Google is a top search engine on the net, and YouTube is the second largest search engine,
which is also owned by Google. You'll want the YouTube channel to be found in both these search
engines when a viewer searches your channel name. For example, if you type drostvideo,
no spaces, in the YouTube search my channel is the number one result. If I type drost video,
two separate words I get the same result. If I type drost video into Google search,
my channel is the number one result out of 574,000 results. In this video,
you'll discover why a YouTube channel is not showing up in search and how to fix it.
[music] Speaker:
Number one, choose a unique channel name. When starting a YouTube channel,
think about a unique channel name that's different to all the other channel names on YouTube.
You can choose a business name or even choose your own name if nobody else is called by that name.
You could also use a combination of your own name and a business name, like I have for my channel,
Drost Video. This makes the channel name unique and clearly shows what the channel content is
all about. You also want to keep your channel name short, so it's easy to remember and easy to spell
when a viewer types it into the search engines. Avoid adding special characters, numbers,
letters and symbols to your channel name because it'll only make it harder to remember. If your
channel name is already taken, avoid using the same channel name, even though YouTube allows you
to use the same name as other channels. You can make your channel name unique by adding something
at the beginning, middle or end of your channel name. As I mentioned before, if your own name
is unique and not used by anyone else, use that name because it helps with your personal branding.
A few months ago, I changed my channel name from Drost Designs to Drost video to more clearly
reflect the content on my channel. Here's how to change your channel name. Log in to YouTube
channel, click on customize channel, click on basic info, hover over the pencil icon that says,
"Edit channel name," change your channel name here and click publish. Another reason I changed
my channel name is that I wanted to synchronize it across all my social media sites and website.
For example, my website name is drostvideo.com and my Instagram account is instagram.com/drostvideo.
Later on I'll show you how to customize your YouTube channel by adding live social media
links to YouTube channel banner, so stay tuned. Using the same name for YouTube channel as well
as all your social media sites makes it easy for viewers to remember and find you on the net.
Number two, set up a custom URL for your channel. A custom URL is an easy to remember channel URL
that you can share with your audience. They're based on your channel name. The URL for my
channel is youtube.com/drostvideo or youtube.com/c/drostvideo.
Keep in mind, you can remove or set up a new URL for your channel up to three times per year. You
also have to have 100 or more subscribers. Your channel has to be at least 30 days old. Have an
uploaded picture profile and an uploaded banner image. Here's how you set up your custom URL.
Click on the customization link in YouTube Studio. Click on basic info,
set the custom URL for your channel, then click publish. Then click confirm. If you already have
a custom URL and you want to change it, just click delete and choose another custom URL.
Now you can share that custom channel URL anywhere on the net. Number three, add a
channel description. Your channel description should summarize the content of your channel,
so if anybody goes to your about page, they can immediately see what your channel is all about. An
important thing to know about the [unintelligible 00:03:28] page on YouTube is that the first 48
characters show up in the YouTube search results. Therefore, make sure you fill out the section so
viewers can understand who you are and YouTube can serve the best snippet for your content.
Include keywords that describe what your channel content is all about as well as your channel
name. Here's how to add or change your channel description. Click on the customization link
in YouTube Studio. Then click basic info, add your description, then click publish.
Number four, translate your channel name and description. Translating your channel name and
description into another language besides English allows viewers from other countries to find your
channel. Not sure what keywords to include in your description? No worries, use the keyword
research tool TubeBuddy to find low competition keywords that have a high search volume.
For example, if you enter your main keyword in the keyword explorer of TubeBuddy, you'll get a
bunch of suggestions. If you click explore, it'll show you the keyword score, the search volume,
the competition, number of videos in search results and the number of monthly searches.
If I add the word, "Why," in front of the main keyword phrase,
then I get a different bunch of keyword phrases. If I click on this first one, "Why YouTube
channel's not showing?" Then I get an excellent keyword score and it also shows a number of videos
in search results. I can also use any of these related searches to add to my channel description.
I'll place the link to TubeBuddy in the description below this video. If you want
to see which countries generate the most traffic to YouTube channel, click on analytics in YouTube
Studio. Click on the audience tab. Scroll down and look on the top geographies. For example,
if one of the top countries is France, then you want to translate your channel name and
description into French. Here's how to translate your channel name and description into French.
Click on customization in YouTube Studio, then click on basic info. On the translation for
channel name and description, click add language. On the translation language, select French.
If you want to translate your channel description from English into French, use Google Translate.
Enter the English words you want to translate into French and it will automatically translate your
words into French. It's not going to be a perfect translation, but the people from that country will
understand what your channel's all about. After you've completed the translation, just click done.
As you can see, I've already translated my channel name and description into Arabic. Number five,
customize YouTube channel layout and branding. After viewers have discovered your YouTube channel
in the search engines, you want to motivate them to subscribe and become a fan of your content.
More subscribers means more viewers are watching your videos. Add a channel trailer.
Your channel trailer should summarize the content on your channel and motivate viewers to subscribe
to your channel. Alternatively, choose a popular video from your video content that has been proven
to get a ton of traffic. Here's how to add or change your channel trailer. Click on the layout
tab under channel customization. Then under video spotlight you can change or remove the channel
trailer. Add a featured video for returning subscribers. This is a video that only your
subscribers will see when they visit your channel. Non-subscribers will only see your channel
trailer, but not the featured video. To change or remove the featured video for
returning subscribers, hover over the options icon, then click change or remove video.
Add featured sections containing playlist to your channel homepage. When viewers visit your
channel homepage, you want them to take a deeper dive into your content so they'll subscribe to
your channel. To customize the layout of your channel homepage, go to featured sections in
the layout tab in customization. Click on add section, then select a single playlist.
You can add up to 12 sections on your YouTube channel homepage. Channel branding. Here you
can add a profile picture of yourself that'll appear next to your videos and your comments.
It will also be displayed in the YouTube search results when somebody finds your channel. Here's
how to change or remove your profile picture. Click on branding under channel customization,
then click change or remove profile picture. You can also add,
change or remove the banner image that appears at the top of your channel homepage. Add a subscribe
watermark across all the videos on your channel. The watermark will appear at the bottom right
hand side of all the videos across your channel. Under video watermark, you can choose when your
watermark will be displayed on your videos. It can be on your entire video, at the end of the video,
or you can even choose a custom start time. Share your channel and videos on social media sites.
If you want to expose your content outside YouTube so you can grow your channel faster,
share your channel and videos on social media sites. These sites will appear as
clickable links on your channel banner. Here's how to add links to sites you
want to share with your viewers. Click on the basic info tab on the channel customization.
Under links, you can add up to five links that'll appear on your channel banner.
To add a link, click add link, add a title. I'm going to add subscribe, then add your
URL, then click publish. Now that you know how to make a YouTube channel more searchable,
how do you make YouTube videos more searchable so they appear at the top of the search results?
Watch the video on the screen right now on how to fix YouTube search results that are not showing.
You'll discover seven reasons why YouTube search results are not showing up