Uploading your YouTube video correctly to make sure it volition be shown to as many people as possible doesn't happen naturally. There are precise steps you should follow to ensure maximum exposure for your content.

Imagine this.

You worked actually hard, 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'due south next?

Follow along with my 25-pace system and become from concluding edit to fully-optimized YouTube video to give your side by side video the best possible kickoff with my Ultimate YouTube Upload Checklist.

Upload Your Outset Video on YouTube

Well, nosotros take to kickoff somewhere, don't we... 😉

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

Only today, we are doing information technology the onetime-fashioned way, via the YouTube web interface.

Log into your YouTube business relationship and and so locate the Creator carte du jour in the pinnacle right corner of your screen.

It should look something like this, sometimes depending on your screen size you might only see the photographic camera icon without the text:

Don't worry, if you don't see a cerise icon on the left side of the "Create" button. I utilise 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 abound my YouTube aqueduct from 0 to 3000 subscribers.)

Next, you click on "Upload videos".

A new popup should open up:

You might have noticed a small icon at the peak right maxim "Upload with Classic". This is the one-time upload role and volition disappear very before long.

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

You can either click on "Select files" and locate your video (or multiple videos). Or you lot tin can locate your video on your computer and drag and driblet information technology into the grayness circle.

Write a Compelling YouTube Video Title

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

It has to exist short and sugariness, so people on mobile and desktop devices tin quickly grasp what your video is all about without getting truncated.

The title has to communicate two elements. Who is this for? And what's in it for them? Why should they watch 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-scale YouTube channels with less than 1,000 subscribers.

If you want to acquire more, check out these two manufactures nigh how to write the perfect YouTube video championship, and how to optimize your YouTube titles for YouTube SEO.

Write In Your YouTube Video Description

There are iii schools of idea when it comes to how to write your YouTube descriptions.

The first approach is to utilize the description of your video every bit an extended opportunity to optimize your YouTube videos for SEO purposes.

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

The next approach focuses on creating a telephone call to action such every bit reminding your viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel, or post-obit you on Instagram, or watching some of your other videos about a like topic.

And then we have a hybrid arroyo. It uses the top half of your video for additional information nearly your video, allowing you to optimize your video for YouTube SEO. And so it uses the bottom half to promote someone of your existing videos and external links that permit you to make money on YouTube, even when you'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 withal subscribed to your YouTube aqueduct nevertheless.

I recommend reviewing some of your favorite YouTube creators and to find a uncomplicated style that's resonating with you and the content that you're creating and then using that every bit the foundation to notice your own style.

There are two very important keys to thumbnail success. Include a photo of yourself and use a big font to tease what your video is all most.

You lot tin check out my tutorial on how to create animated video thumbnails for social media to get a good idea of how to design a simple, yet swell-looking thumbnail for your video.

If y'all want to get into the basics and bolts of thumbnail cosmos, here'southward the commodity to read: How to make customized thumbnails that get 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 contain all of your published videos. This makes it very convenient for people who discover your channel for the first fourth dimension to rampage-watch all of your videos.

The 2nd playlist should be 1 of many to come and comprise all the videos of a particular topic.

When you're just starting out the "all videos" and "all about topic Ten" might contain the same videos, but that's going to change really quickly equally you make more and more videos.

I employ TubeBuddy to keep 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 by watch fourth dimension and put the most popular videos at the tiptop.

This has significantly increased the average watch time per viewer on my channel.

If you lot want to acquire more than nigh YouTube, check out my YouTube Success playlist.

YouTube'southward Community Guidelines

The first question is, has this video been fabricated for kids?

In the USA, the age of a "kid" is defined as anyone under the age of 13. Yet, this number may be college in other countries.

If your aqueduct is not made for kids, then you 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 whatsoever of the following topics or themes: Violence, agonizing imagery, nudity, sexually suggestive content, or portrayal of unsafe activities.

Otherwise, select "No" and movement on.

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

If your video contains paid promotion or has been sponsored by a third political party, y'all might exist nether a legal obligation to disclose this data to your viewers.

At that place are two options.

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

If you check the second box, YouTube will notify viewers that your video contains paid promotions. This happens in the grade of a small overlay for the first few seconds of your video.

In some jurisdictions, this is voluntary, in some, it's 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 virtually underrated features on YouTube.

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

Keywords are essentially niggling text snippets that people might type into the search field. If one of your keywords matches the search term, at that place is a skillful probability that your video will show up.

Especially, if you picked a "very good" keyword, that both have a loftier search volume and very fiddling completion in terms of similar videos.

I utilize TubeBuddy to find the all-time keywords for my YouTube video tags. To activate this feature, I click on the "TubeBuddy Tag Tools" feature below the tags field.

It opens upward the TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. In the top left corner, I can blazon in whatever keyword I want to enquiry.

TubeBuddy will then access the YouTube database and find the search volume for this specific keyword and how many "competing" videos will be displayed on YouTube.

