16 YouTube Settings EVERYONE Should CHANGE NOW

Summary

This video script offers a comprehensive guide to optimizing YouTube settings for increased visibility and engagement. It advises on upload defaults, such as setting videos to private initially for quality processing and copyright checks, and the importance of accurately answering the 'altered content' question to avoid penalties. The script also covers the implications of marking videos as 'made for kids,' strategies for scheduling video releases, and the use of end screens to boost viewership. Additionally, it touches on the role of video tags, the benefits of AB thumbnail testing, and the potential of the 'shorts remixing' feature, providing actionable tips for content creators to enhance their YouTube presence.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Set your video visibility to 'unlisted' for at least 2 hours after uploading to allow YouTube to process and check for copyright issues.
• 🎥 If your video is time-sensitive or uses AI-generated content, consider the 'altered content' setting to avoid misleading viewers.
• 🚫 Be cautious with the 'made for kids' setting, as it has significant implications for features like comments and can attract legal penalties if mishandled.
• 🔔 It's generally beneficial to notify subscribers when a video is published, but there may be exceptions like channel trailers or niche content.
• ⏰ Schedule video releases during peak audience times on YouTube to maximize views and engagement.
• 📅 Avoid publishing videos at the top of the hour to prevent notification congestion and increase visibility.
• 💰 Disclose paid promotions to maintain integrity and comply with legal requirements, which can be indicated with a small label on the video.
• 📚 Manually create video chapters for better accuracy and control over the video structure.
• 📊 Categories may not significantly impact video discovery, but setting them appropriately can't hurt and might help in some cases.
• 🔗 Consider the 'Creative Commons' license and 'Shorts remixing' settings to potentially increase your content's reach and visibility.

Q & A

What is the recommended setting for video visibility upon upload to YouTube?

The recommended setting is to set the video to 'unlisted' upon upload to give YouTube time to process the video to its highest quality and perform copyright checks. It's suggested to have at least a 2-hour window from upload to publishing.

How does the 'altered content' setting affect a video on YouTube?

The 'altered content' setting should be marked 'yes' if the AI-generated content could mislead viewers into thinking a famous person or location is real when it's not. Failing to answer this correctly could lead to penalties such as demonetization or content removal.

What are the implications of marking a video as 'made for kids' on YouTube?

Marking a video as 'made for kids' can limit features like comments, end screens, and super chats. It's important to be truthful about this setting to avoid penalties, as the FTC could get involved for non-compliance, leading to significant fines.

Why might a YouTube creator want to notify subscribers when a video first goes public?

Notifying subscribers when a video goes public helps ensure the video has the widest distribution possible, as it directly reaches the creator's core audience who are most likely to engage with the content.

How can scheduling a video's public release time improve its performance on YouTube?

Scheduling a video's release for a time when the audience is most active on YouTube can lead to better initial viewing signals and engagement, which can positively influence the YouTube algorithm's assessment of the video's performance.

What is the purpose of the 'pay promotion' setting on YouTube?

The 'pay promotion' setting is used to disclose when a video includes content for which the creator has been paid, maintaining transparency and integrity. It adds a small label to the video, which is important for legal compliance in some jurisdictions.

Why are automatic chapters not recommended for all videos on YouTube?

Automatic chapters can sometimes be inaccurate and spoil the video experience. Manually creating chapters allows for better control over the video's structure and ensures accuracy, enhancing the viewer's experience.

What is the role of video categories on YouTube, and how should they be approached?

Video categories may not have a significant impact on discovery as they are not prominently featured in search filters. It's advised to select a category that closely matches the video's content without overemphasizing its importance.

How can the 'shorts remixing' feature on YouTube benefit a creator?

The 'shorts remixing' feature allows YouTube Shorts creators to use snippets from a creator's videos, potentially increasing the original content's visibility. It's contained within the platform, and analytics are available to track how often videos are remixed.

What is the advice for using video tags on YouTube, and how can they be efficiently managed?

Video tags are not as crucial for discovery as once thought. They can be efficiently managed by using tools like the vid IQ browser extension to generate relevant tags quickly or copying tags from similar successful videos.

