YouTube is over 10 years old, but a lot of companies I work with don't give their channel the same love and attention that they give to their Facebook page. And I can understand why, when subscriber counts and engagement are typically higher on Facebook.

However, customers are looking at your YouTube channel when they want in-depth info on your service or product. Think of it as long term storage of knowledge and information. One of my client's most-watched videos was released 9 years ago and still receives 15,000 views per year!

I updated that same client's YouTube channel two years ago and the changes have had a big impact, leading to increased views and almost tripling their subscriber count. What I learned from this experiment is that there are a number of steps that can be taken to increase the chances your videos will be found and displayed in relevant searches.

YouTube can't read your video to see if it is relevant to a search request, so they have given us a number of tools to help place your video in front of viewers. This is the typical order of operations I use to get a video listed on YouTube:

1. TITLE

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Youtube creates a default title from the file name of the video that you're uploading. This title can be changed from the admin page, however I still see titles like the above example all the time. The simplest way to avoid this problem is to rename the video file with keywords before uploading.

I use a formula for titles that goes like this: [brand] + [product name] + [Feature or benefit] + [Segment]. For example if I pick a random object on my desk right now, "Samsung GalaxyS10 Smart Phone: The Best Smart Phone In 2019" is a relevant video title and trigger for iPhone users that should get results.

2. DESCRIPTION

YouTube allows descriptions of up to 1000 characters, but typically will only display the first 100 characters in the search results. Writing descriptions with keywords helps YouTube understand the content of the video.

YouTube's Creator Academy has an indepth course on how to write descriptions here. It claims that "well written descriptions with the right keywords can boost views and watch-time..." .

My tip would be to write a synopsis of your video in one or two sentences, putting the most important keywords at the beginning of the description. Essentially it should expand on the topic of your video title. For example:

"The Samsung Galaxy S10 Smart Phone is packed with the latest tech like a high resolution HDR+ screen, triple rear cameras and in-screen fingerprint sensor. It's the best value smart phone you cans buy in 2019."

3. TAGS

YouTube tags operate much like hashtags in other platforms. Tags should be used to provide information about your video's topic, category and content. Something I learned recently is that the order of these tags is very important. According to Backlinko.com, the first tag should be your target keyword, with broader tags used to provide context. For example:

4. THUMBNAILS

Creating custom thumbnails for your channel is underrated. YouTube picks a random frame for you by default, and will also let you choose from three other randomly generated frames. You also have the option of uploading a custom thumbnail. Successful You-tubers use thumbnails like a signature that lets you identify their content from everyone else.

VICE does this consistently well, just by placing their logo in the lower left corner of every thumbnail. I used this technique for a product launch, creating custom thumbnails using the company logo and high quality photography assets. When people searched "Caroma Cleanflush", it was easy to identify which content was produced by Caroma and which was being generated by other users.

5. TRANSCRIPTIONS

Beside improving accessibility to your content, search engines can't crawl video so transcripts give YouTube valuable search information. YouTube automatically generates captions, however they are usually inaccurate and are not searchable.

You can edit the auto-generated captions and publish them so they can be searched. If your video was scripted, then you can upload the script and YouTube will automatically adjust the timings. As a bonus YouTube will let you save published captions as STL files which are needed to add captions on Facebook.

6. END SCREEN

End screens are a powerful tool that can be used in the last 5-20 seconds of your video to direct viewers to other content on your channel. I add an additional 5 seconds of blank video to the end with no logos or other elements on it, because the end screen content will cover up anything behind it.

This end screen can be customised with up to four elements, however I would recommend only using two to reduce clutter. Four different types of elements can be placed on an end screen - a video, a playlist, a subscribe button, and a link to a channel or website.

I like using two video elements on an endscreen. One of these videos I choose based on similar similar content and the other is set to "Best For Viewer", which is a video chosen from your channel by YouTube. Envato's Videohive stock footage library has a number of pre-built end screen templates for After Effects and Premiere Pro that can be customised with your logo, website and online details here.

7. PLAYLISTS

Playlists are great for companies that host more than one brand on their YouTube channel or want to group their content by topic, segment, or product category.

Curated playlists make it easier for viewers to find relevant videos. Also, videos start playing automatically which Backlinko.com found increased watch time. Combined with end cards, playlists can hook viewers into watching more of your content.

The 7 YouTube SEO Opportunities Your Channel Is Still Missing.