thumbnail, which is the image searchers see for the video( see Figure 8-9) in the YouTube search results. A compelling thumbnail can have a big effect on your click-through rate and, thus, your rankings in YouTube.
Source
: https:// www. youtube. com / FIGURE 8-9: Each video image is a thumbnail.
To engage your audience, make sure that your thumbnails are bright, vibrant, and crisp. Include compelling text for each thumbnail to tell viewers about the content and to entice them to click or tap it.
If you don’ t have a graphic designer, you can create professional-looking thumbnails with a tool called Canva( https:// www. canva. com /). This tool offers many free and paid templates you can use. Also, you can import your own images into Canva to create thumbnails that set your videos apart.
Step 2: Ask for engagement
YouTube’ s goal is to keep searchers within the confines of YouTube so that it can show ads to those searchers. The number of shares, views, and comments your videos receive indicates to YouTube how well your videos are keeping searchers engaged.
In addition, a video with lots of views, more likes than dislikes, and favorable comments proves to new viewers the quality of the content. Good quality leads to more likes and shares. In the description and in the video itself, be sure to ask viewers to like, comment, share, and check out more of your videos.
Step 3: Optimize content for keywords
Like your website, your YouTube videos need to be optimized for keywords. Make sure