How does the 'end screens' feature on YouTube help in retaining viewers?

End screens can encourage viewers to watch another video by the same creator when they reach the end of a video. It's effective when there's a logical connection between the videos and a clear call to action, potentially increasing watch time and engagement.

Outlines

00:00

🔧 Optimizing YouTube Settings for Maximum Views

The paragraph discusses crucial YouTube settings that can significantly impact video visibility and performance. It emphasizes the importance of setting the correct video visibility during upload to allow YouTube time for processing and copyright checks, suggesting a minimum 2-hour window before publishing. The paragraph also introduces a new setting for 'altered content' created by AI, which requires careful consideration to avoid penalties like demonetization or content removal. Furthermore, it highlights the legal requirement to accurately declare whether a video is made for children, with severe consequences for non-compliance. The paragraph concludes with advice on scheduling video releases to maximize audience engagement.

05:00

📚 Deep Dive into YouTube's Automatic Features and Legal Considerations

This section delves into the intricacies of YouTube's automatic features, such as chapters, places, and concepts, advising caution as they may not always enhance the viewer experience. It critiques the utility of YouTube categories for content discovery, suggesting they may be a legacy feature without substantial impact. The paragraph also touches on the importance of honesty in content creation, particularly when discussing paid promotions, and the viewer's ability to identify sponsored content through replay patterns. Additionally, it introduces the concept of Creative Commons licensing and the emerging feature of 'shorts remixing,' which allows for content sharing within YouTube's platform.

10:01

🎥 Navigating YouTube's Comment and Community Settings

The focus of this paragraph is on managing community engagement through comment settings, advocating for at least basic moderation to maintain a positive environment. It introduces the feature of pausing comments to preserve existing discussions while preventing new ones, which can be particularly useful for managing controversial content. The paragraph also discusses the importance of customizing automated filters to block spam and unwanted language, ensuring a tailored approach to each creator's needs. Additionally, it addresses the role of video tags in content discovery, suggesting a streamlined approach to their use, and highlights the value of A/B testing thumbnails to optimize viewer engagement.

15:02

📈 Leveraging YouTube Features for Viewer Retention and Growth

This final paragraph emphasizes strategic use of YouTube features to boost viewer retention and channel growth. It discusses the effectiveness of end screens in directing viewers to additional content, stressing the importance of creating a logical link between videos to encourage continued viewing. The paragraph also hints at the importance of early channel setup and optimization, suggesting that there are critical actions to take at the outset of a YouTube journey to ensure long-term success.

Keywords

💡YouTube Settings

YouTube Settings refer to the various configurations and preferences that can be adjusted by video creators to optimize their content for the YouTube platform. In the video, these settings are crucial for ensuring that videos are properly processed, copyrighted, and promoted. The script emphasizes the importance of settings like visibility, upload defaults, and altered content, which directly impact how a video is perceived and distributed on the platform.

💡Visibility

Visibility in the context of YouTube refers to the setting that determines who can see the video. The script suggests setting videos to 'unlisted' initially to give YouTube time to process the video and to avoid immediate public exposure. This allows for quality checks and copyright verification before the video is accessible to a wider audience.

💡Upload Defaults

Upload Defaults are pre-set configurations that apply to every video uploaded by a creator. These include settings like visibility, which can be set to 'unlisted' by default to ensure that all new videos are not immediately public. The script highlights the importance of these defaults as a way to streamline the upload process and maintain control over content release.

💡Altered Content

Altered Content is a setting related to videos that have been modified using AI, particularly when it comes to visuals or audio. The script explains that creators must disclose if AI-generated content could mislead viewers into thinking a person or location is real when it is not. This disclosure can affect how the video is labeled and may influence its discoverability and monetization on YouTube.

💡Made for Kids

The 'Made for Kids' setting is a legal requirement for content that is exclusively intended for children under 13. The video script discusses the implications of marking a video as 'Made for Kids,' which can limit certain interactive features but is necessary for compliance with regulations. Failure to accurately label such content can result in penalties from YouTube or even legal action.

