Last month, we took it upon themselves to head to LA and brought back brand new and updated YouTube SEO tips from VidCon. Described as the largest gathering of people who love and are the culture of the online video world, our team members described it as a place, where screaming teenagers run after other teenagers, who are probably YouTube sensations. Besides the excitement about online personalities, there is much to learn. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing the Tips and Tricks collected at this glorious event.

Today we start with all things YouTube

YouTube is listening..

• YouTube are listening to and transcribing videos uploaded to the platform, so make sure that your tags, title, description, playlist and the channel itself match your song lyrics or conversation.
• Closed captions/subtitles are now a bigger discoverability factor more than ever — your video views can increase by 15% by including closed captions/subtitles on your videos to open up to new audiences that speak other languages.

What’s in a Title?

• There is a 100 character limit for YouTube video titles, so use it to your full advantage.
• A good example for a Title is Band | Song Name | Category or Song Name | Band | Category
• Be sure to separate targeted keywords
• Always include artist/band and song name in the title
• Add additional keywords like bands, series or categories

Tags, tags, tags

•  is all about being found so make sure your tags are relevant
• Use popular search terms to increase popularity

Use your description!

• Your description has a 5,000 character limit, so plenty of room to describe your video
• Make sure to include a description along with keywords
• Mention song title, title of the video etc. and a short explanation of what the video is all about, is it a cover? An official single? A live performance?
• If you include links, make them clickable by adding http:// at the beginning of the URL
• Add any additional info such as bio or lyrics

Playlist it!

• Create playlists for your videos to increase views
• Add the videos manually
• As always, make sure that you have relevant keywords in the playlist description
• Remember, each ‘add to playlist’ action factors into YouTube’s ranking algorithm

Wanna make some money?

• Brand deals were talked about a lot — most big YouTubers make more money from brand deals than they do from YouTube itself
• If you have the viewership, brand deals can offer a great way of creating income
• Be sure to select them carefully and only make deals with brands that makes sense for your YouTube channel and your audience
• There are various platforms available for brand deals such as Famebit, Grapevine and SocialChain

A note on channel optimisation

• Always fill in your About section, this will make you look more professional
• Create a layout for your home screen, for example use popular uploads, playlists etc as sections
• Add all your social media and website links into your About section and again, make the links clickable for easy access
• Channel tags in ‘Advanced’

Nothing stands in the way of your YouTube Stardom now! Stay tuned for our tips and tricks for Facebook and Snapchat.