Base on these recommendations it will calculate the overall keyword score from crimson to green.

It will besides requite 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, besides as some of the well-nigh popular, related searches on YouTube and Google.

Set the Linguistic communication for Your YouTube Video

Setting your video language is an of import stride. It ensures that, if your video contains spoken words, it will mostly be promoted to people who speak the language of your video.

Funny compilations of cats and dogs will still be shown to everyone because they don't actually incorporate any spoken words. In this instance, you can just select your default language or English.

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

Upload Subtitles for Your Video

The checkbox well-nigh caption certification is only relevant to a very pocket-sized part of the YouTube creator community.

It'south specifically targeting creators and publishing companies whose videos take previously aired on United states television. These videos are legally required to continue to display subtitles even when re-uploaded to platforms such as YouTube.

In most cases you desire to select the default setting, "This content has never aired on tv in the U.South."

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

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

I use a tool called Otter to transcribe all of my YouTube videos. If you sign upwards via this link, you become 100 extra minutes of gratis transcriptions.

Update the Recording Engagement and Location of Your Video

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

This is especially useful for time-relevant content such as news and allows YouTube to utilise both information to align it with a viewer's search intent.

Review Your YouTube Video Licenses

You have a choice between the Standard YouTube license and the Artistic 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 Commons license, yous're granting the unabridged YouTube community the right to reuse and edit your video.

Because of that, you may merely marker videos with the Creative Eatables license, if your entire video consists entirely of content that you tin can license under the CC BY license, you can also switch to a Creative Commons license.

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

YouTube will forbid you from switching to the Artistic Commons license if there is a Content ID claim against information technology.

Review Your YouTube Video Distribution Settings

Y'all have two choices when information technology comes to distribution. You tin show your videos "Everywhere" or only on "Monetized Platforms".

At present what'due south the difference?

Co-ordinate to YouTube, the following platforms are examples of platforms YouTube considers monetized:

  • world wide web.youtube.com
  • YouTube app
  • YouTube app on TVs including Xbox, Android TV, PlayStation and Chromecast
  • m.youtube.com accessed from almost smartphones
  • YouTube app on Apple TV

"Everywhere" also includes the following placements:

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

The number of unmonetizable placements is steadily failing, as it more often than not covers deprecated technology. I, therefore, recommend keeping the default setting of "Everywhere" for your video.

Allow Embedding of Your YouTube Video

Why wouldn't y'all desire someone to embed your video on someone else's website? Doesn't it all add upwards to your views and watch fourth dimension?

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

Some users don't desire to protect their brand past preventing their videos from appearing aslope content they don't approve of.

Some websites are able to hijack embedded videos and replace YouTube's born ads with their ain. Result? You get your views and lookout man time only no AdSense revenue.

In short, there is no telling where your videos might show up.

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

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

Notify Subscribers About Your New YouTube Video

This is such an important setting.

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

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

Imagine you lot want to upload a webinar replay to your YouTube channel, simply y'all don't desire 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 it.

Update Your YouTube Video Category

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

  • Autos & Vehicles
  • Comedy
  • Education
  • Amusement
  • Motion-picture show & Animation
  • Gaming
  • Howto & Fashion
  • Music
  • News & Politics
  • Nonprofits & Activism
  • People & Blogs
  • Pets & Animals
  • Science & Technology
  • Sports
  • Travel & Events

The question is, which is the right i for your video?

To answer these questions, it'southward worth looking back in time, to meet where these categories originated from. In the early days of YouTube, these categories were actually explorable.

Y'all were able to go to the YouTube Browser folio and and so click-through any of the 15 categories to scout more videos.

Think of YouTube's 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 beliefs.

So while it doesn't really matter anymore which of the 15 categories you pick, but selection the 1 closest to your video. In doubt pick either "Teaching" or "Entertainment"

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

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

  • You stirred up a hornet's nest. This is probably one of the about mutual reasons why people disabled comments on their channel.

    When a YouTuber or make is involved in a scandal or controversy, it's a very mutual phenomenon that all, or some of their videos get spammed with negative and hurtful comments. Fifty-fifty if it's a completely new video and has nada to practice with the controversy. If you desire to avoid hour-long cleanup sessions for your comments feed, temporarily disable your comments until everything has diddled over.

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

Alternatively, and that's my recommendation, plough on annotate moderation.

There are three settings for comments.

  • Allow all comments. Comment moderation is turned off. Everything is published instantly.
  • Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review. Comment moderation is on. YouTube uses its comment AI to identify three types of comments. "All skillful" 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 "Probable spam". In this category, you find comments where YouTube is fairly sure that anyone would consider them spam. This can exist triggered by the content of the annotate itself, by by behavior of the person commenting, or past spam reports for similar comments.
  • Hold all comments for review. This setting works exactly like the previous ane, with the exception that even the "All good" comments are moved to the "Review" tab.

