Uploading your YouTube video correctly to make certain information technology will be shown to as many people equally possible doesn't happen naturally. There are precise steps y'all should follow to ensure maximum exposure for your content.

Imagine this.

You worked really difficult, developed your share-worthy video thought, wrote your video script, filmed and edit everything, and are finally ready to share your masterpiece with the world.

What's next?

Follow along with my 25-pace organization and become from final edit to fully-optimized YouTube video to give your next video the best possible beginning with my Ultimate YouTube Upload Checklist.

Upload Your Starting time Video on YouTube

Well, we accept to offset somewhere, don't we... 😉

In that location are many apps and software solutions that back up native video export to YouTube.

Only today, nosotros are doing it the old-fashioned way, via the YouTube web interface.

Log into your YouTube account and then locate the Creator menu in the top right corner of your screen.

Information technology should look something similar this, sometimes depending on your screen size you might only run across the camera icon without the text:

Don't worry, if you don't see a scarlet icon on the left side of the "Create" button. I apply the TubeBuddy Chrome extension to assist me with my YouTube growth. (On a side note, I've also published an in-depth TubeBuddy Review on how it helped me to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 3000 subscribers.)

Adjacent, you click on "Upload videos".

A new popup should open:

You lot might accept noticed a small icon at the top right saying "Upload with Classic". This is the quondam upload office and volition disappear very soon.

In this article, I'thousand showing you the new, modern upload workflow that is here to stay.

Y'all tin can either click on "Select files" and locate your video (or multiple videos). Or you lot tin locate your video on your reckoner and drag and drop it into the grey circumvolve.

Write a Compelling YouTube Video Title

Writing a captivating video title is one of the biggest success factors when information technology comes to YouTube videos.

Information technology has to be curt and sweetness, then people on mobile and desktop devices can quickly grasp what your video is all nearly without getting truncated.

The title has to communicate two elements. Who is this for? And what's in it for them? Why should they sentinel your video?

It also should comprise specific keywords that someone might type into the YouTube search field to attract organic search traffic. This is especially important for small YouTube channels with less than 1,000 subscribers.

If you lot want to learn more, check out these two articles about how to write the perfect YouTube video title, and how to optimize your YouTube titles for YouTube SEO.

Write In Your YouTube Video Description

In that location are three schools of thought when it comes to how to write your YouTube descriptions.

The starting time approach is to use the clarification of your video equally an extended opportunity to optimize your YouTube videos for SEO purposes.

In other words, y'all're explaining what your video is all about, and topics yous're covering. This allows you to add together a lot of additional keywords, that YouTubers might be searching for.

The next arroyo focuses on creating a call to action such every bit reminding your viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel, or following you on Instagram, or watching some of your other videos about a similar topic.

And so we take a hybrid approach. It uses the top half of your video for additional data nigh your video, assuasive you to optimize your video for YouTube SEO. So it uses the bottom half to promote someone of your existing videos and external links that allow you to make money on YouTube, even when yous're not yet monetized.

Design a Click-Worthy YouTube Video Thumbnail

Together with your video title, the video thumbnail has the biggest impact on your video click-through rate.

This is very important because it determines if YouTube will recommend your videos to other users who are not yet subscribed to your YouTube channel yet.

I recommend reviewing some of your favorite YouTube creators and to find a uncomplicated style that's resonating with you lot and the content that you're creating and so using that as the foundation to find your ain style.

There are two very of import keys to thumbnail success. Include a photograph of yourself and use a large font to tease what your video is all near.

Yous tin check out my tutorial on how to create blithe video thumbnails for social media to get a practiced idea of how to blueprint a simple, withal great-looking thumbnail for your video.

If y'all want to get into the nuts and bolts of thumbnail creation, here's the article to read: How to make customized thumbnails that become clicks for your YouTube videos.

Add Your Videos to YouTube Playlists

Every YouTube channel should have at least two plalist.

The starting time one should comprise all of your published videos. This makes information technology very convenient for people who discover your aqueduct for the kickoff time to binge-watch all of your videos.

The second playlist should be one of many to come and comprise all the videos of a item topic.

