Youtube Channel Checklist

How to pimp up your YouTube channel

• Brand your channel

  Update your profile picture, channel banner, and video watermark, to give your channel a distinct identity. It will help customers to remember your channel and understand its purpose.

  • Profile picture sizes: at least 98 x 98 pixels, up to 4MB. Use PNG or GIF file (no animation).
  • Channel banner sizes: at least 2048 x 1152 pixels, up to 6MB.
  • Watermark sizes: Your watermark should be transparent, square, and larger than 50×50 pixels. This is the size it will be shrunk down to when it appears in the corner of your videos.

  

• About page

  Write a brief description of your channel on the About page. You want to explain to people (very quickly) the BENEFITS of joining your channel: Why should they subscribe to your channel? How will you provide value to their lives? etc.

   

  

• Include a channel trailer

  This is the video that will automatically play when someone visits your channel. You don’t need to do anything expensive or grandiose. Keep it as simple as possible.

   

  

   

• Create playlists and recommended videos

  Viewers enjoy playlists and recommended videos, and they give your content a logical arrangement. If you have a web series on various topics, this functionality is really useful. It’s well-organized, and it drives your viewers to the next step, much like the CTA benefit.

  If you don’t set these up, YouTube isn’t likely to recommend any of your other videos to the user. So, if you have a playlist set up, a follow-up video will automatically play, improving the odds of increased YouTube engagement.

   

  

• Design thumbnails that get clicks

  Your thumbnail should be eye-catching and indicate your video’s theme. Though YouTube allows you to choose a video screen from your video, we suggest providing a thumbnail that repeats your video title. Creating a graphic line for each playlist or an overarching aesthetic for your YouTube channel is a great way to differentiate yourself from the competition. Your video thumbnails are similar to the covers of your books. Someone may be drawn in by the title design before realizing that the title is interesting.

  Here are the YouTube dimensions to keep in mind when creating your thumbnail:

  • 1280 x 720 pixels is the ideal YouTube thumbnail size.
  • The aspect ratio for these YouTube thumbnails is 16:9.
  • Make sure that your thumbnail is at least 640 pixels wide.
  • Thumbnail images should be less than 2MB in size.

• Video titles and tags

  Since YouTube can detect what you say in your videos, it’s important to include your keywords within the content. Also mention your keywords in your title, description, and tags. To index content for users, the platform mainly relies on video titles and tags. Meta titles on standard web pages work similarly to video titles.

• Use YouTube live streaming

  The ability to live stream is another excellent feature that has only recently been added. While not all of your content should be streamed live, having a few live streams every month allows you to interact with viewers one-on-one, whether or not they are already subscribers. More people are searching for live streams in categories they’re interested in and tuning in to see what’s going on.

   

  

• Create end screens

  The last 5–20 seconds of a video can be used for end screens. Use them to promote other videos, encourage users to subscribe to your channel, etc. To have an end screen, your video must be at least 25 seconds long.

  For videos with a standard 16:9 aspect ratio, you can add up to four elements to the end screen. To get additional information, you can expand or hover over some elements. In addition, different types of content can be included in these elements:

  • Video or playlist – Feature your most recent uploaded video, for example.
  • Subscribe – Encourage users to subscribe to your channel.
  • Channel – Use a custom message to promote another channel.
  • External websites – You can link to an external website if you’re in the YouTube Partner Program.

  

• Social media links/ website links

  If your YouTube channel is for your website or services, make sure the top page of your channel includes a link to your website. You can link your social media channels, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and others, if you don’t have a website. This makes it easier for your followers to find you on other platforms.

   

  For more digital marketing checklists, you can go to our resources page.