You can screen capture a still from your video to use.

Select one of the more exciting or funnier moments which will stroke your viewer’s curiosity when they see the thumbnail on YouTube or in Google.

Many YouTubers like to Photoshop an image of themselves reacting on top of a screen capture like this.

You can also overlay the title of your video in a large, attention grabbing font on top of the image.

The idea is to stand out from your competition, or in this case the other thumbnails.

Your title and thumbnail are the only two tools you have to attract attention. Make them both as irresistible as possible to ensure that you earn a click.

Make sure the title and thumbnail are in lockstep with one another but also make sure that neither the title or thumbnail mislead the viewer regarding the content of the video itself.

Choosing a YouTube Category

Lastly, this is pretty straightforward and not related to keywords, but be sure to pick the most relevant category for your video. Duh.

How to Promote YouTube Videos

Promoting Your Video on Social Media

After you’ve uploaded your video and ensured it’s optimized in terms of keywords and clickability, share it with your various social network audiences.

Clicking on the “Share” section below your video gives you plenty of one or two click options for sharing your video to the major networks.

Some early good engagement (comments, up votes, and user sharing) will help it rank in both Google and YouTube.

The more visibility it gets, the more positive engagement it should receive. This in turn should continue pushing it up the SERPs.

This snowball effect is powerful, just like any other form of SEO, assuming your content is quality.

Embedding Videos on Your Website

One seriously underutilized source of traffic for promoting a YouTube video is embedding it on your website.

You should always create an article to go along with your video (or vice versa). Then you get people engaging with and watching your video from your website, driving up its numbers.

You can even take that caption that you just wrote for the video and paste it verbatim on to your site as the article. Note that you may have to tweak a few things here or there, but most of the work is already done for you.

The point is, embedding a video on your website and surrounding it with relevant writing and images will help the video rank better across Google and YouTube. This will get you more views and engagement on that video.

By the same token, that video will help your article/web page rank in Google.

This is because Google knows people like video/visual content. Making your content consumable in a variety of ways ensures that you’ll appeal to all of your visitors.

Not only that, but that embedded video being optimized for the same keyword(s) you’re targeting on that page further conveys to Google that your page is extremely relevant to that keyword.

And as I said before, Google OWNS YouTube. In other words, they like ranking a page which features content which they ultimately own, i.e. a YouTube video.

YouTube videos also rank well on their own in Google’s SERP’s. Many search terms in Google have YouTube videos ranking number one.

It’s possible to have your YouTube video and relevant article on your website ranking numbers one AND two for your keyword.

The more visibility for your content, the better, so take advantage of Google’s arrangement for your own benefit.

Using End Screen Links and Cards

I’ll talk more about how to use End Screens and Cards in a moment, but they’re both great ways to promote a new video.

If you have existing videos which are getting some decent traffic, add links to your new video via Cards and the End Screen in the popular video(s).

Obviously only do this if the two videos are somewhat relevant, but it’s a great way to spread around some of that existing traffic.

This can be leveraged to promote your new video and get some positive engagement on it until begins ranking well in its own right.

YouTube Branding Tips

Good branding will earn you more subscribers. This will bring in more engagement every time you upload a new video which again will help your videos rank.

All of this is important for SEO for YouTube, so here are a few branding tips for your YouTube channel.

Make a Versatile Video Intro

Just like you’d create a stock 20 second (or less) outro for your videos, you can make an intro.

I have a very basic intro for my videos which I can tweak for the title of the video.

It’s just a little 5 second video which shows a bit of personality and professionalism for the channel/brand.

It shouldn’t be any longer than a few seconds. You might do a cold open where you tease the video, then run the intro.

Of course remember the rule of getting straight to the point with your video.

Make a Banner

The ideal size for a YouTube banner is 2560 by 1440 pixels.

Download this Best YouTube Banner Size Guide (right click and select “Save Link As) and drop it right into your image editor.

As the graphic says, just fit the entirety of your logo that you want to display in that blue section in full. This is the section that displays correctly on every device, including smartphones.

After you’ve got it where you want it, delete the banner size guide image layer, just leaving your logo.

Now save the image as a PNG, JPEG, GIF, or BMP and upload to YouTube.

Make a Profile Picture

YouTube recommends a perfect square for this, specifically 800X800 pixels.

If you have a wordmark for your business, this is a good place for it. I went with the little angry version of myself.

How to Use YouTube End Screens

The End Screen feature is a bit about user experience and a bit about branding.

The End Screen feature allows you to add up to 4 links to the last 20 seconds or less of your video.