When you're just starting out the "all videos" and "all virtually topic Ten" might comprise the aforementioned videos, but that's going to change actually chop-chop equally you make more and more videos.

I use TubeBuddy to continue all of my YouTube playlists organized. It allows me to quickly sort all of my playlists with the click of a button. I love to sort all of my playlists past watch time and put the most pop videos at the top.

This has significantly increased the average watch fourth dimension per viewer on my aqueduct.

If you lot desire to learn more about YouTube, check out my YouTube Success playlist.

YouTube'southward Community Guidelines

The start question is, has this video been made for kids?

In the USA, the age of a "kid" is divers equally anyone under the age of 13. However, this number may be higher in other countries.

If your channel is non made for kids, then yous should select "No".

The next question is, do you want to restrict your video to an adult audience?

You should select "Yes" if your video covers any of the following topics or themes: Violence, agonizing imagery, nudity, sexually suggestive content, or portrayal of unsafe activities.

Otherwise, select "No" and move on.

If all of your YouTube videos are not fabricated for kids, you can visit the YouTube Studio, click on "Settings" and so under "Aqueduct" select "No" every bit your channel default for new uploads.

If your video contains paid promotion or has been sponsored by a third political party, you might be under a legal obligation to disclose this information to your viewers.

There are two options.

If y'all enable the start checkbox, you notify YouTube that your video contains paid promotion. YouTube may verify that your promotion complies with their ads policies.

If you check the 2nd box, YouTube will notify viewers that your video contains paid promotions. This happens in the form of a modest overlay for the first few seconds of your video.

In some jurisdictions, this is voluntary, in some, it'due south mandatory to disclose this.

I recommend checking both boxes if your video has been sponsored to be on the safe side.

Tags are 1 of the most underrated features on YouTube.

Many content creators don't utilize them. And if they do, they often utilise them incorrectly and add worthless tags to their videos.

Keywords are essentially petty text snippets that people might blazon into the search field. If one of your keywords matches the search term, there is a good probability that your video will testify up.

Especially, if you picked a "very good" keyword, that both have a high search volume and very niggling completion in terms of like videos.

I use TubeBuddy to notice the best keywords for my YouTube video tags. To activate this feature, I click on the "TubeBuddy Tag Tools" characteristic below the tags field.

It opens up the TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. In the peak left corner, I tin type in whatever keyword I want to enquiry.

TubeBuddy will then admission the YouTube database and observe the search book for this specific keyword and how many "competing" videos volition be displayed on YouTube.

Base on these recommendations it volition calculate the overall keyword score from carmine to dark-green.

Information technology will besides give me related keyword ideas that I might add to my tags based on what some of the most popular YouTube videos with like topics employ in their videos, as well equally some of the most popular, related searches on YouTube and Google.

Gear up the Language for Your YouTube Video

Setting your video language is an important step. It ensures that, if your video contains spoken words, it will more often than not exist promoted to people who speak the language of your video.

Funny compilations of cats and dogs will notwithstanding be shown to everyone because they don't really comprise any spoken words. In this case, y'all can simply select your default linguistic communication or English.

YouTube tracks all video views and then determines what languages each viewer is speaking, based on how many foreign language videos someone has watched.

Upload Subtitles for Your Video

The checkbox about caption certification is only relevant to a very small-scale part of the YouTube creator community.

It's specifically targeting creators and publishing companies whose videos take previously aired on US boob tube. These videos are legally required to go along to display subtitles even when re-uploaded to platforms such as YouTube.

In most cases y'all desire to select the default setting, "This content has never aired on television in the U.Due south."

Using subtitles is a very skillful practice in general. It helps you to optimize your videos for YouTube SEO, as YouTube uses your subtitles equally a full-text search engine.

It also helps people who have hearing problems, those who speak a foreign language and everyone, if your groundwork sound level is very noisy to savor your videos.

I utilise a tool chosen Otter to transcribe all of my YouTube videos. If you sign up via this link, you lot become 100 extra minutes of free transcriptions.

Update the Recording Date and Location of Your Video

If you lot want to give viewers on YouTube the ability to search by date or location to find your video, you may want to enter the date and location in the next section.