💡Subscriber Notification

Subscriber Notification is a feature that alerts subscribers when a new video is published. The script mentions that it's generally beneficial to keep this setting enabled to ensure maximum distribution, but there may be exceptions, such as when releasing a channel trailer or content that might not resonate with the core audience.

💡Scheduling

Scheduling in the context of YouTube refers to the ability to set a video to go public at a specific future date and time. The video script explains that scheduling can help create a viewing habit among subscribers by releasing content at consistent times, which is supported by data from YouTube analytics.

💡Pay Promotion

Pay Promotion is a setting used when a creator has been compensated to discuss a product or service in their video. The script emphasizes the importance of transparency and integrity by disclosing such promotions, which are often required by law. This is indicated by a small label on the video, and while it may not significantly impact the video, it is a crucial aspect of content authenticity.

💡Video Chapters

Video Chapters are timestamps that break down the content of a video into sections, making it easier for viewers to navigate. The script advises against using automatic chapters due to potential inaccuracies and suggests manually creating chapters for better control and to avoid spoilers. This feature is particularly useful for longer, educational videos.

💡Video Categories

Video Categories are broad classifications that help categorize content on YouTube. However, the script expresses skepticism about their effectiveness in discovery, as they do not seem to be prominently featured in search or recommendation algorithms. Despite this, the video suggests setting a category that closely matches the video's content, without overemphasizing its importance.

💡Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a licensing scheme that allows creators to specify how others may use their content. The script discusses the option to enable a setting that allows others to use parts of a video without permission, which could potentially increase the content's reach. This is contrasted with 'Shorts Remixing,' a more contained feature that allows only YouTube Shorts creators to use snippets of content.

Highlights

Ensure YouTube Studio's upload defaults are set correctly for video visibility to allow processing and copyright checks.

Recommendation to set a minimum 2-hour window from upload to publishing for video quality and checks.

For time-sensitive videos, upload in private, prepare, and publish as soon as possible.

New 'Altered content' setting requires disclosure if AI generates parts of a video that could mislead viewers.

Correctly answering the 'Altered content' question prevents penalties like demonetization or content removal.

Videos must declare if they are exclusively made for kids, affecting features like comments and end screens.

Penalties for incorrectly marking a video as 'made for kids' can lead to YouTube overrides or legal issues.

Notifying subscribers when a video goes public is generally recommended for wider distribution.

Scheduling video release can create a subconscious watching habit among viewers.

Publish videos 2-3 hours before your audience peak for optimal visibility.

Avoid publishing at the top of the hour to prevent notification competition with other creators.

Declare paid promotions for integrity and legal compliance, which adds a small label to the video.

Video chapters should be manually created for accuracy and to avoid spoilers.

YouTube categories may not significantly impact discovery despite being labeled as helpful.

Automatic places and concepts are experimental features with unclear impact on discovery.

The Creative Commons license allows free use of your content, potentially increasing its visibility.

Shorts remixing enables YouTube shorts creators to use snippets from your content within the platform.

Comment settings should include basic moderation, with options to pause comments or block specific words.

Showing viewers the like count on a video can encourage more engagement.

Video tags are less important for discovery than other metadata like titles and thumbnails.

AB thumbnail testing with up to three thumbnails helps determine the most effective thumbnail.

End screens can significantly increase views by linking to another video with a strong call to action.

