The Technical Guide to setting up a YouTube Channel – Step by Step

1. Channel features for YouTube creators

Use YouTube's channel features to customize your channel and support your brand. These 

features are available to all creators who have verified accounts.

To see what features you're currently eligible for, go to your account features page.

Monetization: If you meet the monetization criteria, you can enable monetization to earn 

money from ads on videos.

Longer videos: When your account is verified, you can upload videos longer than the 15-

minute limit.

Link to external sites: Use annotations in videos to link to external sites.

Custom thumbnails: Upload a custom thumbnail for your video.

Content ID appeals: Appeal rejected Content ID disputes.

Unlisted and private videos: Make your videos unlisted and share your private videos.

Live events: Learn how to create a live streaming event.

Series playlists: Group videos into series playlists to help viewers discover them.

Customize channel layout: Customize your channel's layout with branded banners and

channel trailers.

Hangouts on Air: You can create a live Hangout on Air event.

Video editor: Edit your videos' content using the YouTube Video Editor.

2. Manage your channel with Creator Studio

You can use Creator Studio in YouTube to organize your channel, manage videos, and 

interact with fans. You can go directly to Creator Studio or follow these steps to navigate to 

your Creator Studio:

1. Sign in to your channel at www.youtube.com.

2. In the top right, click your account icon.

3. Click Creator Studio.

Tools in Creator Studio

Dashboard: Check for notifications and alerts from YouTube, including the latest updates,

stats, and notifications for your review.

Video Manager: Organize and update your videos from one place or dig into a particular

video to adjust settings individually. Use tools to optimize a video, tweak its settings, or 

bulk update changes across videos with a single click.

Community: Communicate and collaborate with your fans and fellow creators. Review and

respond to comments, read private messages, see videos where you've been credited, or 

review a list of fans (if your channel has at least 1,000 subscribers).

Channel: Adjust settings that affect your channel overall, such as signing up for

monetization, controlling your upload defaults, or enabling live streaming.

Analytics: Review your channel's performance and get info on how your channel is

growing. Find reports and data to help you evaluate your channel and video performance, 

including views, subscribers, watch time, revenue for partners, and more.

Create: Access the audio library and video editor to create new videos, add sound effects or

unique music, or experiment with transitions.

3. Basics about your channel

Your channel is where you can organize your video content for your audience. As a channel 

owner, you can add videos, playlists, and information about yourself or your channel for 

visitors to explore.

Classic desktop experience

1. Sign in to your YouTube account on a computer.

2. On the left, select My channel.

3. Use the drop-down menu next to your name to view your channel as Yourself, a New

visitor, or a Returning subscriber. When you want to go back to viewing as yourself,

click Done at the top of the screen.

4. Use the tabs to navigate previewing the channel:

Home: This is what your audience sees when they visit your channel. They can view a

feed of your activities or preview different sections of your customized layout.

• Videos: Use this to see a list of all uploads publicly available for subscribers or all of the

videos you've publicly liked. You can sort by most popular or date added.

• Playlists: This is a list of all the playlists that you've created.

Discussion: If you've turned on the discussion tab, this will display comments left on

your channel.

• About: Use this to add a channel description (maximum length of 1,000 characters), set

your channel country, enter a business contact email address, and define social or other 

web links.

• Links that you add here are featured just below your description and use the icon from 

the corresponding social network when displayed. You can overlay up to five of these 

links on your channel art as shortcut icons.

• To edit your About tab, hover over the content, then click edit .

New desktop experience

1. Sign in to your YouTube account on a computer.

2. Under your profile picture at the top right, select My channel.

3. Click Edit Layout.

4. Use the drop-down menu next to your name to view your channel as Yourself, a New

visitor, or a Returning subscriber. When you want to go back to viewing as yourself,

click Done at the top of the screen.

5. Use the tabs to navigate previewing the channel:

Home: This is what your audience sees when they visit your channel. They can view a

feed of your activities or preview different sections of your customized layout.

• Videos: Use this to see a list of all uploads publicly available for subscribers or all of the

videos you've publicly liked. You can sort by most popular or date added.

• Playlists: This is a list of all the playlists that you've created.

Discussion: If you've turned on the discussion tab, this will display comments left on

your channel.

• About: Use this to add a channel description (maximum length of 1,000 characters), set

your channel country, enter a business contact email address, and define social or other 

web links.

