Getting Found: Titles, Thumbnails and Search

How people find videos, in plain words

Roughly speaking, people find your videos in a few ways:

• They search for something on YouTube or a search engine, and your video comes up.
• YouTube suggests it to them, on the home page or next to another video.
• Someone shares it, or they follow a link from somewhere else.
• They're subscribed and see it in their feed.

The research bot

For this job, I'd add a third bot whose only job is research. Not writing, not posting.

Researching before you film

The best time to do search research is before you film, not after. If you know people search for "restore water damaged table" more than "fix white rings on wood", you can say those words in the video and use them in the title.

Where the bot can look

A bot can search the web and read public pages, including public video pages and comments. If you have a YouTube research connector or tool, it may be able to do more.

Titles that match

That last bit is important. A title that matches a search but not the video will get clicks, then people leave fast.

Thumbnails

The thumbnail is the little picture people see before they click. On a busy home page, it's often the first thing they notice.

Testing titles and thumbnails

YouTube Studio has an A/B testing tool for titles and thumbnails. YouTube's help page says you can test up to three titles, three thumbnails or three combinations on a video, from a computer, once advanced features are turned on for your channel.

Descriptions and chapters

Descriptions matter for search too, though people disagree on how much. The safe approach is simple.

Old videos

Here's a job most creators never get to. Going back through old videos and fixing their titles and descriptions.

Walkthrough: a research request before filming

The report that comes back might note that most videos use glue and clamps, and that several commenters ask what to do when the joint is too loose for glue alone. That's the angle.

What went wrong: the made-up search number

The first time the owner asked for research, the bot's report said one phrase got "about 12,000 searches a month". The owner asked where that came from.