Transcripts

there are tons of YouTube settings that

can make or break a video so here's 16

of them and how to fix them so you get

more views make sure you stick around

until the end because there's a huge

update to a setting you're all desperate

to get your hands up so when need

YouTube Studio go to settings and then

upload defaults and find visibility the

last thing you want to do is set this to

public you need to give YouTube time to

process a video up to its highest

quality as well as do its copyright

checks my general recommendation is that

you give yourself a minimum of A2 hour

window from upload to publishing

obviously it's a bit different if your

video is very time sensitive upload it

in private prepare it and then publish

it as soon as you can all right we're

going to move from upload defaults to

look at individual settings for videos a

lot of these can be set at the upload

default level so they affect all videos

but some will need to be treated

individually like this brand new setting

altered content if you're using AI to

generate any part of a video whether it

be visuals or audio you definitely need

to read this question but you don't

necessarily need to answer yes all of

the time YouTube support of supplied

tons of examples on what you need to do

and we've made some dedicated videos on

the subject so make sure to check them

out it's all linked below put simply

treat the question like this if your AI

generated content may mislead a viewer

into thinking a famous person or a

famous location is real when it isn't

the answer is probably yes now the

impact of doing this is quite small in

most cases all it will do is add this

message to the video description in some

cases YouTube May deem it necessary to

add this label to the actual video as

it's playing but YouTube says that this

shouldn't impact the discovery of the

content or monetization however this

does all hinge on you answering the

altered content question correctly if

you don't there are penalties

demonetization removal of a Content

possibly worse the next setting is

pretty much a legal requirement you've

got to declare whether or not the video

is exclusively made for kids now in many

cases there will be audience overlap

which means that the content isn't

solely made for kids such as the Marvel

franchise I'm interested in it and I'm

clearly not a child on the other hand

something like Coco melon nursery rhymes

is definitely aimed solely at children

and is rightly labeled as such so the

question is this if the video would only

be enjoyed by children under the age of

13 then it is made for kids now there

are some pretty big implications of

making content exclusively for children

including all of this stuff no comments

cars end screen super chats the list

goes on but the penalties for not being

truthful with this question are pretty

dire in most cas YouTube will just

override your answer and set a video as

made for kids but they could take

further action and in extreme cases the

FTC could get involved it's a big fine

unlikely but it's not worth the risk

right one of the less well-known

settings now and that's whether or not

to notify your subscribers when a video

first goes public it is very rare that

you'd want to turn this off as naturally

you want your videos to have the widest

distribution as possible but there may

be rare circumstances such as when you

upload a dedicated Channel trailer or

when you definitely know know that this

video is not going to resonate with your

core audience that you want to turn a

setting off ultimately what you're

trying to avoid here is bad viewing

signals being sent to the YouTube

algorithm about your video early on in

its life now this is a setting I use all

of the time it's found under visibility

and it gives you the option to schedule

your video to go public at a date and

time in the future you're probably not

aware of this but we do schedule our

videos to go public every Monday and

Friday at exactly the same time to

create a subconscious watching habit

within our audience and this is backed

up by data from vid iq's best time to

post tool but also from data found in

the analytic section of a YouTube Studio

this panel will show you when your

viewers are on YouTube so obviously you

want to Target the release of your

content around the same time now

unfortunately for many small channels

this data might not be available but I

do have one more trick I want to show

you you can see from the realtime views

in your analytics how your audience

comes and goes in this example it is

clear that there is a surge of views

every day

around about late afternoon so we

publish videos as that surge starts to

rise in the early afternoon so the tip

here is to publish your videos two or 3

hours before the peak of your audience

on YouTube unless the video is time

sensitive publish it as quick as you can

now YouTube do state that the publish

time of the video does not impact its

long-term performance but at the same

time you don't want to publish your

videos when none of your viewers are on

YouTube right it just doesn't make any

sense and as a bonus tip try publishing

your videos not at the top of the hour

say 1115 or 645 that means your

notifications are not competing with

everybody else's another YouTube setting

that has more of a legal nature to it is

the pay promotion one if you've been

paid to talk about a specific product or

service in one of your videos then for

your own integrity and credibility you

want to be open and transparent about it

right this is the only impact on your

video a small label in the top left hand