This is specially useful for fourth dimension-relevant content such equally news and allows YouTube to use both information to marshal it with a viewer'due south search intent.

Review Your YouTube Video Licenses

Yous have a choice between the Standard YouTube license and the Creative Commons Attribution license.

The Standard YouTube license is the default setting for all uploads. I highly recommend to stick with the Standard YouTube license, to maintain all of your rights.

By marking your original video with a Creative Eatables license, you're granting the entire YouTube customs the right to reuse and edit your video.

Considering of that, you lot may only mark videos with the Artistic Eatables license, if your unabridged video consists entirely of content that you lot tin license nether the CC BY license, you tin also switch to a Creative Commons license.

This could exist your own, originally created content, other videos marked with a CC By license, or videos that are in the public domain.

YouTube will foreclose you from switching to the Creative Eatables license if there is a Content ID claim confronting information technology.

Review Your YouTube Video Distribution Settings

You have 2 choices when it comes to distribution. Y'all can show your videos "Everywhere" or only on "Monetized Platforms".

Now what's the difference?

According to YouTube, the following platforms are examples of platforms YouTube considers monetized:

  • www.youtube.com
  • YouTube app
  • YouTube app on TVs including Xbox, Android TV, PlayStation and Chromecast
  • m.youtube.com accessed from most smartphones
  • YouTube app on Apple TV

"Everywhere" likewise includes the following placements:

  • YouTube app pre-installed on iOS 5 and beneath
  • YouTube legacy apps on feature phones and TVs
  • m.youtube.com accessed from characteristic phones

The number of unmonetizable placements is steadily declining, as it mostly covers deprecated technology. I, therefore, recommend keeping the default setting of "Everywhere" for your video.

Allow Embedding of Your YouTube Video

Why wouldn't you want someone to embed your video on someone else's website? Doesn't it all add up to your views and watch time?

There are many reasons why you might want to turn embedding off.

Some users don't want to protect their make by preventing their videos from appearing alongside content they don't approve of.

Some websites are able to hijack embedded videos and supercede YouTube'southward built-in ads with their own. Effect? You get your views and watch time only no AdSense revenue.

In brusk, there is no telling where your videos might show upwards.

If control over your brand is of the highest priority to you, I recommend restricting embedding.

Please note, that this also prevents y'all from embedding your videos on your own website. If you desire to have both, you lot might want to check out Vimeo.

Notify Subscribers About Your New YouTube Video

This is such an important setting.

Did yous know that your subscribers can receive a maximum of three new video notifications from your channel in a 24-hour period?

What if you have to upload more than than three videos and you want to be selective about which videos you want to promote via email notification?

Imagine you desire to upload a webinar replay to your YouTube aqueduct, but you don't want to send out an email to each and every one of your subscribers.

In this case, only uncheck "Publish to subscriptions feed and notify subscribers" and you're good.

The video will exist public and available in your videos feed for those looking for information technology.

Update Your YouTube Video Category

YouTube allows you to choose betwixt 15 unlike categories for your videos.

  • Autos & Vehicles
  • Comedy
  • Pedagogy
  • Amusement
  • Motion picture & Blitheness
  • Gaming
  • Howto & Mode
  • Music
  • News & Politics
  • Nonprofits & Activism
  • People & Blogs
  • Pets & Animals
  • Science & Technology
  • Sports
  • Travel & Events

The question is, which is the correct one for your video?

To reply these questions, information technology's worth looking back in time, to come across where these categories originated from. In the early days of YouTube, these categories were actually explorable.

You lot were able to become to the YouTube Browser page and and then click-through any of the fifteen categories to scout more videos.

Recollect of YouTube'southward internal categorization engine more than as a dynamic machine learning algorithm, that's constantly identifying, updating, and creating new categories. Everything is fluid and based on user behavior.

So while it doesn't really affair anymore which of the fifteen categories you pick, just option the i closest to your video. In doubt pick either "Education" or "Entertainment"

Comments are an important factor when information technology comes to ranking your videos on YouTube.

