Introduction

Do you find it challenging to get a YouTube channel to grow your subscribers? Well, most of the creators face this challenge. The struggle is real: many seem to attract new subscribers, yet their current audience dwindles. Worry not! There are strategic settings and practices you can introduce to boost your success chances. In this guide, we explore 11 essential steps that will help you gain free subscribers on YouTube. From video settings to improving your channel layout, these actionable tips will set you on the right growth path. Let’s dive in and discover how you can elevate your YouTube game!

1. Disable Automatic Chapters

First, this setting doesn’t seem like it would have much impact initially, but since watch time is key, it does. You’re going to want to navigate to the analytics of one of your videos and go to the details. Then scroll down to the automatic chapters.

Now, initially, you’re probably looking at automatic chapters like they’re gray. They’re probably going to help with the viewer experience, but that’s not true. The built-in chapter feature is made with AI and not good AI at that.

You can see in videos that use it that the chapters really aren’t that useful at all, and they can hurt your video retention if it’s misrepresenting your content. So you want to disable this feature and add chapters manually.

It’s as easy as adding the timestamps to your description with labels, and if you just wanna make it super easy, you can just use TubeBuddy. This helps if you’re doing a listicle-type video so people can generally see what’s coming next. But it also works on entertainment videos, too.

Lots of high-retention content will put a bar in the video to show when the next chapter is. It’s a high effort, but proves that chapters in anticipation to the next point can improve retention.

Also, Google indexes the keywords in your chapters so it can help viewers find your video when they’re searching and help you get discovered.

2. Fill in Your Channel Description

There’s another brand-new YouTube setting that I bet you haven’t utilized. Go to YouTube Studio and click Customization. Then go to Basic Info.

This is where we want to fill in a description. This is so vital because when you click on a channel now, it shows the first line of this description right on top of your channel page.

You can leave your audience to click on a link or any other call to action right under it. For instance, Ali Abdaal plugs his book here. Mr. Beast just tells you to subscribe and Veritasium tells you what to expect when clicking on his channel.

3. Enable Content Reuse

The top YouTubers like them know how essential it is to have people reacting and talking about your videos. That’s why you want to turn on this setting that allows others to reuse your content.

Now, some people may disagree, but it’s free exposure to have everyone and anyone talking about your videos. To do that, go to video details and change the standard YouTube license to Creative Commons attribution.

Also, right below it, I would click Allow Shorts Remixing so you can allow other creators to react and reuse your content when creating YouTube Shorts. And it’s not like they’re just stealing your content because any shorts of yours that another creator remixed are linked back to your OG content.

4. Choose the Right Video Category

The audience of your videos matters more than anything. For example, if you’re making a hockey video, you don’t want that video getting suggested to Minecraft viewers.

You can see what videos your video is getting suggested alongside if you look into your analytics. Once your video hits suggested, that’s a good sign that it’s going to blow up unless it gets sent to the wrong audience.

That’s gonna stall your video and cause the retention to plummet. So to make sure that doesn’t happen, look at this setting. In your video details, simply go to the category and then change it to whatever best represents your content.

5. Organize Your Channel Layout

Returning viewers are as essential as new viewers, especially in the case where they have viewed a lot of your videos for years.

So, you want to ensure that the following reason why they click on your channel is because they are encouraged to keep watching your content. If you view a popular YouTube channel like TommyInnit and then scroll down, you will notice that his channels are divided into sections that cater to his audience.

It looks full and engaging. So to do this for your channel, go to Customization, then click Featured Sections. Here you can add templates like popular videos or shorts, but if you wanna take it to that extra level, add created playlists with enticing names.

That way viewers can binge-watch a whole playlist if they go down your channel page. By default, the short section is at the top, so unless you really want to promote shorts, I suggest you move that down.

6. Add End Screens for Retention

If you get nothing else from this video, get this. It is crucial to keep people watching your videos. YouTube will heavily promote your videos if your viewer session time is spent on lots of your videos.

The best way to do that is to add end screens, and I would take this a step further. When you’re making a new video, write something at the end that makes people want to click on a specific video of yours.

For instance, if you’re making a Minecraft video about building a house, but you already posted a video on your channel about building a Minecraft mansion, you can say at the end of your video, “If you wanna see an even crazier build, click this now.”

Now having YouTube suggest a video or just having a recent video here works too if you don’t wanna put that much effort into it, but I highly recommend it. Either way, end screens are essential.