Either way, this is hands reversible later.

Brandish 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 issue and yous don't feel it's appropriate to similar to dislike something. Call up of a funeral for case. In this instance, 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 feature might be an selection.

I personally don't recommend doing it. First of all, likes or dislikes brand no deviation to the YouTube algorithm, both count as engagement and assistance 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 brand money and run YouTube as a concern, this is the about important setting of all.

First, y'all want to turn monetization to "On" at the top.

Adjacent, you want to enable all advertising placements that don't have a checkmark next to it.

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

Note: this feature is only available if you decide to join the YouTube Partner Programme (so advertisers can run ads on your videos) and have fulfilled the requirements of one thousand YouTube subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours.

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

For virtually 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 abroad your ability to declare the ad suitability for your next video.

Why should you care most that?

Because if a video is on a knife'southward 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 little boxes that video creators tin can identify on height of their videos for the terminal 5 to 20 seconds of their videos.

In that location are five different elements that yous tin can place on your end screen.

  • Video. Link to some other YouTube video. In virtually cases, you want to link to related videos of your own channel to maximize watch fourth dimension and earnings.
  • Playlist. Another peachy way to heave your views. Link to a topic-specific playlist of your own YouTube channel.
  • Subscribe. Calculation a subscription button on top of your cease screen can boost the number of new subscribers.
  • Channel. Have a 2d YouTube channel that y'all want to promote? Or did your video feature a collaboration with another channel? Why non give them a shout out by promoting their channel in your stop screen.
  • Link. This can link to an canonical website. This can be YouTube partners such equally Teespring, or your own website. Yous accept to link and verify your domain to your YouTube account in order to make this work.

Cease screens are a great asset when information technology comes to increasing spotter time and earn more money with your YouTube aqueduct and I highly recommend calculation end screens to all of your videos.

Add Info Cards to Your YouTube Video

What are YouTube cards? Aforementioned idea as cease screens, merely less obtrusive nudges during your video itself.

Elements are slightly different. Y'all still take videos, playlists, channels, and links. Subscribe buttons are not available. But instead, you can add polls.

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

Choose the Correct Visibility for Your YouTube Video

The video visibility screen looks a piddling intimidating at first.

Hither is what you have to know. If y'all desire to proceed your video private for now, select "Save or publish" at the acme, and then "Private".

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

If y'all want to publish it right now, select "Save or publish" at the top, and and so "Public".

This selection allows you lot to mark a second checkbox. "Fix equally instant Premiere" is similar to a live stream sentinel party. If your viewers melody in halfway through your video, they tin't go dorsum until your Premiere has finished.

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

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

This allows you to select a engagement, time, and time zone when your video switches from "individual" to "public". It's not possible to schedule an "unlisted" video with YouTube.

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

If yous want to schedule an "unlisted" video, you can sign upward for a TubeBuddy business relationship.

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

If you are not ready to brand your video public nonetheless merely want to run it by a couple of close friends, you can set up it to unlisted and share the link with them.

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

Once you made your option, merely click on the "Save" push button at the lesser correct and your video is ready to go.

YouTube will offset to upload your video file during editing, and then with a chip of luck, it might be already encoded by now, especially if information technology was a curt video.

Utilize Additional Privacy Settings for Your YouTube Video if Necessary

In some cases, y'all might desire to enable boosted privacy features for your videos.

A expert instance could exist if y'all wanted to blur out the faces of people who walked into your frame.

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

  1. Open YouTube Studio.
  2. Click on "Videos" on the left.
  3. Open up whatever video of your pick.
  4. In the left sidebar, click on "Editor".
  5. In the video timeline located the "Add Blur" push button and click information technology.
  6. Next to "Blur faces" click on "Edit".
  7. Await for the video to process.
  8. Select any specific or all faces that y'all want to blur.
  9. Then click on "save" and yous're done.

In one case your video is alive or scheduled, it's time to promote information technology. I recommend a three-bending approach.

  • Share your video on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (You tin can also share your video to Twitter using TubeBuddy), LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest are good starting points and permit you to drive gratuitous organic traffic to your videos.
  • Share your video with your email list. If y'all don't take an electronic mail list yet, sign up for a Moosend business relationship and first building one. Email marketing is one of the most powerful promotional tools when information technology comes to building a successful and assisting YouTube aqueduct.
  • Share your video on your website or weblog. If you have your own website or blog, why not link to some of your YouTube videos within i of your articles? This is another easy to implement way, how to get free traffic to your YouTube videos.

Adjacent Steps

Yay, you lot made information technology! Congratulations.

At present that yous understand how to upload a YouTube video, information technology'southward time to work on other aspects of your YouTube channel.

Bank check out my YouTube articles on my weblog to learn more about building a assisting YouTube business, watch my YouTube Success playlist, and subscribe to my YouTube aqueduct to acquire how to build a profitable YouTube business.