• Links that you add here are featured just below your description and use the icon from 

the corresponding social network when displayed. You can overlay up to five of these 

links on your channel art as shortcut icons.

• To edit your about tab, hover over the content, then click edit .

4. Turn comments on or off

Classic desktop experience

• Manage channel settings

You can decide if you want to allow viewers to comment on your channel.

1. Sign in to your YouTube account on a computer.

2. On the left, select My channel.

3. Under your channel banner, click settings .

4. Turn Show discussion tab on or off.

5. If you have the discussion tab turned on, chose a comments setting:

• Display automatically: Comments will always show on your channel.

• Don't display until approved: Comments won't show on your channel until you

approve them.

Comments are not available on private videos. If you want to allow comments on a video 

that's not publicly available, post an unlisted video instead.

• Manage video settings

You can decide if you want to allow viewers to comment on specific videos.

1. Sign in to your YouTube account on a computer.

2. Go to Creator Studio > Video Manager.

3. Select the box next to any of the videos you want to manage.

4. At the top of the screen, click the Actions menu.

5. Select More actions > Comments.

6. Select or unselect Do not allow comments.

• New desktop experience

• Manage channel settings

You can decide if you want to allow viewers to comment on your channel.

1. Sign in to your YouTube account on a computer.

2. Under your avatar at the top right, select My channel.

3. Under your channel banner, click settings .

4. Turn Show discussion tab on or off.

5. If you have the discussion tab turned on, chose a comments setting:

• Display automatically: Comments will always show on your channel.

• Don't display until approved: Comments won't show on your channel until you

approve them.

Comments are not available on private videos. If you want to allow comments on a video 

that's not publicly available, post an unlisted video instead.

• Manage video settings

You can decide if you want to allow viewers to comment on specific videos.

1. Sign in to your YouTube account on a computer.

2. Go to Creator Studio > Video Manager.

3. Select the box next to any of the videos you want to manage.

4. At the top of the screen, click the Actions menu.

5. Select More actions > Comments.

6. Select or unselect Do not allow comments.

7. An important step in managing and promoting a YouTube channel is to add the right 

channel keywords.

Keywords can indeed help users to discover your YouTube channel when they make 

searches on Google, YouTube and other search engines. So the first step is to choose the 

keywords that specifically represent your channel and the type of content published.

Once done, sign-in to YouTube, click on your profile picture displayed at the top right corner

 > Creator Studio > Channel > Advanced:

Type your keywords in the Channel Keywords field and then click on Save:

Separate your keywords with a space and use quotation marks when search terms are in 

the form of short phrases.

5. Create or edit channel art

Channel art shows as a banner at the top of your YouTube page. You can use it to brand 

your channel's identity and give your page a unique look and feel.

Use the guidelines and examples below to set up your design. Keep in mind that channel art 

looks different on desktop, mobile, and TV displays.

Add or change channel art

1. On a computer, sign in to your YouTube account.

2. In the top right menu, select My Channel.

• New channel art: Near the top of the screen, click Add channel art.

• Existing channel art: Hover your cursor over the existing banner until you see the edit

icon . Click the icon and select Edit channel art.

3. Upload an image or photo from your computer or saved photos. You can also click the 

Gallery tab to choose an image from the YouTube photo library.

4. You'll see a preview of how the art will appear across different devices. To make 

changes, select Adjust the crop.

5. Click Select.

6. Verification badges on channels

When you see a or verification checkmark next to a YouTube channel's name, it 

means that the channel belongs to an established creator or is the official channel of a 

brand, business, or organization.

Verification badges don't affect search results for the channel or grant access to additional 

features on YouTube.

How to get a verification badge

Eligibility criteria

Once your channel gets 100,000 subscribers, you’re eligible to submit a request to YouTube 

for a verification badge. Note that we've made changes to this process over time, so you 

may see many types of channels with verification badges on YouTube. Note: If you’re an 

advertiser interested in a verification badge, contact your sales manager to learn more.

Keeping your verification badge

Once you have a verification badge, it'll stay on your channel even if your channel's 

subscriber number changes. If you change your channel's name, you can't keep the 

verification badge for the renamed channel.

YouTube reserves the right to revoke your verification badge or terminate your channel if 

you violate our Community Guidelines or the YouTube Terms of Service.

