Optimizing Your Video for YouTube

What are the top tactics for optimizing your video for YouTube? In just a few steps from Render Perfect Productions, you will have a video that will perform better on the platform and help to expose your brand or business to an even bigger audience.

Uploading

YouTube makes uploading videos incredibly simple. To get started, simply navigate to the Video Manager, available from your channel’s page. Here’s a quick rundown of how to upload your first video:

• Set up your channel: You might have a channel already, but if you don’t, you’ll want to create a YouTube account and then create a channel for your brand. This is the first step in uploading a video; you can’t upload a video if you don’t first create a channel.
• Customise your channel: YouTube lets you choose the name of your channel and upload profile images, just like you would on Facebook. We highly recommend this, as it creates a branded, polished experience. Your profile is also a great place to write content that contains your keywords to boost your SEO.
• Upload your video: This is easy. Simply navigate to your channel and click on the video icon in the top right corner, then click “Upload video”. From there, you’ll be asked to upload or drag and drop your chosen video file from your computer. As long as you have a reliable internet connection, this process should take less than a few minutes.

Optimize

Remember back in the planning section when we discussed keyword research? This is where it comes into play. While your video is uploading, you can input critical video data, like your title, description, and tags, to optimize your video and improve your SEO. Here are a few tips to make the most of your video data:

• Pack a punch with your title: This is the first impression viewers will get of your video in their search results, so your video title needs to be clear and interesting. For example, a video titled “How to change the oil in your car in 15 minutes” is simple and easy to understand; viewers know exactly what they’re going to get. On the flip side, a video called “Oil change” is vague and doesn’t tell viewers exactly what to expect.
• Use keywords in your description: Remember when you did keyword research earlier? That’s going to come in handy now. Be sure to incorporate your keywords wherever you can to improve your search ranking, but specifically in your title and your video description.
• Use tags: YouTube tags are an easy way to improve your video’s searchability. You can use multiple variations of the same idea to ensure maximum impact, like “changing car oil” and “how to change the oil in a car” and “DIY oil change.” You should leverage the keyword research you did earlier to get this process started.

Thumbnails are Critical

While the written portion of your YouTube data is important to optimization, selecting the right visual – a.k.a. the video thumbnail – is also important. Your thumbnail is the only image associated with your video in search results, so it’s got to stand out in the crowd. YouTube will auto-select a thumbnail for you, but it probably isn’t the most compelling image you could use from your video. Instead, select a custom thumbnail that will earn the attention your video deserves. Here are a few of our favorite tips:

• Choose a thumbnail with bright and engaging colors that will stand out on the search results page.
• Select a thumbnail with text on the screen to reinforce your video’s title; sometimes viewers don’t read the video title as they’re scrolling through search results, so putting the title on your thumbnail helps ensure they see your video.
• Format your thumbnail according to YouTube’s standards; the last thing you want is a thumbnail that’s too big, too small, or blurry.

Promote on other Social Channels

Just because your video is live doesn’t mean your work is over. Now you have the task of promoting your video on other channels; while YouTube will do some of that work for you (as long as you’ve done your SEO homework and appear in the search results), you can still do some outbound marketing to extend your reach. Consider these tips as you share your video:

• Share your video on social: You already have audiences on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social platforms. Post your video to your existing followers and ask them to share your content as well.
• Post your video on your website: Your video might fit into your website on a home or product page, or you could consider writing a blog post about your video topic to give it a place to live.
• Send your video via email: Could your video be a marketing tool for your sales team? Do you already have a list of qualified customers? Consider how your video could support your existing email marketing strategy.

Analytics

YouTube has sophisticated built-in analytics that make it easy for you to see how your video is performing. Just like Google Analytics on your website, YouTube Analytics lets you track:

• Total views
• Watch time
• Audience retention
• Traffic source
• Viewer age
• Viewer gender
• Geography
• Impressions
• Click-through rates
• So much more!

You can use this data to inform your content strategy. What videos are people engaging with the most? How can you create more content like those videos to improve your overall video strategy? Is there one video that’s so popular you want to run a paid ad campaign to get even more traction? These metrics can help you make informed decisions about your content plan.

About Render Perfect Productions:

Render Perfect has been built from the ground up to service growing businesses and help them realize their full visual storytelling and digital marketing potential. We’ve created a service offering and skill-set that spans video production, post-production, motion graphic design, 3D animation, web development, and video marketing strategy. Our insight and experience allow us to help clients make better planning decisions and get more out of their video production effort.