Once you’ve gained a loyal audience, your next goal is to
make your YouTube channel as profitable as possible. By implementing
easy-to-use optimization tools, you can increase traffic to your channel. These
tools include using annotations, metadata and feed posts. Make sure your videos are one of the 4
billion being streamed each day; let’s optimize your channel!
Annotations
Annotations are a great way to link related videos to each
other. They help your videos drive
channel subscriptions and they also help your channel increase video views. Note
and spotlight annotations are two different ways to annotate videos in relation
to other videos you have created.
Note Annotations
Annotations are a YouTube feature that
allows you to layer text, hotspots and links over your video. If you use an
annotation, you will increase user engagement and lengthen the watch time of
your video.
You should include note annotations on each
of your videos. In my experience,
using a minimum of two note annotations is most effective. First, use the annotation tool to
create a call-to-subscribe note annotation in the first five seconds of your
video. Second, include a clickable
call-to-subscribe note annotation in the final eight to ten seconds of the
video.
Spotlight End-Card
Annotations
Interactive end-cards with spotlight annotations have the
highest click-through rate of any annotation. These drive more views to other
videos on your channel. When designing end-cards, be sure to have in-picture
video footage of archived content annotated. These will allow the viewer to click directly on the end
card to start watching your selected video!
MetaData Optimization
Titles
Two-thirds of all video views are generated through viewers
clicking on “suggestions” of “recommended” listings. Because of this, it is incredibly important to make sure all
of your titles represent your videos accurately. Make sure to title your videos with clear and succinct words
in the first 80 characters. The suggested
recommended listings display in two lines of 40 characters each.
Tagging
Similar to how videos are suggested to viewers based upon
titles, tagging your videos can also bring your channel new audiences. First, make sure your tags are as
relevant to the video as possible.
If you tag your video with unrelated subjects in order to bring traffic
to your video, viewers will not watch the video when they find out it is
unrelated. YouTube advises tagging
your video with up to 27 relevant YouTube tags within 24 hours of releasing
your video. Tags are the most
powerful within the first 24 hours of your video release. Furthermore, after 27 tags YouTube
decreases the strength of your tags in order to make sure users are not trying
to take advantage of the system by over tagging.
Feed Posts
Reintroduce archived
video content
Feed posts are the perfect way to reintroduce archived video
content to subscribers in an effort to motivate both views and subscriber
activity for the channel. Feed posts appear on the homepage and on the
subscription feeds of every channel subscriber. Using a feed post is similar to
writing a status on your Facebook newsfeed but also allows for a subscription
URL to be implemented and can link to the video.
There are several ways to use videos as a way to promote
your channel and your videos.
First, you can promote new videos with posts containing videos that are
related. Second, reintroduce
archived videos to coincide with holidays, seasons and events! For example, on
national cookie day, you could reintroduce a chocolate chip recipe you made a
video on several months ago. This
could help drive new traffic to a video that may no longer be getting many
views.
While it is not necessary to optimize your videos, doing so
will undoubtedly drive traffic and new subscribers to your channel. Even
implementing just one or two of these tactics can help grow your channel and
audience! Try out one of these simple optimization strategies on your next
video and see the improvement.
Thanks for reading!
Christen
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