If you are adding videos to YouTube you probably want to grow your audience either because you have something you enjoy sharing, want to grow your business or perhaps become an influencer. Whatever the reason you want more views.

Having used YouTube now for about 12 years and with quite a respectable number of views I thought I would share some of the things I do to get noticed. In case you are wondering I have seen my views increase quite quickly since using the tips I mention below. I saw a four fold increase in views, as I was getting about 3,000 views per day that was a considerable increase to 10,000 to 12,000 views per day.

One thing that does help are good videos with useful information. If something is popular on YouTube it is because people want it. Now you might find some of the videos you load are not getting views but others are. It often puzzles me which ones work and which ones don’t.

If something isn’t working I do look at amending the title, perhaps I haven’t got it right. Make a change and see if that helps.

Keywords are important too and you might want to tinker around with those. Sometimes I add some keywords and then later something comes to mind and I add some in. Occasionally I do remove some that I think just didn’t make sense.

The description is where you can make a difference too as what you say there could come up on a search. It also helps to link to other videos. As far as I know YouTube likes that. So like to other videos, I would like to my own ones too and there is something you can do with end screens and cards, more about that in a moment.

Recently YouTube has implemented chapters that means your audience can jump directly to a part of the video, they can jump back to something to listen to it again or maybe they want to jump forward to something they want and don’t need the earlier bits. Perhaps they have a favourite section and want to see that again, and maybe share it with their friends.

Here is a video on creating chapters.

There are some other things you can do to help people subscribe or watch your’s or other videos. This call to action is important and you should mention it in your video, ask your viewers to subscribe and like the video, I had to learn this from my nephews and nieces but it does help. The moment I started do this I could see an increase in my views.

Part of the call to action is the end screen and cards. The end screen comes up at the end, the name of it suggests that. You’ve probably seen this, it displays other videos and also a subscribe button. It can also link to a website to help drive traffic.

Here is how you do it.

Another thing you’ve probably noticed is the little i that appears in the top right hand corner of a video often with a suggested video, but it can be used to link to your website or approved website, a playlist and until recently a poll (YouTube is disabling this soon), these are called cards. They are unobtrusive but can be effective in getting your audience to link on to something else.

Here is a video about adding cards.

There is one more thing and that is creating playlists, I’m sure YouTube likes it when you create playlists but it also means that your audience can find related videos that flow from one to the other. Playlists, like your videos, are shareable and that can be useful. I have playlists about particular topics so rather than sending each individual video I can just share the playlist.

Here’s another video this time on creating playlists.

Hope that all helps, in case you are wondering I have seen a difference in the number of views I get. Don’t forget if you like the videos do like and subscribe, also share them with your friends, family and colleagues.