YouTube 2020 Best Practices
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The document provides best practices for YouTube channels, including upgrading artist channels to Official Artist Channels, updating channel art and layout, optimizing video titles, tags, descriptions and features like end screens and subtitles, and engaging with viewers through the community tab. Key recommendations include aggregating content from various channels into one Official Artist Channel, customizing the channel layout and playlists, adding relevant tags and descriptions to videos for search engine optimization, and using features like end screens and the community tab to increase watch time and engagement.
YouTube 2020 Best Practices
- 2. CHANNEL PRESENTATION 03 / SEO 08 / VIDEO FEATURES 12 / ENGAGING WITH VIEWERS 15 /
- 4. CHANNEL PRESENTATION Is your channel an Official Artist Channel or verified? We recommend artist channels upgrade to Official Artist Channels (OAC). An OAC aggregates your content & subscriber count from your various YouTube channels (official YouTube, Vevo and a Topic channel) into one place. The channel automatically programs your music catalog on two new shelves to ensure your fans have one place to see all of your content. Read our best practices on OACs, and to upgrade your channel to an OAC, please contact your label manager. For more information, review our blog post on OACs. Once your non-artist channel reaches 100K subscribers, you will be able to request verification for your channel, which we recommend for label or other non-artist specific channels. Once verified, you can feature other owned channels in the “featured” tab on your channel by editing your channel tabs in the Creator Studio.
- 5. CHANNEL PRESENTATION(CONT.) Is your channel art updated? Your avatar and banner should be clear, consistent, visible in all resolutions and relevant to a recent or priority release. Icon size: 800 x 800px. Banner size: 2560 x 1440px. Your banner links should include all socials, official websites, merch, tour and smartlinks, DSPs, and anything else relevant. Although only five can be featured on the banner, the other will be featured in the About tab. To do this, click the edit icon under the “links” section and the select “+add.”
- 6. CHANNEL PRESENTATION(CONT.) Have you curated the channel layout? Customizing your channel allows you to decide what the viewer sees and aids in how they navigate it. Putting priority or recent content first is best to ensure you are curating your viewers watch session. To do this, simply click “customize channel” under your Creator Studio. Explore the option to have two different teaser videos: one video for returning and already subscribed users (ex. the most recent song, music video, recently updated playlist) and one for new users (ex. the most popular current song, an introduction to the artist or the channel, something that pulls in that new fan). New visitors and returning visitors are a different target; ensuring they receive the proper introduction or 'welcome back' to your channel is a surefire way to increase views and gain subscribers. These teaser videos should also be updated often. Here’s an example of a trailer video for a new viewer.
- 7. CHANNEL PRESENTATION(CONT.) Have you curated the channel layout? Playlists are crucial in helping increase watch time, views, and in turn, subscribership for your channel. Find this under the “add a section” button under “edit channel.” For setting up playlists, add a proper and relevant title and description to aid with search engine optimization. If it is an album playlist, include the tracklist to coincide with the videos. We also recommend including any relevant links, such as a smartURL that leads to other platforms or another playlist link. Here’s a playlist example. The first playlist on the channel can be customized and should be the priority; if there are no new releases, consider a “Most Popular” or “Taste of” playlist up top. For OACs, the YouTube “Music Video” shelf is next and cannot be edited; below that, give the viewer a lot of options to curate their listening session with other customizable playlists. For non-artist channels, all shelves are customizable so include a variety of playlists for the viewer to dive into. It’s also important to keep playlists updated to ensure the YT algorithm knows the channel is active and surfaces them often. Here’s a channel example. Sharing playlists in the Community tab (instead of just a single video link), as end-screens, or when sharing the link to a new song (put it as the first in a playlist) can help continue the viewers listening session. Playlist Examples: Popular topics or search terms (ex. Genre Mix, Driving Playlist, Workout Playlist, Commute Playlist, Best of 2020, etc.), official videos, live performances, interviews, lyric videos, full discography, tentpoles, etc. The more videos in each, the better. Videos that live on other channels (interviews, Vevo, etc.) can also live within created playlists on your channel.
- 9. ABOUT PAGE YouTube uses the About tab to populate their SEO so adding a detailed bio and description with key terms assists YouTube in surfacing the channel higher in search. Remember to include the artist’s most popular songs, album names, genres, labels, locations, milestones, and any other search terms relevant to the artist. ARTIST CENTER PRESS KIT In the Artist Center tab in creator studio, you can also add pictures and a biography to the About tab, the YouTube Music app and so forth as a "press kit" of sorts. It’s important to keep the look across platforms consistent for familiarity, and ensure the channel comes across to fans as the official source of the artist's content on YouTube. CHANNEL SEO
- 10. CHANNEL TAGS Similar to video tags, channel tags help YT surface the channel in search and in other algorithms, such as Google. For example: adding the year, common misspellings of popular song titles or albums or names, genres, song titles, albums, geography; the more, the better, as long as they’re relevant. FEATURED CHANNELS Link featured channels in your "Channels" tab to promote your other content and drive traffic between the two channels. CUSTOM URL Creating a custom URL gives fans an easy way to remember your YouTube Channel. It should be something clear and easy to remember such as /ArtistName /ArtistOfficial /LabelRecords /LabelMusic, etc. For more information on custom URL’s, follow this link. T Pain CHANNEL SEO (CONT.)