Disabling can have a negative affect on your discoverability on the platform and should only be disabled in rare cases.

  • You stirred upwardly a hornet's nest. This is probably one of the nigh common reasons why people disabled comments on their channel.

    When a YouTuber or make is involved in a scandal or controversy, it's a very common phenomenon that all, or some of their videos get spammed with negative and hurtful comments. Even if it'southward a completely new video and has nothing to do with the controversy. If you lot desire to avoid hour-long cleanup sessions for your comments feed, temporarily disable your comments until everything has blown over.

  • Your new video is controversial. Sometimes everything is fine, but the video your uploading right now contains a controversial stance, you might want to proactively turn off your comments.

Alternatively, and that's my recommendation, turn on comment moderation.

There are iii settings for comments.

  • Allow all comments. Comment moderation is turned off. Everything is published instantly.
  • Concord potentially inappropriate comments for review. Comment moderation is on. YouTube uses its comment AI to identify three types of comments. "All good" get published instantly. "Held for review" is a maybe where the AI isn't 100% sure about the content. This might contain a word from your block list, swear words, or links. The last category is "Likely spam". In this category, yous detect comments where YouTube is fairly sure that anyone would consider them spam. This can be triggered by the content of the comment itself, by past behavior of the person commenting, or past spam reports for similar comments.
  • Hold all comments for review. This setting works exactly similar the previous i, with the exception that even the "All adept" comments are moved to the "Review" tab.

Either style, this is easily reversible later.

Display the Number of Likes and Dislikes on Your YouTube Video

The question is closely related to the previous question about disabling comments.

Sometimes a video might cover a sensitive topic or event and yous don't feel it's appropriate to like to dislike something. Think of a funeral for example. In this case, turning off likes would be ok.

Another reason for disabling likes are controversial video topics when uploaders expect an overwhelming number of dislikes, turning off the likes characteristic might be an choice.

I personally don't recommend doing information technology. Commencement of all, likes or dislikes make no divergence to the YouTube algorithm, both count as engagement and help your video to exist seen by more people.

Secondly, those people who dislike your videos are only there for the short term and will eventually disappear.

Enable Monetization for Your YouTube Video

If you desire to make money and run YouTube equally a business organisation, this is the most of import setting of all.

First, yous desire to turn monetization to "On" at the elevation.

Adjacent, y'all desire to enable all ad placements that don't accept a checkmark next to information technology.

If your video is longer than 8 minutes you can add additional mid-curl ads during the video. This tin can make a huge impact on the earning per video and I highly recommend turning information technology on.

Annotation: this characteristic is only available if you determine to join the YouTube Partner Program (so advertisers can run ads on your videos) and take fulfilled the requirements of m YouTube subscribers and four,000 public scout hours.

When you turned on monetization, YouTube will inquire y'all to categorize the video based on YouTube's advertising guidelines.

For most content creators, none of these will apply, and they should select "None of the in a higher place" at the bottom of the page.

Try to be truthful, as YouTube will still run automated tests to determine if your video is ok or not.

If YouTube finds that you didn't accurately categorize your video, they might take away your ability to declare the advertising suitability for your next video.

Why should you lot intendance near that?

Because if a video is on a knife's edge, YouTube will take the creators' self-certification into consideration and might allow a video for monetization.

While someone else who has been deceitful in the past might get the identical video demonetized based purely on an overly cautious AI algorithm.

Add End Screens to Your Video

What are end screens?

Those are lilliputian boxes that video creators tin place on top of their videos for the last 5 to twenty seconds of their videos.

There are v unlike elements that yous tin place on your end screen.

  • Video. Link to another YouTube video. In most cases, yous desire to link to related videos of your ain channel to maximize sentinel time and earnings.
  • Playlist. Some other peachy manner to heave your views. Link to a topic-specific playlist of your own YouTube channel.
  • Subscribe. Calculation a subscription push button on top of your end screen can boost the number of new subscribers.
  • Channel. Have a second YouTube channel that you desire to promote? Or did your video characteristic a collaboration with another channel? Why non give them a shout out by promoting their aqueduct in your end screen.
  • Link. This tin link to an canonical website. This can be YouTube partners such as Teespring, or your ain website. You accept to link and verify your domain to your YouTube account in order to make this piece of work.

