YouTube Channel Management: A Guide to Setting Up and Optimizing Your YouTube Channel

With over 2 billion active users, YouTube is one of the most powerful search engines today. In fact, it’s only second to Google now. If you are eager to get your content out on YouTube and get more eyes to see it, this post will help you get started today.

Whether you want to promote your brand on YouTube or earn through YouTube monetization as a YouTube content creator, knowing where to start is the first step. Continue reading to learn how you can create your YouTube channel today and get noticed with helpful content optimized for enhanced visibility.

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How to Create a YouTube Channel

To create a YouTube channel, you need a Google account. Once you have created a Google account, proceed ahead by taking the following steps:

• Go to the YouTube home page.
• Make sure you are signed in with the Google account that you want to use to create your YouTube channel.
• At the top right corner, you will see an icon of the first letter of your name—click it and you will see several options.
• Click on the “Create a Channel” button.
• You will be asked to set up a channel name, upload a photo, and enter other relevant information to get started.
• Once you have created the channel, you can upload videos and create a playlist.
• Make sure you have filled in the About Us section to tell the viewers what the channel is about.

How to Optimize YouTube Channel?

Now that you have learned to create a YouTube channel—-we are sure you found it quite simple and straightforward—it’s time to walk you through Youtube optimization tips.

Please note that YouTube optimization is a continuous process, you will never get subscribers and views overnight. You won’t be changing the channel description and profile picture often, but the content is something you will be experimenting with on a regular basis.

Here are some key pointers to note regarding YouTube channel optimization:

Select a Niche and Stick to It

Before you create a YouTube channel, it’s important to select your niche: what your YouTube channel is going to be about? You can’t cover two or multiple niches in a single niche.

Some of the most popular YouTube niches include:

• Gaming
• Funny videos
• Music
• Education
• DIY hacks
• Personal finance
• Lifestyle
• Fitness
• Technology and gadgets

This is particularly true for individual content creators as they are promoting themselves as the best and most credible in the subject. For example, someone who claims to be an auto expert should stick to making videos on cars. If the same individual starts teaching an academic channel or creating funny videos on the same channel; the channel will lose its credibility.

Narrowing your channel’s niche will help you select and target the right keywords while crafting the YouTube SEO strategy for your channel. Also, you will be able to maintain consistency in your brand voice, content, and promotions, and create content that speaks to the needs of your viewers.

Choose an Interesting Channel Name

Your channel name has a direct impact on your reach, people feel compelled to click on channels with interesting names. At the same time, make sure the name isn’t ambiguous and viewers can guess what the channel is about based on the channel’s name.

Take your time and analyze all the options you have devised after your research because you can only change your YouTube channel name thrice in three months. Frequent changes in the channel name won’t have a positive impact on your existing audience.

If you are creating a YouTube channel for the branding of your business, choose a professional name. Avoid fancy words and terms that your audience is less likely to be aware of; consider YouTube SEO as well, having a primary keyword in your YouTube channel name will boost your chances of getting noticed on YouTube.

Leverage Customization Options to Stand Out

As mentioned earlier, YouTube gives you plenty of customization options to create an interesting outlook for your channel. You can set up a layout of your choice from the available options and put up a profile picture and banner according to your brand guidelines

Here’s a brief description of each customization option available:

Picture: Also called the featured image, this picture shows up on your YouTube channel at the upper left-hand corner.

Banner Image: This picture is the banner that comes at the top of the channel. It has to be clear, attractive, and relevant to your channel.

Handle: One of the recent updates by YouTube introduced this feature; now you can create custom handles((i.e., a custom URL tail) for your channel. For e.g. Digital-Marketing-Tutorial

Details: In case you have a physical business, this section will contain your office’s location, email address, and contact number, etc.

Description: This section covers all the details about your channel, why you create it and what it’s about. Treat this description as a sales pitch, open with a strong hook and fit in a few keywords here and there if possible.

Link: In case you have a website, blog, or social media account, you can drop a link to any of those here.

Find Out Untapped Content Opportunities

Though this may sound obvious, it’s one of the prerequisites for getting initial traction on YouTube. How will your channel stand out from the rest  when thousands of other content creators have created videos on the same subject?

While doing keyword research for YouTube, you will come across ample content creation opportunities-still untapped yet searched by people on YouTube.

A little bit of creativity in actionable, useful content created to target low-competition keywords is sure to give your viewership a boost.

Diligently Plan Your YouTube Content

Two things that separate the best content creators on YouTube from mediocre ones are the quality of the script and the lens/camera. Every YouTube video has a script. If the script is engaging and useful for the target audience, the video is sure to get noticed on YouTube.

Sometimes the script of the video is so powerful that it even makes up for the lack of lens quality. Hence, sleep on your script idea—-figure out ways to spice up the script and add more value to it.

