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

Imagine this.

You worked really difficult, adult 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 side by side?

Follow along with my 25-step arrangement and go from final edit to fully-optimized YouTube video to give your next video the all-time possible get-go with my Ultimate YouTube Upload Checklist.

Upload Your First Video on YouTube

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

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

But today, we are doing it the old-fashioned way, via the YouTube web interface.

Log into your YouTube business relationship and and then locate the Creator carte in the peak right corner of your screen.

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

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

Next, you click on "Upload videos".

A new popup should open:

You might have noticed a small icon at the acme right saying "Upload with Classic". This is the old upload function and will disappear very shortly.

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

Y'all can either click on "Select files" and locate your video (or multiple videos). Or you can locate your video on your computer and drag and drop information technology into the gray circle.

Write a Compelling YouTube Video Title

Writing a captivating video title is 1 of the biggest success factors when information technology comes to YouTube videos.

Information technology has to be short and sweetness, then people on mobile and desktop devices can 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 contain specific keywords that someone might type into the YouTube search field to attract organic search traffic. This is specially important for minor YouTube channels with less than 1,000 subscribers.

If you want to learn more, check out these two manufactures 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

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

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

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

The next approach focuses on creating a call to action such as reminding your viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel, or following y'all on Instagram, or watching some of your other videos about a similar topic.

And then we have a hybrid approach. It uses the superlative half of your video for additional information most your video, allowing you to optimize your video for YouTube SEO. And then it uses the bottom half to promote someone of your existing videos and external links that permit you to make money on YouTube, fifty-fifty when you lot're non yet monetized.

Pattern a Click-Worthy YouTube Video Thumbnail

Together with your video title, the video thumbnail has the biggest bear on 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 nonetheless subscribed to your YouTube aqueduct yet.

I recommend reviewing some of your favorite YouTube creators and to find a simple style that'south resonating with yous and the content that you're creating and then using that as the foundation to notice your own fashion.

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 virtually.

Yous can bank check out my tutorial on how to create blithe video thumbnails for social media to become a good idea of how to design a simple, yet great-looking thumbnail for your video.

If you desire to get into the basics and bolts of thumbnail creation, here's the article to read: How to make customized thumbnails that go clicks for your YouTube videos.

Add Your Videos to YouTube Playlists

Every YouTube channel should have at to the lowest degree two plalist.

The showtime one should contain all of your published videos. This makes it very convenient for people who discover your channel for the commencement time to rampage-spotter all of your videos.

The second playlist should be ane of many to come up and contain all the videos of a particular topic.

When yous're but starting out the "all videos" and "all about topic X" might contain the same videos, but that's going to modify really quickly as you make more and more than videos.

I utilize TubeBuddy to go along all of my YouTube playlists organized. It allows me to apace sort all of my playlists with the click of a push. I love to sort all of my playlists by picket fourth dimension and put the most pop videos at the superlative.

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

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

YouTube'due south Customs Guidelines

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

In the USA, the historic period of a "kid" is defined every bit anyone under the historic period of 13. However, this number may be college in other countries.

If your aqueduct is not fabricated for kids, then y'all should select "No".

The side by side question is, do you want to restrict your video to an developed audience?

Y'all should select "Yes" if your video covers whatsoever of the following topics or themes: Violence, agonizing imagery, nudity, sexually suggestive content, or portrayal of dangerous activities.

Otherwise, select "No" and move on.

If all of your YouTube videos are not made for kids, you can visit the YouTube Studio, click on "Settings" and then under "Channel" select "No" as your channel default for new uploads.

If your video contains paid promotion or has been sponsored by a 3rd party, you might be under a legal obligation to disclose this information to your viewers.

At that place are two options.

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

If you lot cheque the 2d 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, information technology'southward mandatory to disclose this.

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

Tags are one of the most underrated features on YouTube.

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

Keywords are substantially little text snippets that people might type into the search field. If one of your keywords matches the search term, at that place is a good probability that your video will prove up.

Specially, if y'all picked a "very good" keyword, that both have a loftier search volume and very little completion in terms of like videos.

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

It opens up the TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. In the top left corner, I can type in any keyword I want to enquiry.

TubeBuddy will then admission the YouTube database and discover 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 red to green.

Information technology will also give me related keyword ideas that I might add to my tags based on what some of the most pop YouTube videos with similar topics use in their videos, too as some of the most popular, related searches on YouTube and Google.