7. Add a Branding Watermark

It’s also essential to have a strong brand and get people subscribed. There’s a YouTube setting that makes it a lot easier. Go to Customization, then click Branding.

Here you can upload a custom image. It can be a profile picture or a logo, or you can just upload a photo that says Subscribe if you really don’t care about the branding. This will show up as a watermark at the bottom right of a viewer screen.

8. Use Upload Defaults for Efficiency

Your video description should be as consistent as you can get it—the same keywords, links, and tags. To do this, go to Settings, then Upload Defaults.

Here you want to put things like your affiliate links, your Instagram handle, any social media platform that you want, and any of the details that would stay the same from video to video.

Then you don’t have to waste time filling it in over and over again when you upload a new video. You want your time to be spent on the things that matter, like making the content itself.

9. Optimize Your Channel Keywords

Also, since YouTube automatically sets your videos to the public after it’s uploaded, I make sure your default visibility is unlisted so you don’t accidentally post your school project to your subs.

Now, in the same spot, go to the Channel. Here you can make sure that viewers can find your channel based on keywords. This is especially vital if you have a channel name that could be used in lots of other videos.

For example, Dream. Dream’s channel name can be in lots of other content. That’s why one of his keywords is Dream Minecraft. You wanna give viewers as many chances as possible to find your content, so take some time to fill in these keywords.

10. Add Related Videos in Shorts

Another great way to do that is if you upload YouTube Shorts. Now, Shorts are notorious for getting lots of views that don’t carry over to your long-form videos, but YouTube added a feature that helps with this.

When you upload a short and you’re in the upload UI, go to Video Element and add a related video. Here you can plug in another short or long-form video.

11. Turn on Two-Step Verification

Now, once you have all your banger videos uploaded, you want to make sure that nobody can hack you. That would be the end of your YouTube career.

With this setting, YouTube will notify you when someone tries to log into your account without permission, please don’t sleep on this feature because I see it so often when creators’ channels get hacked and years of uploads are suddenly gone.

To do that, turn on two-step verification, which will be prompted at the top of your YouTube Studio. Click Get Started and fill out everything accordingly.

Conclusion

These 11 YouTube settings will get you perfectly positioned to help you optimize your channel, increase views, and continue to grow your business in the long term. Most features, from chapters to descriptions, and security enable end screens to set up layout organization and to make use of upload defaults to save time, keep viewers interested, and have your content always ready for any screen.

Remember, YouTube is a reward-your-consistency-and-quality type of platform. Implement these settings today and watch your channel reach new heights. Keep creating, stay secure, and always prioritize your audience’s experience!

FAQs

1. Why should I disable automatic chapters on YouTube?

Automatic chapters might misrepresent your content, thus weakening your retention rate. Manually added chapters ensure accuracy and allow the viewer experience, enhancing SEO.

2. Why fill in the channel description?

Channel description appears on the channel page: You can briefly introduce your content, include a call-to-action, or just refer viewers to links. Filling it in is necessary for engaging and growing your channel.

3. Enable Creative Commons and Shorts remixing.

Yes, enabling Creative Commons and Shorts remixing lets other creators reuse or react to your content. This increases the view count because any remixed content is linked back to your original videos.

4. How does selecting the right video category help?

Selecting the right category will ensure that your video gets recommended to the right audience. This enhances retention rates and minimizes the chances of your video stalling.

5. What is the purpose of end screens in retention?

End screens direct viewers to watch more of your content, thereby increasing their session time on your channel. This will help YouTube promote your videos and grow your channel.

6. What is the advantage of a branding watermark?

A branding watermark appears on all your videos, making it easy for viewers to subscribe or recognize your brand, especially in full-screen mode.

7. Why use upload defaults?

Upload defaults make it quicker since consistent details – links, handles on socials, tags for example, on all your videos

8. In what way would channel keywords impact the discoverability of my content

Keywords can give viewers an easy search for my name if this also happens to match the name that comes up for popular items and applications.

9. How will linked videos in Shorts increase viewer engagement?

You let viewers transition from Shorts to more substantial content on your channel by linking related long-form videos or other Shorts.

10. Why do YouTube creators need to use two-step verification?

Two-step verification adds layer of security, ensuring your account cannot be accessed without authorization, which means that your channel and uploaded content are all safe.