YouTube Series (How to upload videos properly in YouTube)

Now that you have successfully created your YouTube Channel and you’ve spent countless hours creating and editing your video content, it’s time for it to go live. Congratulations! YouTube can be a powerful platform for small businesses seeing as it’s free and an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. By creating great video content, you can grow your audience and increase your influence on the Internet. However, it’s not as easy as just recording and throwing a video out into the world.

In this article, we’ll show you step-by-step how to upload a video to your YouTube channel:

Before you upload your video

Make sure your video file is supported: Before you can successfully upload your video to YouTube, you have to make sure that the platform actually supports the video you’re using. Luckily, this is YouTube - the world’s most popular video platform - so it supports most video file formats. You can find the full list of supported files here:

.MOV

.MPEG4

.MP4

.AVI

.WMV

.MPEGPS

.FLV

3GPP

WebM

DNxHR

ProRes

CineForm

HEVC (h265)

As you can see, the chances of your video file being unsupported are slim. However, if your video file type isn’t listed above, you will need to re-export it using a supported format. Alternatively, you can check out YouTube’s troubleshooter to find out how to convert it.

How to upload a video to YouTube

1. Log in to your YouTube account.

2. Click on the video icon at the top right hand side of the window, which can be found next to your user icon, messages, apps, and notifications.

3. Click ‘Upload Video.’

4. Then, press ‘select files to upload’ to find the video file saved on your computer. Or, you can drag and drop it into the window.

5. An optional step is to choose the privacy settings on your video (but more on that below). If you choose to stop after this, you will technically have achieved what this article is all about. Namely, you video will now be on YouTube. That said, it will be lacking a proper description and tags, which are crucial if you want your content to be found by the community of viewers. Also, if you don’t change the name of your video, it will automatically be rocking the same file name as when you uploaded it from your computer. To avoid that (and to properly finalize the process), you’ll need to fill out the following sections:

6. Add an SEO friendly title so that it’s more easily discoverable via search engines.

7. Add a description of the video so people know what your content is about before watching it.

8. Add tags, which act as tools to help the discovery of your video.

YouTube videos’ optimization isn’t something to skimp on. Identifying the proper keywords will open up endless possibilities for your video to be found on either Google or YouTube’s built-in search. If you need help with this important aspect of the YouTube experience, be sure to check out our guide to get your videos ranking High.

Adding the final touches

Now that your video is successfully uploaded, it’s time to take advantage of YouTube’s built-in tools. These tools can be helpful to enhance your video in one way or another for your audience.

Audio library: Easily add songs and sound effects with YouTube’s own library.

Blur faces: If you would like (or need) to blur the faces of any people within the video, there’s a dedicated section to this within the ‘enhancements tab.’ There’s also a ‘custom blur’ option for extra blur action.

End screens: Add an end screen to the last 5-20 seconds of your video, showcasing elements about your channel like additional videos, playlists, links, and subscribe buttons. You can even apply templates to make this process easier.

Cards: Cards can point viewers to a specific link (from a list of eligible sites) and show customized images, titles, and calls to action, depending on the card type.

Closed captions: If you would like to add closed captions to your video, YouTube makes it easy. Simply select the language, and then upload a file or transcribe all spoken parts of the video for it to be auto-synced.
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