Set the Language for Your YouTube Video

Setting your video language is an important stride. Information technology ensures that, if your video contains spoken words, it will mostly exist promoted to people who speak the language of your video.

Funny compilations of cats and dogs will still be shown to anybody because they don't really contain whatever spoken words. In this case, y'all can just 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 near explanation certification is only relevant to a very small part of the YouTube creator community.

It's specifically targeting creators and publishing companies whose videos have previously aired on U.s. idiot box. These videos are legally required to continue to display subtitles even when re-uploaded to platforms such as YouTube.

In about cases yous desire to select the default setting, "This content has never aired on tv set in the U.S."

Using subtitles is a very good exercise in general. Information technology helps you to optimize your videos for YouTube SEO, as YouTube uses your subtitles as a total-text search engine.

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

I utilize a tool called Otter to transcribe all of my YouTube videos. If you sign up via this link, you get 100 extra minutes of gratuitous transcriptions.

Update the Recording Date and Location of Your Video

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

This is peculiarly useful for time-relevant content such as news and allows YouTube to use both information to align it with a viewer'due south search intent.

Review Your YouTube Video Licenses

You lot take 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 mark your original video with a Creative Commons license, you're granting the entire YouTube community the right to reuse and edit your video.

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

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

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

Review Your YouTube Video Distribution Settings

Y'all accept ii choices when information technology comes to distribution. You can show your videos "Everywhere" or only on "Monetized Platforms".

At present 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" besides includes the post-obit placements:

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

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

Let 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 brand by preventing their videos from actualization aslope content they don't approve of.

Some websites are able to hijack embedded videos and supplant YouTube'southward congenital-in ads with their own. Result? You become your views and spotter time but no AdSense revenue.

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

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

Delight note, that this also prevents you from embedding your videos on your own website. If you want to have both, you 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 can receive a maximum of iii new video notifications from your channel in a 24-60 minutes period?

What if you have to upload more than 3 videos and you desire to exist selective almost which videos y'all want to promote via email notification?

Imagine you want to upload a webinar replay to your YouTube channel, only y'all don't want to send out an email to each and every i of your subscribers.

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

The video will be public and available in your videos feed for those looking for it.

Update Your YouTube Video Category

YouTube allows yous to cull between 15 unlike categories for your videos.

  • Autos & Vehicles
  • One-act
  • Educational activity
  • Amusement
  • Flick & Blitheness
  • Gaming
  • Howto & Way
  • Music
  • News & Politics
  • Nonprofits & Activism
  • People & Blogs
  • Pets & Animals
  • Science & Engineering science
  • Sports
  • Travel & Events

The question is, which is the right 1 for your video?

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

You were able to become to the YouTube Browser page and then click-through any of the 15 categories to sentinel more videos.

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

Then while it doesn't actually matter anymore which of the 15 categories y'all choice, only selection the 1 closest to your video. In doubt pick either "Education" or "Entertainment"

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

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

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

    When a YouTuber or brand is involved in a scandal or controversy, information technology'southward a very mutual miracle that all, or some of their videos get spammed with negative and hurtful comments. Even if information technology's a completely new video and has nothing to do with the controversy. If you want 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, but the video your uploading right at present contains a controversial opinion, you might want to proactively plough off your comments.

Alternatively, and that'southward my recommendation, plough on comment moderation.

There are three settings for comments.

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

Either way, this is easily reversible afterwards.

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 consequence and you don't experience it's appropriate to like to dislike something. Recollect of a funeral for example. In this example, turning off likes would be ok.

Some other reason for disabling likes are controversial video topics when uploaders await an overwhelming number of dislikes, turning off the likes feature might be an option.

I personally don't recommend doing it. Starting time of all, likes or dislikes make no departure to the YouTube algorithm, both count as engagement and help your video to be seen by more people.

Secondly, those people who dislike your videos are simply at that place for the short term and volition eventually disappear.

Enable Monetization for Your YouTube Video

If you lot want to make money and run YouTube equally a business, this is the almost important setting of all.

Kickoff, y'all desire to turn monetization to "On" at the peak.

Next, you want to enable all ad placements that don't take a checkmark next to information technology.

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

Annotation: this characteristic is but bachelor if you decide to bring together the YouTube Partner Programme (and then advertisers can run ads on your videos) and take fulfilled the requirements of m YouTube subscribers and four,000 public sentinel hours.