You can also try out different hooks and content angles and later analyze the views and reach on it. Over time you will find out what kind of script is being liked the most by your target audience.

Invest in High-Quality Video Editing

You may have a great script for a video, and you may already have created a video based on that script. But there’s always something to be edited or removed from a raw video, which is why you need to either edit your YouTube videos yourself or hire a video editor.

In case you have hired a social media marketing agency to manage your YouTube account and optimize your YouTube channel, the editing part will be taken care of by them.

If you aim to be an influencer or an individual content creator on YouTube, learn ways to present yourself on camera in a professional manner. To further enhance your videos and ensure they match your vision, exploring free video editing programs can be an invaluable step, allowing you to edit your YouTube videos with a professional touch, even on a budget.

Add Your Primary Keywords to the Video Description and Title

The purpose of the video description is to tell the viewer and YouTube’s search engine what the video is about. Therefore, feel free to sprinkle your primary keywords here and there in the title and the description.

Besides writing a quick and punchy hook for the first sentence of the introduction, also add your target keyword to it.

To further optimize your video description, also include:

• Resources mentioned in the video
• Related blog posts or articles
• Timestamps
• Links to courses or paid offers
• Links to your social media profiles
• A link to your website or blog
• Affiliate links

Add Keyword Tags

YouTube tags are similar to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn tags. For each video you publish, you can add a few relevant tags to it. The best practice regarding the use of these tags is to add your primary and secondary keywords to them wherever possible, and for the rest use relevant words that may tell the algorithm what the video is about.

You can also find relevant tags to use with your videos by spying on your competitors.

Say you are creating a video on YouTube SEO tips, your tags would be something like:

• SEO
• SEO tips
• SEO marketing
• SEO marketing tools
• SEO tutorial
• Tools for SEO

These tags are added to the Tags section as you upload your video to YouTube (you can also add these to your video title, description, captions, etc.)

Add Subtitles and Captions to Engage with Diverse Audiences

Don’t underestimate the reach of your channel, even if it’s new. Who knows, someone with hearing problems might be interested in your content. But how are they going to understand the content if they can’t hear?

Fortunately, now YouTube allows you to add subtitles and captions to your YouTube videos and enhance the online experience for people who can’t hear and depend on the text to understand the content.

Creating subtitles and uploading them manually can take a lot of time. To overcome this challenge, you can use several free and premium tools to automatically create subtitles for your videos based on the voice.

Organize Your Playlist

Be it YouTube or Google, when you are optimizing content for any of the two, you have to keep the user’s convenience in mind. Aim to organize your content in a way that people can access any of your videos on the go.

This is particularly true for content creators who teach on YouTube or create travel or food-related Vlogs. Well-organized playlists will direct the viewer straight to the relevant video, taking the user experience to a whole new level!

Make Your Thumbnails Interesting

A well-designed thumbnail can help you attract the right audience, giving your channel’s viewership a much-desired boost. While the thumbnail has no direct impact on YouTube SEO, it does directly affect the number of impressions and clicks on your videos-which may signal to YouTube’s algorithm that your content is being liked by the people.

Here are some tips for creating high-quality YouTube thumbnails:

• Make sure it accurately represents your video title
• Include a shortened version of your video title
• Use contrasting colors to capture attention
• Add your brand logo

Final Word

You can find dozen of YouTube SEO optimization tips online. The more you explore YouTube and study the best content creators, the more insight you will gain. But what sets top content creators apart from the average ones is consistency.

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Implement the above-mentioned tips while staying consistent with your content production and maintaining quality. Remember, it takes time to see results.

In case you are looking for a YouTube SEO company to manage your YouTube account, get in touch with us. We can take care of the YouTube optimization part while you devote more time and focus to creating high-quality videos.

FAQs

What is channel management in terms of YouTube?

The answer to what is channel management when it comes to YouTube is quite simple, as it includes a range of operational activities such as setting up a video production workflow, setting up a video editing workflow, video optimization, and creation, optimization and experimenting with titles, thumbnails, tags and descriptions.

What are the responsibilities of a YouTube channel manager?

A YouTube channel manager is responsible for the management of day-to-day tasks for successfully running a YouTube channel; these include but are not limited to the creation of a content calendar, publishing, and tracking the performance of YouTube videos to maximize the number of views and subscribers.

How much does it cost to make a YouTube channel?

YouTube is free for both content creators and viewers. You can create a YouTube channel today with your Google account.

Can I have more than one YouTube channel?

Yes, you can have multiple YouTube channels from the same Google account. You can create the second YouTube channel today by logging into the existing one.

Can you see who views your YouTube channel?

While the identity of each visitor remains hidden, in the YouTube Analytics section you can have an overview of the demographics of the audience watching your YouTube videos. It also shows your returning & new viewers, unique viewers, subscribers, and total members.

Can YouTubers see who disliked their videos?

No, you can not find out who liked or disliked your videos.