The links can be:

• An outbound link to the approved website of your choice, including yours (limit one)
• A subscribe link for your YouTube channel (limit one)
• A video of your choice
• A playlist of your choice

Note that the amount of links you can use are dependent on the resolution of your video. Low resolution videos don’t support as many links as higher resolution ones.

I recommend that you create a specific 20 second or less video encouraging people to subscribe and engage with the End Screen links they see.

You can then tack this stock video on to the end of every new video you create in whatever video software you use.

The video can be as simple as an image with all of your relevant links listed from your social networks and website URL itself.

Orient these in the center of the image so that the End Screen link pop ups don’t cover them up.

If you don’t create a dedicated ending video, at least make sure that you’re not still covering important video content when the End Screen portion starts.

I recently did an specific guide on how to use the end screen, so check it out for more information.

How to Use YouTube Cards

Cards are pop ups which appear where you like throughout your video to link to the same elements as the End Screen can.

It’s good to use Cards if you reference something in your video and want to be able to link to it on demand.

So if you reference another video you’ve done at 4 minutes in, you can set it up so that a non-intrusive pop up shows in your video to allow your viewer to click to that video.

Anytime you want to link to something midway through the video, a Card is the way to do it.

How to Increase YouTube Engagement

One of the major themes of SEO for YouTube is that engagement is a huge ranking factor.

Again, engagement is anytime someone likes, comments on, or shares a video (or subscribes based off of it).

So, outside of creating a great video, how do we get more engagement on our YouTube videos?

Ask People to Subscribe + Enable Notifications, Like, and Comment

Don’t discount the power of simply asking people in your video to take the action you want.

Specifically encourage people to subscribe to your channel and enable notifications, like the video, and leave a comment.

Doing this after an especially satisfying moment in your video is the best time to solicit this while they’re at their most appreciative for your content.

Mix in some call to action graphics throughout the video is a good idea, as well.

Obviously don’t overdo it as this will turn people off, but the occasional non-intrusive visual pop up at the bottom of the screen works well.

Finish your video with a call to action to ask them to subscribe, like, comment, and a reminder to enable notifications, as well.

Improve your chances by explaining to the viewer that these things really do help your channel and consequently help you to continue making great content for them.

Ask People an Easy to Answer Question

Here’s a surefire why to get a lot more comments.

Ask people a straightforward question related to the topic.

If your video is about dogs, ask them what their favorite breed is.

If your video is about solving a problem, ask them what they find the most challenging aspect of the problem to be.

Even better, give them multiple choices.

In a video about pizza, ask if they prefer pepperoni or sausage on a pizza.

Asking a simple question in the video is a great way to get a relatively high comment rate. YouTube sees that your video gets lots of comments and rewards it with higher rankings.

Asking this question as early in the video as possible when you have the most viewers encourages more engagement and can even keep that viewer watching for longer than they would have otherwise.

Respond to All Comments

People will be more inclined to leave a comment if they see that you respond to other comments.

Show that you’re engaged with your viewers and care about their opinions and they’ll be far more likely to engage with you.

Your comments will get your comment numbers up on that video, as well, and show YouTube that you’re an engaged creator.

Incentivize People to Subscribe

Don’t go with the bland “please hit that subscribe button”. Give viewers a reason to subscribe.

Instead, say “Subscribe to get…” and give them your best 5 second pitch as to the kind of content you make on your channel.

Mention the kinds content you make specifically. If you upload a video every Friday, mention that. If you do regular YouTube live streams, mention that.

With this context you’ll find that people are a lot more willing to subscribe than a blunt “please subscribe”.

Add Manual Captions to Your Videos

It can be a hassle, particularly if you’ve got a ton of existing videos, but adding captions helps videos rank in more ways than one.

A lot of SEO for YouTube is about delivering the best experience for the viewer.

Adding accurate captions to your video to reflect the narration can make it accessible for the hearing impaired. This will also earn you more likes and appreciative comments.

This shows Google that you put in that extra bit of effort to make your video a better viewing experience.

Plus, this is also one more place where your keyword/keywords will appear in your video. This helps YouTube’s search algorithm better identify and serve your video for its keyword when someone searches it.

Basically adding captions is one more way to give your video the edge over an otherwise similar competitor’s.

How to Use YouTube Timestamps

This isn’t as tedious as manually adding captions, but timestamps also improve the user experience of your video.

To add them, you simply label a time in the description which represent a particular section of the video.

You have to start with 0:00. So a few examples would be:

0:00 Beginning of Video

0:58 Example 1

1:58 Example 2

When put in the description of a YouTube video, those times automatically become links which jump to the related time in the video.

Note that you need at least 3 timestamps in the description to create breaks on the timeline of the video.

Once added, this automatically formats the timeline of the video to reflect each section when you cursor over it.

