You could have the next viral hit on your hands, but if no one can find it it’s not going to achieve the reach it deserves.
But not many people know that optimising videos can be just as important. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, despite the fact that it only searches its own content. It’s used by more than 1 billion people every month, and a huge number of them search for videos using generic search terms.
Optimising your content, so that users will find it when they type in the relevant keywords, is relatively simple. And once people find your channel, there’s lot you can do to make sure it works as hard as it possibly can. We’ll also divide your audience into personas and analyse the performance of your competitors and peers – all helping to create an effective YouTube channel that really resonates with your customers.
So how do you make sure potential customers find your YouTube channel?
Google’s video index doesn’t take view numbers into account. But YouTube knows how many people have watched, rated and shared each video, and takes all this information into account when returning results. In fact, many factors have an impact on rankings including metadata, engagement, recency, views and incoming links.
Your optimisation efforts shouldn’t stop when people find your YouTube channel. With a little extra work you can turn an average YouTube channel into a perfect marketing machine, whether you want to raise awareness, generate leads, or delight your fans. We help you think about making it:
- Structured
Navigation is key here – you want finding your video content to be as easy as possible for your viewers. We recommend segmenting your videos into playlists, which should all be displayed on your channel homepage. - Appealing
YouTube is a visual channel, so everything about your business or brand needs to be visually appealing. We add a channel icon (probably your logo), add artwork that’s consistent with your brand and make sure all video thumbnails are good quality. - Consistent
Your channel should express a coherent and consistent message about your business. We create video titles and descriptions that sound on brand, as well as being clear, concise and accurate. - Engaging
At the end of the day, your YouTube channel is only as good as your video content and engagement with the community. So that means keeping content fresh by adding new videos regularly, and making sure you reply to any comments or questions. And yet again, it means including high-quality content that’s relevant to your audience. We like to take it a step further, by dividing your audience into persona types. - Compelling
Ideally, you don’t just want people to watch your videos. You want them to follow up on what they’ve seen by actually doing something. We think about calls to action and links within your videos to point viewers towards all the good stuff on your website. And include links to your website, plus all your other social media pages, on your channel homepage.
Ready to help your audience find your content and make the most of your YouTube channel?