corner of a screen that will disappear

after a few seconds not much more to add

here from a creator point of view other

than in some jurisdictions it is a legal

requirement to do this so make sure

you're honest but from a viewer's point

of view this is interesting you can

almost always tell when there's a pay

promotion segment on a video because the

most replayed part of a video will have

this bike showing the pay promotion

viewers skipped I wonder if the

advertisers ever look at this Okie doie

we're going to look at the automatic

chapter setting next but only to advise

you not to use it now don't get me wrong

video chapters can be extremely helpful

for longer video especially educational

ones but automatic chapters can

sometimes spoil the video and they're

not terribly accurate either so here's a

crash course in how to manually create

chapters in the description write a time

stamp like this 0 colon 0 Z then give it

a title next do exactly the same thing

with a new Tim stamp and that will

create another chapter and so on and so

on now I do this for every video and

I'll tell you why it kind of acts like a

final proof read of the video once it's

been uploaded to YouTube check that

everything's right before I press

publish adding video chapters will have

an unavoidable impact on audience

retention which you can check in the

analytics of the video but ultimately

chapters are designed to help viewers

and if they're happy YouTube is happy

all right then deep breath

everybody let's talk about YouTube

categories because somebody's got to you

would think categories might be quite

important especially when YouTube says

this will help viewers find videos more

easily but where on Earth is this random

assortment of categories implemented

that helps the discovery of content the

search filters don't offer these options

and the topic chips found dotted around

YouTube are far more granular specific

and useful now I spent a good no

precious 50 minutes of my own time

crawling through the YouTube support

Pages looking for any mention of YouTube

categories and found nothing so this is

a pretty bold statement for YouTube to

make without really backing it up

however a YouTube employe recently did

say this when we have absolutely no

behavioral data we're going to probably

rely more on the metadata the data that

we have in terms of the title and the

description so I don't know maybe it is

useful maybe isn't my best guess is that

video categories is a legacy of

YouTube's old Discovery features and

tools much like video tags yeah we'll

get back to them so the advice here is

pretty simple set the video category as

close to what you think it should be for

your video and don't sweat it for the

gaming category it does let you search

for the specific game you're covering

and it will appear in the description of

the video but let's be crystal clear

about this the success or failure of a

video is not going to be solely

determined by its category all right we

got two settings now that I've got to

confess I don't entirely know what they

do automatic places and automatic

Concepts and I say this because despite

how they're described I haven't seen

these out in the wild on YouTube

automatic places talks about

highlighting key places in a carousel in

the description of your video got to

confess I myself have never witnessed

this feature on YouTube it could be

useful for travel channels but at the

same time there's concerns over privacy

so to play it safe you might want to

turn this setting off there's also a

setting that allows you to manually add

a specific recording location if you

need to but from a search and Discovery

perspective it's probably better to add

any location as a hashtag in the video

description automatic Concepts seems to

suggest it will turn your video

description into a mini Wikipedia but

again I haven't seen it on YouTube so I

can't be sure and it's experimental so

it might not last that long anyway I

think the point I'm ultimately getting

to here is that anything that describes

itself as automatic should be

scrutinized long and hard before you

leave it on because I guarantee you

there are creators out there who have

looked at their videos and said why is

this there I didn't turn it on and you

probably did by accident or YouTube had

this automatic setting on by default

which is really annoying here's a

question you probably never thought to

ask yourself should I allow my content

to be freely used by any Creator on

YouTube well there is a setting that

will allow you to do this to boil it

down to its simplest explanation the

Creative Commons license allows anyone

to use any part of your video without

asking permission from you first on the

face of it it sounds absolutely Bonkers

to give your content away for free for

anybody to use but the not unreasonable

counterargument is that by doing this

you're potentially giving your content a

much greater opportunity to be seen by a

wider audience just not originally from

your videos only you can decide whether

or not it's worth switching to this

setting but there is a softer lighter

version of content sharing coming up now

it comes in a form of something called

shorts remixing this enables only

YouTube shorts creators to grab small

Snippets of audio or video from your

content to use for their shorts beyond

the fact that your content can going to

be used for shorts the key difference

here is that the Creative Commons

license is kind of universal

theoretically somebody could download

your entire video off of YouTube and use

it for say Instagram or Tik Tok with