Manage your channel icon

Your channel icon shows over your channel art banner. It's the icon that displays to other 

users for your videos and channel on YouTube watch pages.

The default icon for your channel is the image associated with your Google Account. You 

can see this image in the top right corner of the page when you're logged into YouTube and 

other Google services. If you want to change this image, you can modify it in your Google

Account settings.

7. Channel icon specs

Use these recommended guidelines when creating a new channel icon. Do not upload 

pictures containing celebrities, nudity, artwork, or copyrighted images since this violates 

our Community Guidelines.

• JPG, GIF, BMP, or PNG file (no animated GIFs)

• 800 X 800 px image (recommended)

• Square or round image that renders at 98 X 98 px

Edit & update channel icon

You can choose to upload a new image, use a still frame from one of your uploaded videos, 

or use your default image.

Classic desktop experience

1. Sign in to your YouTube account.

2. On the left, select My Channel.

3. Hover over your existing channel icon in the top left of your channel art banner.

4. Click the edit icon .

5. Click Edit and follow the on-screen instructions to select the new image.

New desktop experience

1. Sign in to your YouTube account.

2. Under your profile photo at the top right, select My Channel.

3. Hover over your existing channel icon in the top left of your channel art banner.

4. Click the edit icon .

5. Click Edit and follow the on-screen instructions to select the new image.

8. Customize channel layout

You can customize the layout of your channel so that viewers see what you want them to 

when they get to your page. If you don't customize the layout, all visitors will see your 

channel feed.

This is recommended for creators who upload videos regularly. You can add a channel 

trailer, suggest content for your subscribers, and organize all your videos and playlists into 

sections. Or, for example, you can always show your channel trailer to new visitors.

Before you can customize your layout, you need to turn this feature on:

1. On a computer, sign in to your YouTube account.

2. In the left menu, click My Channel.

3. Under your channel's banner, click the settings icon .

4. Toggle Customize the layout of your channel to on.

5. Click Save.

After you've enabled channel customization, follow the instructions to create a channel

trailer for new visitors and create channel sections to customize the layout on your 

channel.

9. Organize content with channel sections

You can organize and promote content that you want to highlight on your channel using 

channel sections. A section lets you group videos together in a particular way so that your 

audience can make easier decisions about what they want to watch. You can have up to 10 

sections on one channel.

10. Create a channel trailer for new viewers

You can have a video trailer show to all unsubscribed visitors to your channel. Your 

channel trailer is like a movie trailer - use it as a way to offer a preview of your channel's 

offerings so viewers will want to subscribe. You can't currently watch channel trailers on 

the YouTube mobile apps.

By default, ads won't appear when the trailer is playing on the channel page in the trailer 

spot (unless the video you've chosen contains third-party claimed content). This helps keep 

the user focused on learning about and subscribing to your channel. If the viewer is already 

subscribed to your channel, they'll see a video under "What to Watch Next" instead.

11. Set a channel trailer

Before you start: To set up a channel trailer, you have to first turn on channel

customization for the channel.

1. Upload the video you want to be your channel trailer.

2. Go to the channel you want to manage.

3. Click the For new visitors tab. If you don't see the "For new visitors" tab, follow these 

instructions to turn on channel customization for the channel.

4. Click on Channel trailer.

5. Choose the video by selecting its thumbnail or entering its URL.

Note: If the visitor to your channel is already subscribed to your channel, they won't see 

your trailer. Instead, they'll see a video under "What to Watch Next." Follow these 

instructions to set the featured content you want to show.

Quick tips for creating channel trailers

• Assume the viewer has never heard of you.

• Keep it short.

• Hook your viewers in the first few seconds.

• Show, don’t tell.

• Ask viewers to subscribe in your video and with annotations.

Find out more about how to produce a captivating channel trailer that hooks your viewers 

and turns them into subscribers.

Change or remove the channel trailer

1. Go to the channel you want to manage.

2. Hover over your channel name and click the edit icon .

3. Select Change trailer or Remove trailer.

12. Global Audience: Best practices for localized 

channels

As your audience continues to grow and your channel reaches global communities 

speaking varied languages, it’s common to consider whether it makes sense to separate 

content by language into individual, localized channels, or continue to maintain one larger 

(global) channel with multiple language content. Brands and advertisers often turn to one 

of three models to address their global audiences but ultimately it’s up to you to decide 

what works best for your channel and audience.

