Hi everyone, I’ve learned a lot from this subreddit, so I wanted to give back and share a few things that have helped my channel.
My watch time and views on youtube have been improving so much in the past few months and it’s all because of three things: SEO, better thumbnails, and better titles. For me improving on these three elements is key for consistent growth month over month. I’d love to get lucky and get massively recommended by the algorithm, but so far it hasn’t happened.
For thumbnails what works on my channel is big, and I mean, BIG titles. Taking up half of the screen or more and words that will spark curiosity. Make sure your thumbnails are readable and eye-catching in the smallest size possible (I couldn’t find the exact measurement, but it is the size of the suggested videos thumbnails when you’re watching in the YT app). I also try to use aesthetically pleasing photos, enhanced bright colors in the photo (I started editing my thumbnail photos with lightroom, too and use presets that enhance the colors – you can find free or cheap presets online and the lightroom app is free)
Using close ups of my face if possible or prominently showing the product if a product review has led to higher CTR. Also, using consistent fonts – I only use 3 fonts on my channel in different combinations.
For titles: half of my title is SEO friendly – I run it through TubeBudy (free version) to see if it is searched enough and what the competition is (aka my chance to rank); the second part of the title is a bit more directed to making viewers interested, I try to make it a little more sensational.
I also make my video descriptions super SEO friendly – I find all the tags that are searched enough and that I can potentially rank for and write a copy that naturally uses as many of them as possible.
By no means am I saying that I’ve cracked the code to youtube success and perfected these techniques, but doing these things has definitely made a difference in my channel. Hope it’s helpful to someone.
F(AWXM) 