There are too many videos with tips for making a successful Youtube channel. Many of those contain misleading tricks instead of useful tips. The others are too long with too many unnecessary details. My recommendation in 2020 is to watch just these 2 short videos and explore more if you need more details.

1. YouTube SEO in 2020 with Luke Sherran

In this video, Luke Sherran covers the YouTube algorithm, where to spend most of your time, an overview of the collaborative filtering, the behavior metrics that you need to understand, and how to use analytics to optimize your content.

0:41 The YouTube algorithm is based primarily around user behaviour metrics

0:58 Which % does the search traffic typically make up of total traffic on popular YouTube channels?

1:17 Most traffic to YouTube videos now comes via YouTube Recommendation engines

1:35 Why user behaviour metrics are now more important than KW research and metadata

2:15 The most reliable metric to determine video quality

2:25 What exactly is video content? What are the key metrics to consider about video content performance?

2:55 What is collaborative filtering?

3:18 How collaborative filtering works

4:05 What happens if the video theoretically gets to the top of the search results page but gets no clicks?

4:20 How to craft a good video title? Why are thumbnails important?

5:05 How much time do the most popular YouTubers spend on creating a thumbnail that converts?

5:35 Storytelling with your video: how to entice your audience

6:20 Audience retention graph in YouTube Studio: look for any decrease and identify the weak spots

6:50 Tips for having a good and concise outro

7:06 Closing tips: exceed expectations!

10 Common YouTube SEO Mistakes | YouTube Optimization

Are you making YouTube SEO (Optimization) mistakes that could be costing you valuable views and slowing your channel growth? In this video, we cover 10 common mistakes new YouTuber’s make, and what you can do to avoid them.

0:30 #1 Valuing Optimization over Quality – Content or techniques – what is more important?

1:18 #2 Writing Titles for SEO not the Users – Will Google-2009 Modus Operandi work for YouTube?

2:06 #3 Not Spending Time on Thumbnails – What is a good Thumbnail?

3:06 #4 Ruining Watch Time – How can I kill ranking of a good video, being overaggressive?

4:40 #5 Too Many CTAs – How many CTAs are too many?

5:28 #6 Researching Keywords During the Upload Process – When to do keyword research?

6:04 #7 Having Too Broad a Niche – How narrow should be your niche?

7:20 #8 Overlooking Interactive Features – Why does anyone use End Screens and Cards?

7:58 #9 Not Engaging with Your Audience – What comments should I ignore?

8:35 #10 sub4sub – Follow you follow me – a good idea?

How to make a Youtube Thumbnail?

If you are not familiar with PhotoShop or other professional softwares I recommend to use canva.com website.

Make youtube thumbnail with canva.com