When you turned on monetization, YouTube volition ask yous to categorize the video based on YouTube'due south advertising guidelines.

For near content creators, none of these will apply, and they should select "None of the above" at the bottom of the folio.

Attempt to be truthful, as YouTube volition nevertheless run automated tests to make up one's mind 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 y'all care about that?

Considering if a video is on a knife's edge, YouTube will accept 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 Finish Screens to Your Video

What are stop screens?

Those are piffling boxes that video creators can identify on superlative of their videos for the final 5 to 20 seconds of their videos.

There are five different elements that you tin place on your end screen.

  • Video. Link to another YouTube video. In well-nigh cases, you want to link to related videos of your own channel to maximize watch fourth dimension and earnings.
  • Playlist. Another great way to boost your views. Link to a topic-specific playlist of your own YouTube aqueduct.
  • Subscribe. Adding a subscription push button on superlative of your terminate screen can heave the number of new subscribers.
  • Channel. Have a 2d YouTube channel that yous desire to promote? Or did your video characteristic a collaboration with another channel? Why not give them a shout out by promoting their channel in your end screen.
  • Link. This tin link to an canonical website. This tin can be YouTube partners such equally Teespring, or your own website. Yous have to link and verify your domain to your YouTube account in guild to brand this piece of work.

Cease screens are a great asset when information technology comes to increasing watch time and earn more coin with your YouTube channel and I highly recommend adding finish screens to all of your videos.

Add Info Cards to Your YouTube Video

What are YouTube cards? Same idea equally cease screens, but less obtrusive nudges during your video itself.

Elements are slightly different. Yous nevertheless have videos, playlists, channels, and links. Subscribe buttons are non available. Merely instead, you lot can add polls.

From my experience, the best apply 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 upward at the summit right (i) info icon.

Choose the Right Visibility for Your YouTube Video

The video visibility screen looks a little intimidating at commencement.

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

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

If y'all want to publish it correct now, select "Salvage or publish" at the summit, and then "Public".

This selection allows you to mark a 2d checkbox. "Prepare as instant Premiere" is similar to a live stream watch political party. If your viewers tune in halfway through your video, they tin can't go back 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 want to switch over to the "Schedule" section.

This allows y'all to select a date, time, and time zone when your video switches from "individual" to "public". It'due south not possible to schedule an "unlisted" video with YouTube.

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

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

This allows you to schedule any transition at whatever time. Private to Unlisted, Unlisted to Public, Public to Private. Whatever your middle desires.

If you are non ready to make your video public yet but want to run it by a couple of close friends, you tin can set information technology to unlisted and share the link with them.

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

Once you fabricated your choice, just click on the "Save" button at the lesser right and your video is ready to go.

YouTube will start to upload your video file during editing, then with a bit of luck, it might be already encoded by now, specially if information technology was a short video.

Apply Additional Privacy Settings for Your YouTube Video if Necessary

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

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

YouTube has a born AI to detect and blur faces.

  1. Open YouTube Studio.
  2. Click on "Videos" on the left.
  3. Open whatsoever video of your selection.
  4. In the left sidebar, click on "Editor".
  5. In the video timeline located the "Add Mistiness" push and click it.
  6. Next to "Mistiness faces" click on "Edit".
  7. Expect for the video to procedure.
  8. Select any specific or all faces that yous want to blur.
  9. Then click on "save" and you're done.

Once your video is live or scheduled, information technology'south time to promote it. I recommend a 3-bending arroyo.

  • Share your video on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (You can besides share your video to Twitter using TubeBuddy), LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest are skillful starting points and let you to drive gratuitous organic traffic to your videos.
  • Share your video with your email listing. If yous don't have an e-mail list yet, sign up for a Moosend business relationship and start building i. Email marketing is one of the most powerful promotional tools when it comes to building a successful and profitable YouTube channel.
  • Share your video on your website or web log. If y'all take your own website or web log, why not link to some of your YouTube videos inside one of your articles? This is some other easy to implement way, how to go costless traffic to your YouTube videos.

Next Steps

Yay, yous made it! Congratulations.

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

Check out my YouTube articles on my blog to learn more most edifice a profitable YouTube business organization, watch my YouTube Success playlist, and subscribe to my YouTube channel to learn how to build a profitable YouTube business.