Well, 2016 has come and gone (thankfully) and as we kick off 2017, there’s no better time to conduct a quick health check on your YouTube channel to start the year off on the right foot. Whether you’ve had a channel for years and already have a regular process in place for updates and optimizations, or have made it a New Year’s resolution to start your own channel, these simple (but effective) bulk-update strategies can go a long way in making sure your content’s metadata is sharp and consistent across the board and in a timely manner.
So, how do we get this going? Well, there’s a couple of options.
One way is through Google Chrome Extension VidIQ-Vision, a great tool that works on several levels. In addition to its ability to track social engagement and general video stats on YouTube, the VidIQ Vision extension also has bulk-updating capabilities within your Video Manager that can save you a ton of time. It essentially allows you to make edits to one video and then copy that information onto a crop of other videos. This applies to cards, end screens, thumbnails, and third party links (among others functions).
Now, if you don’t feel like downloading another extension onto your browser, the ‘Actions’ dropdown menu in your regular Video Manager will also save you time on similar updates. To utilize this tool, simply check the box next to as many videos as you’d like to apply a change to or if you’d like to impact all videos on your channel, check just the one box next to the ‘Actions’ dropdown. From there, select ‘More Actions’ in the dropdown and poof! a slew of possible action items will appear. The actual update will only take minutes to refresh and go into effect.
Your video’s metadata is just one of many important factors that lead to your video showing up in search, but let’s make it a point in 2017 to spend less time on making those tedious updates. Instead, devote more time to engaging your fans with what really matters at the end of the day — the content itself.