So in that example, the start of the video to 57 seconds would read “beginning of video” on the timeline. Then it would show a break and the next segment would read “Example 1”.

Don’t feel obligated to create timestamps when it doesn’t make sense for your video.

If it does make sense, like in a how-to video where some folks just want to jump ahead or see the tools they’ll need, go ahead and do it and label each section effectively.

Good curation like this will earn you more likes and help your video rank better.

Learn From Your YouTube Analytics

An added bonus to using YouTube is the free analytics you get for every video you publish.

These user metrics are key in gaining insights to how people are engaging with your videos.

YouTube gives you way too many stats to cover them all here, so let’s focus on the information you can use to improve subsequent videos.

YouTube Metrics to Follow

Video Click Through Rate

I talked a bit earlier about your video’s click-through rate in terms of getting views, but YouTube uses a video’s click-through rate also as a ranking metric.

This is the percentage of people who click on your video anywhere on YouTube when it shows for up for them.

This can be their home pages, or suggested results from other videos. When it appears, this is called an impression.

The more clicks you have on your video relative to its number of impressions, the more YouTube believes you’ve got a video worth ranking.

No one knows YouTube’s algorithm for certain in terms of how much weight it places on each ranking factor, but you can make the argument that video click through rate is the most important ranking factor when it comes to SEO for YouTube.

It’s certainly first in the chain, as you can’t get any positive engagement to show YouTube on your video without views.

According to YouTube, an average click-through rate on YouTube is anywhere between 2-10%. Anecdotally, I’ve heard most YouTubers reporting around 4 and 5 percent.

I’ve averaged 4.6% on one of my channels since they began calculating CTR in 2018:

How to Improve Click-Through Rate

Increasing your click-through rate comes down to two things: your title and your thumbnail.

Try split testing two different thumbnails.

Run one for a few days then another after that. Take the winner and create a new thumbnail to have it compete against.

Just make sure when you’re judging the winner, you’re looking specifically at your click-through rate based on your impressions.

You might want to wait a week or so that the “new video” click-throughs have subsided.

After doing this for awhile, you’ll start to get an idea of which thumbnail styles perform better than others.

You can then make note of which aspects perform better and replicate them in all of your thumbnails moving forward.

You can do the same thing with your titles.

Just make sure you’re not changing out the thumbnail the same time you change your title otherwise you won’t know what change had the positive or negative effect.

Key Moments for Audience Retention

Key moments for audience retention shows exactly where the biggest dips (or spikes) occur in the timeline of a video.

Dips in particular can show you certain behaviors that might be costing you viewers.

This graph might suggest that the intro to this particular video is too long or turns people off.

Don’t make any broad assumptions off of just one video. It’s more informative to take multiple videos into account if you’re trying to measure the effect of a common theme in your videos like say your introduction.

If you continue to see retention drop at the same spot in every video like say during your introduction, it’s a sign that it needs an overhaul.

Just keep in mind that it’s a given that your biggest drop in retention will occur in the first minute.

This is natural as people either don’t have the attention span once they get into the video, they decide it wasn’t what they thought it was, or they just change their mind and click the back button.

To compare a few videos you can check the graphic which shows retention for your most recent videos:

The six latest videos here all vary wildly in terms of retention through the first 30 seconds.

This should be useful for determining what practices are working for some videos. Perhaps more useful is determining which practices AREN’T working to lose all of those viewers so early on.

Your Top Videos in This Period

As the title suggests, these are your videos which are getting the most views.

It’s always a good idea pay extra attention to your videos which are performing the best.

Make note of the title you used, the keyword you targeted, the description you put, the tags, and the video itself.

Figure out what people liked about your best performing videos in particular if they don’t explicitly say in the comments and try to replicate those techniques in subsequent videos.

Subscriber Bell Notifications

This shows what percentage of your subscribers have it set up to receive notifications when you upload a new video:

As you can see, an average number is 10-30%.

Your subscribers will be the viewers most likely to engage with your videos. Therefore, you may want to encourage subscribers to tick that bell so that they know every time you put out new content.

Audience Demographics

In the audience section, you can see the demographic breakdown of your viewers. You can get uber-specific information like the OS the person is viewing your video on, but most important are the ages and genders of your viewers.

Knowing who you’re creating your video content for is essential. Check in with the audience section now and again to keep abreast of who is tuning in to watch your content and tailor it accordingly.

In Summary…

So as you can tell, there’s a lot more to ranking well in YouTube beyond simple keyword usage.

It’s finding and using the right keywords, attracting clicks when you get impressions, and providing a quality video and excellent user experience to generate positive engagement and metrics once someone does click on your video.

Keep the above SEO for YouTube tips in mind every time you make a new video and watch your rankings and views soar.