What To Expect As A New YouTuber Or Let's Player

Almost every week or so I get a message from people on YouTube asking me to review their channel. Now I'm in no way a professional YouTuber and I don't try to present myself as one, but I do have over a thousand subscribers, and I feel that I know enough about SEO and presenting your channel properly that I can help people who are just starting out or people who started out a while ago but still don't have the amount of views that they want to have.

The questions are usually something like this: "I started YouTubing a while ago, and I still don't have a lot of views, can you check out my channel and tell me what I need to improve on?"

So usually I check out the channel and I find out that they started out YouTubing one or two weeks ago, maybe a month ago, and more often than not their view count as at around 0 to 5 views per video which is normal when you're starting out, but to them it seems like something is wrong because they compare themselves to big YouTubers like PewDiePie, PauseUnpause, Warowl, etc...

One thing you have to realize when you just starting out is that you're not going to get a lot of views right away. You're going to have to record at least 50, or maybe even 100 videos before you get your first real fan or subscriber that is going to stay with you until you're have a 1000 or even 10,000 subscribers.

The Most Comprehensive Guide To YouTube SEO

Whether you're just starting out on YouTube, or
you're a hardened YouTube veteran, you can always learn something new about YouTube SEO.

This is the most comprehensive guide about it on the web. (Excluding the YouTube PlayBook and Creator Studio which a lot of people haven't heard of.)

When I just started out, I had to spend hours on google searching and reading tiny 200 word articles about YouTube SEO.

They were useful, but I wished someone compiled all of the most useful content into one big post, and that's what I did here!

This is everything I've ever learned about SEO, from watching Creator Studio videos, reading blog posts, or spending time on Reddit. Everything is here!

For each part of the YouTube ranking puzzle I will write what worked for me, what worked for other people, and what the Key Takeaway for that puzzle piece is.

I run a gaming channel, so most of the examples will be related to gaming channels, but the following SEO information applies to all YouTube channels!

I've spent many hours writing, editing, and finding content for this post so I hope you find it useful!

This is my biggest post so far, so if you would like to skip around, you're more than welcome to!

Click on the links below to jump to the respective part of the post!

• Keyword Research
• Watchtime
• Content
• Authority
• Titles
• Descriptions
• Tags
• Captions/Transcriptions
• Viewer Engagement
• Thumbnails
• Small Tweaks
• Bonus Information
• Links to more information

Who Am I?

I am a let's play video creator who's had some success with getting his videos to rank high on YouTube, and who would like to share my (and other people's tips) with you.

I have a video in the number 2 spot for the keyword "AVA Gameplay", in addition to 4 other videos that are in the top 20 for that same keyword.

I also have a video in the number 1 spot, 4 spots above PewDiePie, for the keyword "Soccer physics pc", another number 1 video for "Chick can fly", and numerous other high ranking videos.

Anyway, enough about me!

Let's get started with what you're really here for!