Terminate screens are a groovy asset when it comes to increasing lookout man fourth dimension and earn more money with your YouTube channel and I highly recommend adding end screens to all of your videos.

Add Info Cards to Your YouTube Video

What are YouTube cards? Aforementioned idea equally end screens, just less obtrusive nudges during your video itself.

Elements are slightly different. You still take videos, playlists, channels, and links. Subscribe buttons are not bachelor. But instead, you lot can add polls.

From my experience, the best use of cards is to promote videos and links that you're mentioning during your video. Just place a card for the exact time code and the direct link to either a video or link will pop up at the top right (i) info icon.

Cull the Correct Visibility for Your YouTube Video

The video visibility screen looks a picayune intimidating at first.

Here is what you have to know. If you want to keep your video private for now, select "Salvage or publish" at the top, then "Private".

If you want to share the link video link with someone without publishing it, for instance as an early on-access membership benefit for your Patreon membership site, then select "Save or publish" and "unlisted.

If you want to publish information technology right now, select "Save or publish" at the top, and then "Public".

This selection allows yous to mark a 2d checkbox. "Fix as instant Premiere" is similar to a live stream watch party. If your viewers tune in halfway through your video, they tin't go back until your Premiere has finished.

At that point, your Premiere turns into a regular YouTube video.

If yous want to publish your video at a specific time and date, y'all desire to switch over to the "Schedule" section.

This allows y'all to select a date, fourth dimension, and time zone when your video switches from "private" to "public". Information technology's non possible to schedule an "unlisted" video with YouTube.

It is also possible to turn your scheduled YouTube video into a Premiere.

If you want to schedule an "unlisted" video, you lot tin sign upwardly for a TubeBuddy account.

This allows you to schedule any transition at whatever fourth dimension. Private to Unlisted, Unlisted to Public, Public to Private. Whatever your heart desires.

If yous are not ready to make your video public yet but want to run it by a couple of close friends, y'all can prepare it to unlisted and share the link with them.

Don't worry, YouTube subscribers can't see unlisted videos.

In one case y'all fabricated your selection, only click on the "Save" button at the lesser correct and your video is ready to get.

YouTube volition commencement to upload your video file during editing, so with a chip of luck, it might be already encoded by now, especially if information technology was a short video.

Apply Boosted Privacy Settings for Your YouTube Video if Necessary

In some cases, you might desire to enable additional privacy features for your videos.

A skilful example could be if you wanted to blur out the faces of people who walked into your frame.

YouTube has a built-in AI to discover and blur faces.

  1. Open YouTube Studio.
  2. Click on "Videos" on the left.
  3. Open any video of your pick.
  4. In the left sidebar, click on "Editor".
  5. In the video timeline located the "Add together Blur" push button and click it.
  6. Adjacent to "Blur faces" click on "Edit".
  7. Wait for the video to procedure.
  8. Select whatsoever specific or all faces that you want to blur.
  9. So click on "salve" and you're done.

Once your video is live or scheduled, it's time to promote information technology. I recommend a 3-angle approach.

  • Share your video on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (Yous can also share your video to Twitter using TubeBuddy), LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest are practiced starting points and allow y'all to bulldoze gratis organic traffic to your videos.
  • Share your video with your email list. If you don't take an e-mail list yet, sign upwardly for a Moosend business relationship and starting time building one. Email marketing is one of the virtually powerful promotional tools when it comes to edifice a successful and profitable YouTube channel.
  • Share your video on your website or blog. If you have your own website or blog, why not link to some of your YouTube videos inside one of your articles? This is another easy to implement style, how to get free traffic to your YouTube videos.

Next Steps

Yay, yous made it! Congratulations.

Now that you sympathise how to upload a YouTube video, it's time to piece of work on other aspects of your YouTube channel.

Check out my YouTube articles on my web log to learn more than most building a assisting YouTube business, lookout man my YouTube Success playlist, and subscribe to my YouTube channel to learn how to build a profitable YouTube concern.