Grow your YouTube Channel the Right Way

YouTube is the second-most commonly used search engine, after Google. And it is becoming more and more famous everyday.
Whether you are running a big business or you’re an individual, creating your presence on YouTube will definietly help you to become successful. 
That being said, there are a few things you should keep in mind before starting a YouTube channel. And a few tips & tricks to follow to grow your YouTube channel.

Things You Have to Keep in Mind while You are starting a YouTube channel

Before starting a YouTube channel, here are a few things that you must keep in mind:

1. Be clear about why you are starting a YouTube channel and what are your goals.
   Do you want to build a million followers or do you want to redirect people to your website?
   Do you want to sell products or solely focus on educating your audience?
2. Define the purpose of your channel and then make a plan.
3. Build a strong strategy and have a clear vision
   
   

How to optimize your YouTube profile

1. Create a Brand account
   Unlike creating a personal account, creating a brand account will give you access to valuable insights that will be very helpful in growing your channel.
   
2. Build a professional brand identity
   Building a brand identity involves having a solid brand presence on YouTube.
   Have a good logo, banner image, and have a very appealing description.
3. Optimize your description with complete contact information, clear message, and correct links
   Your ‘About’ section is the area where people will go to understand what you business is all about. Hence, make it as resourceful as possible with all the relevant information.
4. Verify your account
   Unlike verifying in other social media channels like Instagram and Facebook where verification is a means to recognize an authentic account and separate them from copycats, verifying in YouTube is more of a prerequisite before creating videos.
   Hence, you should take the verification process as a step to optimizing your profile and it should be one of the first things you do after creating a YouTube channel.The steps to verify your account is simple. Go to youtube.com/verify and fill in your contact details and country name.

What to do before uploading your first YouTube Video

Now that you have created your brand profile and updated all the information, it’s time to think about your first video. However, before you upload your first video, here are a few things that you must do:

1. Do a competitor research
   Competitor research is one of the first things that you should do before uploading your YouTube video.
   Competitor research is all about checking out the top-performing YouTube channels in your niche and evaluating what they are doing. Here are a few things you should check when doing competitor research:
   – What kinds of videos have the most views, likes, or comments?
   – What type of titles & descriptions are they using in their video?
   – How are they bringing in more subscribers?
   – What are the keywords that they are using?
   – How are they conversing with their viewers?
   – How are they responding to feedback and comments?
   – What are the tools that they are using for enhancing their videos?
2. Do a keyword research
   Once you have thoroughly done competitor research, do video keyword research. Use a keyword research tool to research the keywords your competitors use and also the keywords you want to rank for.
   You can also use Google Keyword Planner for the research as Google now supports video search results and you can optimize your video to appear in those search results.
3. Create a Content Strategy
   A content strategy should have a content plan, content schedule, specific goals for each content, and an overall theme upon which you want to create your videos.
   Creating a content strategy before starting to upload videos will help you stay organized and ensure that your content is relevant to your goals and the keywords you want to rank for.
   It also makes it easier to create content based on specific themes and create a playlist around that.
4. Edit, edit, edit
   One of the key things that your video should be able to do on YouTube is to get the viewer’s attention and retain that. So, you must ensure that your video is informative, entertaining, and cut out all unnecessary and boring parts.

Best practices for creating thumbnails, video titles, and description

Once you have created a video, here are some points to keep in mind to get more people to click and watch the videos.

1. Create catchy thumbnails
   Thumbnails are an important aspect of YouTube videos. They are the first thing a viewer notices about your content. Hence, make it catchy and create a hook that will make people watch the video.
2. Use keywords in video titles & make them compelling
   Your title should make people curious or they should find it interesting. So use crisp, short, and catchy titles.
3. Make the most of video descriptions
   Video descriptions will help you share the most information about the video. This is where you can use keywords, hashtags, links, and make people take a specific action.

How to bring traffic to your channel

So you have optimized your profile, edited your videos, and made your thumbnails and title compelling. Yet, as long as there is no traffic in your channel, these actions won’t pay off. And you have to put in the work to get traffic to your channel. No one is sitting out there waiting for your content to be uploaded. People are busy. And you need to get their attention. Your videos need to appear in their recommendation section for them to click on them.

But how do you appear in the recommendation section? And how do you bring traffic to your channel?

Follow these steps:

1. Cross-promote your videos
   Cross-promoting your videos means promoting your videos on other social media channels and getting traffic to your YouTube video through those channels.
   The YouTube algorithm also favors traffic that comes from outside sources. Hence, it is a great way to improve your video’s visibility and get traffic to your YouTube channel.
2. Choose keywords that are Google friendly
   Use those keywords in your videos that make them more likely to appear on Google search results.
3. Build playlists of videos
   Building playlists help you group more videos together and there are more chances of people watching the next video after watching the first one.
4. Create high-quality videos that offer value
   It goes without saying that your video should be well shot with a good camera, edited well, and offers value. The value could be entertainment, information, education, or anything that helps the audience in one way or the other.
5. Post on a consistent schedule
   Always post videos consistently. And maintain a content calendar and schedule.
6. Have attractive thumbnail, headings, and description

What are the metrics you should track

Tracking the metrics is an important aspect of creating content on YouTube. After all, that will help you understand what is working and what isn’t.
Here are the key metrics to track:

1. Watch time
   Watch time is the total amount of minutes watched on your channel. It helps you understand whether people are finding your videos interesting or not and when are they losing interest.
   
2. Engagement: Likes, comments, shares, and saves.
   
3. Rewatches: How many times people rewatch your videos.
   
4. Average Percent Viewed + Average View Duration + Audience Retention: How long on average your videos are able to retain a viewer

How to grow your YouTube channel

Keep your profile & videos optimized, drive traffic from external sources, use good videos, have a compelling title and thumbnail, and post consistently.
Follow the steps mentioned in this article to grow your YouTube channel.

Also Read: Top 5 trending digital marketing skills in 2021

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