shorts remixing everything is contained

within the platform creators have to use

YouTube tools to remix the content and

there are analytics set up in the

YouTube Studio to show you the Creator

how often your videos are remixed

something to bear in mind is that the

Creative Commons license setting is

turned off by default but the short

remix setting is turned on by default

and this is probably something that you

want to set at a upload default level so

it affects all videos going forward the

comment settings let's keep this nice

and simple every Creator should have at

least basic moderation on however if you

expect trolls and don't want them on

your Channel or your content could be

controversial or you just don't want

negativity floating around your video

comments then set this too strict

there's also a relatively new feature

here which is to pause comments the

benefit of this is that it keeps all

existing comments on a video but

prevents users from posting new comments

and since we are on the topic of

comments now might be a good time to

deviate into the channel settings and

then go to community and scroll all the

way down to the bottom of the automated

filter screen to see V settings what you

see here are tons of emojis Bad actors

seem to use to spam our comments but

obviously you can use this box to write

down all of the profanities and crude

words you don't want to see in your

comments you're also likely going to

need to block context specific words

relevant to your Niche for us it's stuff

like sub for sub audit my channel give

me a shout out and of course the

ultimate spam killer URL links nobody

wants to see them in comments and

handily it doesn't block you from

posting links in the comments of your

own

videos let's get back to YouTube

settings now and ask the question of

whether or not you should show viewers

how many people have liked the video yes

yes you should now I'm not sure you call

this one a setting it's more of a

feature but it is only available to

YouTube shorts creators and it's called

related video with this feature you can

directly link a YouTube short to any of

your other videos when the short is

being played the link to that video will

appear towards the bottom of the screen

now ideally you want that short to be

directly linked to the long phone video

in some way and when we've tested it

we've got a clickr rate of around about

10% which is not bad they're basically

free views all right if we are starting

to talk about features let's address the

elephant in the room

video tags this is what a YouTube

employee had to say about them 5 years

ago we do look at tags a little bit but

not as much as creators think we do I

would strongly encourage everybody to

spend you know 99% of their metadata

time on the thumbnail and title little

you know maybe half a%c on that

description now in 2024 I'm tired of

trying to convince creators not to

stress about tags so instead I'm going

to show you how to spend no more than 30

seconds on them the title of this video

is grow going on YouTube right so if we

scroll down to the video tags we can see

that with the vid IQ browser extension

installed it's already suggesting

relevant tags so I can add a couple of

these and then click refresh tags to get

more specific and relevant tags until

I've added what half a dozen Oro of

these and then add the channel name and

that's it video tags job done in under

30 seconds and if you want to be even

more lazy I mean efficient about video

tags just do a search on YouTube and

copy the tags from a video and then

remove the tags your video won't need

but again I want to stress just like

video categories video tags will not

Define the success of your content on

YouTube however something that could

make a real difference to the success of

your videos is AB thumnail testing or

what YouTube likes to call test and

compare with this settings SL feature

you can upload up to three thumbnails

per video to find out which is the most

attention grabit whichever thumbnail has

the best numbers after a 10 period

YouTube will use as your main thumbnail

going forward we here at vid IQ have

been fortunate enough to be part of the

beta test for this tool and it is

awesome but as time of recording I know

you only have one question when are we

all going to get it our goal is to

launch the feature to all creators by

this summer why is it taking so long you

might ask we've been listening to and

iterating on feedback from our beta

testers and want to make sure the

feature is in the best shape possible

for

launch few more months to brush up on

your thumbnail skills then all right you

lucky people who've made it this far

we've got one final bonus setting SL

feature and it's the only appropriate

one we can show at this point in the

video end screens if a viewer gets to

the end of one of your videos there's a

high chance you can push them to watch

another one of your videos if you do it

correctly and this is how we do it we

pick one very intentional video that

we're going to do a call to action to

and we know this works because end

screens have generated half a million

views for our channnel over the last

year what you need to do is create a

natural and logical link between the two

videos and really sell the value of what

the viewer can get if they continue to

watch for example you've just watched an

entire video about all of the settings

that can make or break a video but what

about your channel there are mission

critical things you need to do at the

very start of your YouTube journey and

this is where you'll find out how to do

them did you see what I did there