Optimize Your YouTube Channel
YouTube is a great platform to showcase video for your business. Not only is this a brilliant marketing tool, but it’s also a great way to build your brand and direct more traffic to your site. Many businesses don’t take advantage of the opportunity, so it’s time to get a leg up on the competition and create your presence on YouTube.
Before you can even create videos, let alone a YouTube channel, you need to have a strategy. Basically what it comes down to is having solid video content produced regularly that align with your business goals. Once you have your strategy firmly in place, you can create a new channel or optimize your existing one. There are a couple of factors to consider when optimizing your YouTube channel for ultimate performance.
YouTube Channel Branding
This is pretty straightforward: your channel should be well branded. This means that your channel name, banner, icon, and vanity URL should all reflect your brand. That seems pretty obvious. And make sure your icon and banner image are high quality in order to avoid a distorted image.
A vanity URL is a good goal to work toward. Without one, your channel will get an unoptimized URL that is not very user friendly. However, this doesn’t happen overnight. YouTube requires a few rules to be followed before a vanity URL can be claimed.
The qualifications are as follows:
- 500 or more subscribers
- Channel is at least 30 days old
- Channel has uploaded a photo for the channel icon
- Channel has uploaded channel art
YouTube Channel Keywords
Just as strategic keyword placement is important in website content, so too is it important for your videos. By selecting keywords that are appropriate to your business and have some search volume, you can help your channel rank higher in YouTube search.
Associated Website
In your channel settings, you have the option to link your website. Do it! This will help you affirm your brand authority in the search results.
YouTube Channel Descriptions
Another rich opportunity to improve your rankings comes in the form of your channel description. The more content you have the better, but make sure your content is branded and keyword-targeted. And don’t forget about the links! Fill in the link field with your website and any social profiles you have in order to make it easy for people to find you.
YouTube Channel Homepage
Just as with your website, your YouTube homepage is your calling card. This is where you can highlight specific information about your business. There is a “featured video” feature that you should definitely take advantage of. This will allow you to showcase a specific video that will automatically play when a user comes to your page. This is a great way to introduce someone to your business who is unfamiliar and it creates engagement among your users. And don’t be afraid to create playlists that will highlight other video content you have created. Let people get a good hard look at your business and what you have to offer.
Link it Up
Once you have created your channel and some video, go ahead and put your YouTube link on your website and any social profiles you have. This will help you increase your channel exposure and create authority. It will also help you out with your vanity URL.