The video sharing platform YouTube is currently the second most visited website and search engine in the world. It welcomes more than 46.6 million visitors per month. With an ever-increasing number of subscribers, YouTube has huge potential for businesses. According to some reports, a user spends 70% of their time on YouTube watching algorithm recommendations. To increase the visibility of your company on this platform, you will have to learn how algorithms work and prepare a strategy accordingly. Of course, it is still possible to boost the visibility of a channel by using paid ads and influencers. But it is also important to improve its reach without paying anything. Here’s how!
Describe the YouTube channel
It will be necessary to opt for a brief presentation of the channel. It is best to mention its purpose, purpose and what viewers can expect. This information appears in the » About » section and is part of the channel’s branding.
To do this, it will be necessary to use the appropriate keywords in the first 100 characters, as they will be used as a snippet when a user searches for the string. This will also help the string to appear in search results.
Customizing your channel also yields better results. Having more characters in the description, for example, improves the visibility of your channel. It is recommended to use at least 300 characters for this.
Create engaging headlines with keywords
When searching on Google, the engine always displays results that include YouTube videos. But to rank the video well in search results, one of the best practices is to optimize its title.
To achieve this, the title of the video should not exceed 70 characters, as the others do not appear in the search results. It will also be necessary to ensure that the title is adapted to the keywords. Keywords that naturally appear in video titles play an important role in generating more views. Headlines with keywords can help videos rank higher on YouTube and in Google search results.
However, keywords should not be used randomly. The title of your video should always remain attractive, while making it clear to users what your video is doing.
Write a good video description
It is always helpful to have a proper description for each video on a YouTube channel. This must be informative of course. Internet users often prefer to read video descriptions, especially when it comes to product reviews or tutorials.
The first 100 to 150 characters are crucial. They appear as a snippet in search results. It will then be necessary to highlight the main keyword in this part. Then move on to secondary keywords, if necessary. Hashtags are also welcome. According to Google, hashtags make it easy for people to find your video. To conclude in style, it will be essential to include links to its social networks or other platforms.
Interestingly, YouTube videographers also ask their viewers to like the video and subscribe to their channel.
Add thumbnails to videos
Thumbnails help viewers get a quick idea of what’s in a video. According to the YouTube Creator Academy, thumbnails make videos more appealing to advertisers and they are also an important part of a video’s metadata.
There are three options for selecting a tile once, but it’s still best to create your own. In fact, 90% of the top performing videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails.
The goal is therefore to use impressive images. The title of the video can also be added to the thumbnail to tell more about its content.
At the practical level, the file size of the thumbnail should not exceed 2 MB and it should respect the ratio of 16:9. The formats taken into account are: JPG, PNG, GIF or GMP.
Have a precise publication schedule
If there is a significant discrepancy between video downloads, the channel will be less detectable. This is due to YouTube’s algorithms that place importance on the consistency of publications. It will be useful to comply with a content schedule.
If you are busy, it is possible to schedule the videos on YouTube. To do this, you will first need to download a video and mark it as « private » or « scheduled ». It will then remain to select the date and time at which the content will be published.
Beware! The download time mentioned on YouTube is based on Pacific Standard Time (PST).
Engage viewers
Engagement fosters a better relationship with viewers and encourages them to like, comment and share videos. To achieve this, it will be useful to create authentic, useful and entertaining video content.
To begin with, the comments section should be used fully. Viewers should therefore be encouraged to leave comments. Comments that will need to be reacted to and responded to in order to encourage discussion.
In addition to liking videos, sharing them, and asking to subscribe to the channel, contests can also help with engagement.
There are many other ways to promote YouTube videos, without going through sponsorship. It is possible to highlight the channel and videos on its main social networks, on its blog and on its website. However, keep in mind that the process of attracting viewers to your channel takes time and patience. It is better not to expect exceptional results for your business overnight.
