7 Key Ways to Grow Your YouTube Channel

Since launching in 2005, YouTube has taken off tremendously. Today, it boasts itself as the second largest search engine, only next to Google. It’s home to explanatory and entertaining videos alike. And because of how important video marketing has become, more and more businesses are taking advantage of the platform. They are able to bring more exposure to their services and communicate with their customers. Let’s discuss how your business can grow your YouTube channel to successfully showcase your brand.

Infographic: The Stats of YouTube

Infographic resources from Canva.com and Megan Marshall

• 70% of YouTube content that people watch is recommended by its algorithm.
• 40% of shoppers say that they purchase products they find on YouTube.
• 30 million people will log into YouTube in a single day.
• 2 billion people are active every month.
• The top 3 countries that use YouTube are the United States, India, and Japan.
• Your video will rank higher if it has a lot of comments, likes, shares, and views.
• Your video will also perform well if it includes virtual characters or influencers.
• 1,000,000,000 hours of YouTube videos are consumed every day.
• The average time spent on YouTube daily is 17 minutes, 31 seconds.
• 50% of marketers have already invested in creating YouTube content.
• 9% of small businesses have taken advantage of YouTube.

Lean into the YouTube Algorithm

Today, the YouTube algorithm consists of finding videos that a viewer would most likely watch and encouraging them to keep watching. There are three discovery systems that it uses.

• Homepage: The videos that land on the YouTube homepage are highly based on performance metrics. Specifically, the average view duration, likes, and click-through rate (CTR) of the first group of users who have been interested in similar content in the past. The better your video performs, the more people will see it.

• Search: Because YouTube is a search engine, it is similar to Google in that it is dependent on keywords. This means that, like with your web pages and blog, your videos should contain relevant metadata. In order to improve your ranking and grow your YouTube channel, viewers need to find your video to fit the phrase they were searching for.

• Suggested: While you are watching a video on YouTube, there is a wall of other videos to watch along the right-hand side. These videos are involving a similar topic or are from creators you have previously watched. They are actually catered to your preferences of the day, as well.

Curate Content Around Keywords

SEO should carry with you throughout your digital marketing experience. Therefore, you should be using branded keywords to drive recognition and engagement. Research the most searched keywords that are currently in your niche. You can easily do this through a YouTube-specific keyword tool, like KeywordTool.io. Say you are a web design company. Type in “web design” to the search bar. You are given nearly 300 unique keywords that include the phrase.

Despite the fact that, with this specific tool, you have to upgrade to a pro plan to see most of the stats, you now have a better idea of what to structure your video around. Check out the top videos for those keywords to see what has already been done. Then, as you are filming, use the keyword as naturally as you can throughout so that YouTube recognizes it in the closed captions.

Use Click-Worthy Titles

Once you have figured out your keywords, you need to have titles to back them up. Make it clear what topic or experience your videos are about to cover. Consider writing it in a question format, using words that your audience would also use. You may also go with a classic “How To” title. Essentially, you need to bring in your keyword here, as well, because you need to be visible in the search in order to grow your YouTube channel.

Although you want to elicit emotions from your audience, try to steer clear from using clickbait titles just to attract attention. While they will gain you more clicks, it isn’t necessarily the engagement you want. When people realize that a video isn’t giving them the content they expected, they are likely to bounce. Then, you don’t get the conversion you wanted. So, use powerful word choices that are known to increase social shares in the right way.

Photo by Teono123 No on Pexels

Make Eye-Catching Thumbnails

Among the policies for YouTube’s platform, there are some strict guidelines for custom thumbnails. Considering these are the images that are being shown to users anywhere that your video ranks, you need to ensure they are appropriate for all audiences. This means no violent or otherwise disturbing imagery. YouTube has the power to age-restrict your video, remove the thumbnail, and terminate your account if you do not adhere to the rules.

Even though you can’t provide that crazy shock value, YouTube rewards videos with unexpected and or attractive thumbnails. Because they earn your video a higher CTR, it will rank better. Take some time with designing your thumbnail. It’s a small image so, if you want to grow your YouTube channel, it needs to stand out. This means bright, contrasting colors. You may want to use large text and graphics to liven it up even more.

Create Optimized Playlists

Increase your session time by making playlists. These are groupings of videos involving the same concept that can be played back sequentially. If you have a series over, say, best practices for web development, you can link videos to continue building off of the previous one. Considering YouTube takes into account how long users watch your content, it can be a great way to get them to stick around.

Curating playlists will allow your YouTube audience to see, at a single glance, what your channel is about. If you have a lot of content, they won’t have to sift through video titles in search of the one topic they are interested in. They can take that “Best Practices for Web Development” series and run with it. You provide them with value immediately.

Photo by Julia Avamotive on Pexels

Promote Your YouTube on Other Socials

To grow your YouTube channel, you can’t just depend on YouTube. You should also make use of your other channels. In a 2021 report by DataReportal, it was discovered that over 90% of people who use some other social media platform also use YouTube. Odds are, the majority of your followers use it. However, unless they are subscribed and have your notifications on, they may have no idea you even uploaded a new video.

Tie YouTube into the social media strategy that you already have going on. Maybe you have Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. On each of them, shout out the YouTube video that you just posted, including a link to the video. Encourage your followers to subscribe to your channel for more great content. You can even create an Instagram Story to display the link on a button. If there’s a video down the line that you think is relevant again, feel free to also promote it again.

Use YouTube-Specific SEO Tools

Google loves YouTube content. For certain keyword searches, among the millions of website options, there may be links to several videos. You are able to find more related videos by going into the Videos tab in the navigation menu. Although this section isn’t solely made up of YouTube videos, it’s clearly the dominant platform. This is why there are so many YouTube SEO tools out there to help grow your channel. One of the most well-known browser extensions is TubeBuddy.

That being said, YouTube’s own analytics tool is amazing. You just have to sign in to your Studio and select Analytics. Or, for video-specific reports, you can go to Content and then to Analytics. Then, you have various tabs full of data for you to look through. These include Overview, Reach, Audience, and Revenue. Each one gives you a summary and a breakdown of the information through reports.

If you would like to further your content marketing efforts, have a chat with the WEBii team. We can provide you with dedicated SEO consulting so that you know the best ways to grow your YouTube channel, your blog, and your business at large. By offloading your SEO on experts, you can have an entire digital marketing department at your service. Get the performance results you need.