In this video,
we’ll take a look at how to optimize
your video metadata on YouTube,
to make your video more discoverable
and show up more in search results.
Hey guys, hows it going.
This is Serge, and welcome back to my channel.
Last week we took a look at how to upload
your video to YouTube directly from Final Cut Pro,
and today,
we’ll learn how to optimize your video metadata
to make it more visible.
I’ll go through all the steps I take
to make my videos as discoverable as possible.
If you want to skip ahead to specific steps,
I’ll leave time codes in the video description.
First thing you need to do is go to youtube.com,
and sign into your YouTube account.
Next, click your channel icon in the top right corner,
and select Creator Studio.
On the left hand side select Video Manager,
find the video you want to optimize,
and click the Edit button beside it.
Your title and the video thumbnail
are a couple of the most important parts,
because thats what gets people to click on your video,
so we’ll focus on them first.
The title should include the keywords
people search for related to your video,
but make sure to optimize it for people.
The video I’m optimizing is a Tiny Planet Tutorial,
so Tiny Planet is the keyword I’m targeting,
but I need to make my title a little more descriptive.
I’ll name mine
How to Make a Tiny Planet Video - Final Cut Pro Tutorial.
Make sure your title describes your video
but doesn’t deceive people.
If someone searches How to Make a Tiny Planet
and clicks on my video,
they expect to learn how to Make a Tiny Planet Video.
If my video doesn’t deliver,
people will go to the next one right away.
This sends YouTube a message that my video
is not delivering what was promised,
and it’ll stop showing up in search results.
The thumbnail is the first thing people see
after they search for a video.
By default, YouTube grabs a couple frames
from the video and shows them as thumbnails.
Majority of the time, this looks bad,
so people will just scroll by your video.
To make your video more attractive to viewers,
you should make a visually attractive
custom thumbnail for your video.
To set your custom thumbnail,
click the Custom Thumbnail button
on the right side of your video,
and select the one you made.
Same as your title,
do not try to deceive people with your thumbnail.
This sends the wrong message to YouTube,
and your video will suffer.
Next up is the video description.
You have 5000 characters limit for the description,
and you should use that to your advantage.
Enter a short, or long description
of what your video is about.
Make sure to include your target keywords,
but still, optimize it for people, not just the search algorithm.
You can make your description box bigger,
by clicking and dragging the bottom corner.
The video description is also a good place
to add any social media links,
links to stuff you talked about in the video,
or any other links your viewers will find helpful.
I have a template for all my links
I add to the video descriptions
I just copy and paste into my videos.
The box under your video description
is where you add any relevant tags to your video.
Add keywords or key phrases here
people might type in when searching for a video like yours.
YouTube doesn’t place much weights on the tags,
but you should still add as many as possible,
up to the 500 character limit.
Over on the right hand side,
select your video visibility,
and whether you want your video to go public right away,
unlisted, private or scheduled.
The last option lets you pick a date and time
your video gets published.
If you select scheduled,
two more boxes appear underneath
where you can set the date and time
you want your video to be published.
If you’re part of YouTube’s Partner Program,
you can monetize your video
by selecting the Monetization Tab,
and turning on monetize with ads.
Youtube will play ads before, during, or after your video,
and you will receive a percentage
of the profits YouTube makes.
After you entered all your info,
click the Publish button in the top right corner.
Next up is video end screens.
YouTube lets you place interactive elements
during the last 20 seconds of your video,
to keep the viewer watching your content.
Just make sure you don’t place this
over any important content in your video.
Turn on the preview toggle,
and play through the last part of your video.
When you’re ready to add your end screen elements,
pause the video,
and turn off the preview toggle.
Click the Add Element button.
Here you can promote another one of your videos or playlists,
add a subscribe button,
promote another channel,
or add a link to an approved website.
For my example,
I’ll first add a link to another one of my videos.
I’ll select my video,
and click the Create Element button.
An interactive element card will show up on my video,
and I can adjust it the placement of it
by dragging it in the viewer.
I’ll add another link to a playlist,
and a subscribe button.
Another way to add interactive links to your video
is by adding Cards.
These are the little popups you see in your video,
and is a great way to link other videos related
to whats going on in your current video.
To add a card, play your video,
and pause it in a spot where a link to another video
would be useful.
In my video, i reference one of my previous videos,
so this will be a great place to add a card.
Click the Add Card button,
and select the type of card you want to add.
You can now add a Custom Message,
or modify the teaser text shown with your card.
Just like everything else, make this relevant to your video.
Click the Create Card button.
To preview this, scrub back in your timeline,
and press play.
Your card will pop up in the top right corner
of your screen with the teaser test your viewers can click on.
I’ll go through my video and add a few more cards.
All these tools are designed to help keep your audience
watching your videos,
which sends a good message to YouTube,
and make it more likely to recommend your videos to more people.
Adding closed captions to your videos,
will also help you reach a wider audience
and help with your video’s discoverability.
When you upload a video,
YouTube automatically transcribes it,
but in my experience this can be very inaccurate.
To add your own captions,
click the Add Subtitles or Closed Captions button,
and select Upload a File.
Navigate to your captions file,
and click upload.
After your file is uploaded,
click the set timings button,
and this will sync your captions to the audio in your video.
This may take a couple minutes,
but after your timings are set,
make sure to go back and unpublish
and delete the auto generated captions.
The last thing you can do
to make your videos more discoverable
is add hashtags to your video description.
YouTube lets you add up to 3 hashtags
to your video descriptions,
and I normally place them at the very bottom.
These hashtags will show up as clickable links above your title.
When someone clicks on one of these,
they will get a playlist with other videos using the same hashtag.
This is a new feature, so I’m not sure
on how effective it is,
but it can’t hurt anything, right?
Adding all this metadata to your video is not necessary,
but it will help make your videos more discoverable,
and will help you get more views and hopefully subscribers.
What are some tips and tricks
you use to help get your videos seen on YouTube?
Let me know in the comments below.
And if you found this helpful,
let me know by hitting the like button.
Thanks for watching,
and I’ll see you next week.