- 11. TITLE Video titles give viewers a sense of what to expect from your video, and aid in SEO optimization. By identifying your video content (ex." Official Audio", "Behind the Scenes", "Lyric Video", or “Live @ X”), viewers know what they're tuning in to, and won't abandon the video after being misled by the video title. For music videos, “Artist – Song (TYPE)" is recommended. For more information, read the SEO portion of this blog post. TAGS Adding more tags to videos, the better, as long as they remain relevant to the video (fill all of the space). It's also important to include easily misspelled words that people may be searching for. Some other examples: artists names, albums, songs, the year, genre, geography, new music tags, the type of video, etc. DESCRIPTION The description of each video is another way YT is able to utilize SEO to help viewers find your video. In the description, repeat the title info and add the lyrics, use hashtags that are a part of a larger search, such as “#NewMusic, #Artist, #Album, #Genre, #Event” and reuse all of the important keywords that people would be searching for, a bit about the project or artist at hand (if there is a tour or a new release on its way) and all of their links (to streaming services, socials, to subscribe, the main website). Also, it’s important to use keywords especially in the first two sentences (and links below the fold) as only the first two sentences are shown on search and on the video page. For more information on hashtags, read this Daily Rind post. T Pain VIDEO SEO
- 13. UTILIZING VIDEO FEATURES END-SCREENS End-screens are an important feature that help curate and lengthen a viewer’s watch session. To drive the viewer to click on the next video/playlist, add at least 7-10 seconds of black screen time at the end of every video. You can add up to four different elements so we recommend utilizing at least three on each video with one of them being a playlist and one being the subscribe button. Make sure to keep these updated to push to relevant or priority content. CARDS The card button that shows itself as the "i" in the top right hand corner throughout the video is where you can link to sites (merch, streaming, donation sites, tour tickets, playlists, etc.) or promote relevant videos or even direct the viewer to subscribe, so viewers can follow through on another call-to-action without having to stop the video.
- 14. UTILIZING VIDEO FEATURES (CONT.) SUBTITLES Enabling subtitles (CC)/translation to all videos is a beneficial way to spread the word about your music and videos to viewers that don't necessarily speak the language; or for people who’d like to have the lyrics automatically on the screen. Translation can also be automated for the title and description, found under the Subtitles tab. To enable this feature in the video manager, select the video you want to add subtitles to, and select “edit.” Then click on the “Subtitles/CC” tab and “add new.” SUBSCRIBE WATERMARK Another watch session feature to add is the “branding watermark” button that sits on the lower right hand corner of each video. It’s a logo that, when scrolled over, allows the user to subscribe to the channel without leaving the video. To enable this feature in the Creator Studio, select channel > branding, and then ”add a watermark.” THUMBNAIL OPTIMIZATION Thumbnails should be bright and easy to see (not dark or blurry), with a clear picture of the artist or a striking image that’s on brand to grab the attention of potential fans. No thumbnail should look identical/too similar either because this can confuse the viewer in already watching the video and not clicking further.
- 16. COMMUNITY TAB The Community tab, which is essentially YT’s version of a social feed, is a great way to directly engage with your audience by posting gifs, polls, photos, or even text statuses. To ensure you have your Community page enabled and for best practices, read more on our blog. We recommend including engaging posts such as: polls, open questions, Q&A, and scheduled content. Replying/liking comments within the Community page will have viewers realize the importance of being a part of a connected fanbase, making them more likely to subscribe and engage with your channel. This can be a good way to keep the channel active and within YouTube’s algorithm, even without new releases. ENGAGING WITH VIEWERS INTERACT Communicate with viewers through liking or replying to comments on videos, or pinning a top comment - a question, a thank you, tour dates, lyrics, etc. Engaging with viewers will incentivize them to interact to the channel, as well as increase subscribers. You can also reach viewers like this on the community page.
- 17. PREMIERE Premiere is another positive way to engage with your viewers. Set up a premiere for a new release and YT will create a countdown on that link. If you spread that link and tell viewers to click on the little bell, it will notify them when the video is released. This feature also includes a live-chat on the side of the screen, where fans can show their excitement and the artist can engage the audience by commenting along. ENGAGING WITH VIEWERS (CONT.) STORIES Stories is a new feature that can be important in interacting with viewers. Think Instagram Stories - but the video segments can be 15 seconds long, and don't expire for 7 days. There is also the option to download Stories to publish as videos on your channel. This is a good way to show on-the-go engagement from artists, as well as a cool way to answer fans questions in real time. To create a story, tap the camera icon button and record. You will also have the option to save, edit, add text, filters, music, stickers and comments.
- 18. LIVE-STREAMING Utilizing live-stream on YT is one of the best ways to communicate and engage genuinely with your audience in real time. This is why it’s important to use live-streams for performances, Q&As, and so forth to keep audiences feel part of a larger community. ENGAGING WITH VIEWERS (CONT.) CONSISTENT CONTENT Continued consistent, engaging, and creative content creation such as vlogs, Q&A, behind the music, personal videos, serialized content, and setting a schedule so viewers know when to expect new content, are key in creating a strong, loyal fanbase. SOCIAL PUSH By creating social assets and asking users to “swipe up” to find a new video or subscribe to your channel, you can gather a whole new audience to visit the platform and engage with your channel.Along with other socials, adding your YT channel or a new video to bios can help users find your channel and new content.
- 19. For further information regarding YouTube, please reach out to VideoServices@theorchard.com, check out The Daily Rind, or contact your label manager. G Herbo Calpurnia Maverick Sabre Hippo Campus