Your beginner’s guide to YouTube: The ultimate checklist to gaining YouTube views
Want to grow views and subscribers to your YouTube channel but don’t know how to start? Here’s your ultimate checklist to gaining YouTube views.
YouTube can be highly lucrative if you have enough views and subscribers, but it’s also extremely competitive, which can make it tough getting those views and subscribers when you first start out.
So where do you begin if you want more eyes on your YouTube content? Socialsup are experienced marketers who help YouTubers to build viewers, increase subscription numbers, and grow a loyal, engaged audience.
In this article they share their ultimate beginner’s checklist to gaining viewers. We hope you find it helpful.
1) Narrow down your niche
As a beginner on YouTube, it’s easy to be all over the place in your subject matter. However, without narrowing your channel to a specific niche you’ll find it virtually impossible to build a following.
If you post a food recipe one day, then upload a video post on sports highlights two weeks later, your viewers will just be confused. What do you post about? And why should they come back and check out further posts?
However, if you decide to niche on healthy food recipes, for example, and solely post content related to this, then people who are interested in this subject are more likely to return to your channel and become a regular viewer and follower.
Plus, if you have a food recipe channel and recently uploaded a video on vegetable curries, while your viewers watch this video, the sidebar section pops up with other food-related videos from your channel.
With your YouTube channel driven by a niche, it becomes easier to get more views on all your video posts. Creating niche-driven video content is the perfect strategy for building a YouTube community.
2) Create your videos around the most-searched topics
A common mistake among new YouTube creators is the idea of creating ‘me-centered’ video content. But putting out a video that reads ‘The Skin Moisturizer I Use’ is unlikely to get you many (or even any) views unless you are a celebrity.
Why would anyone care about the kind of skin moisturizer a new creator with a hundred subscribers uses? If you want to reach a broader audience, you need to use the right keywords – keywords that fit your content AND the topics viewers are searching for.
Targeting topics with higher and faster traffic potential is your number two golden ticket to gaining more views. If you don’t know how to find the right topics, you can watch tips on how to draft the most-searched topics for new creators to generate high-traffic on (surprise, surprise!) YouTube.
You can then check your topic ideas on YouTube and Google to verify their traffic potential before creation. This technique works for everyone, including new creators.
3) Understand click-through rates
So we’ve explored the importance of ranking your YouTube video. However, irrespective of how high it ranks, your views only start coming in from clicks.
So yes, people may see your video appear in the first few searches within your niche, but what is actually going to make them want to click on and watch them? Understanding how click-through works on YouTube can earn you plenty of viewers if you use your new knowledge properly.
One major component to boost your click-through rate is having a compelling title. Most people approach this the wrong way by creating clickbait titles like ‘Get 1M YouTube Followers In 24hrs’.
But viewers are unlikely to fall for these kind of tricks. And even if they do once, they won’t return to your channel again. If you want to create compelling titles to increase your click-through rate on YouTube, here are some tips:
- Use your main keyword in titles: To make your video posts pop up on relevant search terms, you need to include your main keyword. Having your target keyword naturally infused into your title draws attention.
- Keep it short: The YouTube algorithm often ignores video posts with lengthy titles. So as much as you may want to make your title descriptive, try to keep it short.
- Highlight the benefits: Make sure your title gives someone a reason to click on your video and watch it. If they’re looking for a great lentil recipe, what will make them pick yours? What will they get out of it? For example, will the recipe impress their friends? Or is it quick and easy to make?
4) Take advantage of YouTube search ads
While you might not have much of a budget for this at the start, taking advantage of YouTube search ads is an easy way to increase your views. Paying for your videos to be published shows you believe in the content you’re putting out, and can help to get it in front of a much wider audience.
However, if you’re going to invest in ads then you’ll want to ensure that your new viewers return to your content, and even subscribe to your channel to maximise your return on investment.
If you want engaged views and to build a YouTube community from your YouTube ads here are some quick tips:
- Have interesting content for people to watch: An ad may attract a new viewer to your channel, but what’s going to keep them there? Your content. So before you invest in ads, make sure you have plenty of relevant, up-to-date content in the same niche. You want them to be so delighted by your content than you become their one-stop channel for informative content on your topic.
- Share your link: Repost the link from your YouTube ads to as many social media platforms as possible. After investing in creating public awareness through ads, the first person you should advertise to is your social media community of friends as they’ll help to increase your views for the traffic coming from YouTube.
Final Thoughts
You can be so eager to get views and subscribers from the public that you neglect leveraging your immediate community. The only reason you should look to explore external procedures and take extra steps to gain views is when everyone around you visits your channel often. When you have this checked off the list, the above checklist comes in handy in helping you gain more viewers on your video posts.
Get started with these tips today, and watch your viewers’ rate spike up in no time!