A. One channel with multiple language content

In this model, brands establish one main channel where content is uploaded in multiple 

languages for multiple geographies.

Branding

With one channel to represent your brand presence, your brand and any associated assets 

will be consistent across regions. If your audience uses the same terms for search across 

languages (ex. a product name) this channel will be highly relevant and easy to discover.

Engagement

Driving your audience to one global channel will consolidate your viewership and channel 

subscribers and make it easier for users to find your channel in YouTube search. Once 

discovered, it may prove more challenging to engage with your subscribers from across the 

world as a single audience since content can be available in varied languages. As such, your 

channel’s audience will be fragmented by language, and your channel community will see

posts, comments, and feed updates in many different languages. To help your audience stay 

engaged, you might consider adding subtitles and captions to your videos to make your 

content more accessible and available to a larger audience. You might also create unique 

sections and playlists on your channel for each key market to provide a consolidated 

offering by language and drive watch time.

Management

With all of your content in one place, your team can focus all resources on managing this 

single channel and make it easier to maintain consistent global branding and tone. Of 

course, the actual number of resources needed to manage a channel will depend entirely on 

the regularity of uploads planned and the intensity of your individual channel strategy. 

Being consistent with uploads, ensuring brand equity and audience management is critical 

to growing a successful channel.

B. Multiple channels each with unique language content

Here brands create multiple channels, each featuring different language and geography 

content. This can be very helpful for languages with various alphabets or search terms.

Branding

With a unique channel for each geography or language, brands will have the opportunity to 

customize each channel to the local audience and easily incorporate local events and 

promotions. If your brand identity varies slightly in different regions, this will allow you to 

respect those differences and incorporate them into your channel strategy.

Engagement

While your viewership and subscribers will be split across multiple channels by language 

preference, this does allow for you to have focused communications with a specific, 

engaged audience. All items on the channel will be targeted to a language specific audience 

which may result in an improved user experience. Users may be less likely to get confused 

or disengaged because of varying language content once they discover the brand channel in 

their preferred language. Don’t forget that you’ll want to specify which language a 

particular channel targets since users may see various channels available in search and

typically larger channels trump smaller channels. It will be important to cross-promote 

your various language channels amongst each other to help improve discoverability. A 

great way to ensure that you’re cross-promoting effectively is to add channels of interest to 

the “featured channels” section your channel’s about tab.

Management

With your channel content spread across multiple regions/languages, each local channel 

will need to allocate resources to manage the channel on an ongoing basis. Whether your 

channels follow a predefined framework or rely on local teams to manage, you’ll want to be 

sure your brand can devote enough resources to launch and maintain each channel with a 

regular upload and engagement schedule.

C. One global channel and supporting local channels

With a single channel to serve as the main brand hub to feature global campaigns in the 

main brand language and territory and supporting local channels targeting different 

languages and regions, brands can foster a larger global presence while still connecting to 

their local regions with specific content.

Branding

With this distribution of channel content, you can still showcase consistent global branding 

in your hub channel while using the various local channels to feature local events and 

promotions. It may be helpful to adopt templates for your video metadata and video

thumbnails to help maintain brand consistency across your various channels.

Engagement

With so many channels, viewership and subscribers will be segmented across multiple 

channels but users are able to find the relevant content for their specific language and 

receive a consistent experience when viewing content and engaging with the channel 

community. It will be important to use the main global channel to help drive viewers to 

your local channels using video metadata, channel descriptions, and featured channel

programming. Depending on upload frequency, more frequent uploads on the local 

channels may result in those channels receiving a more prominent placement in search.

Management

This channel organization structure requires coordination between global and local teams 

but allows for flexibility when it comes to customizing the brand message for local markets 

or featuring local campaigns. This may be the most resource-intensive channel 

organization structure as you will need to dedicate time to both a larger global channel and 

several local channels but the actual number of resources will depend on the regularity of 

uploads and engagement strategies implemented on each channel.

13. Opt in to channel recommendations

You can opt in to have your YouTube channel listed on other channels that your potential 

viewers might be watching. This section is called "Related channels" and you can see it on 

the right side of channel pages while using YouTube on a computer.

Channel recommendations are created based on:

• What channels are watched by the same users

• Whether the videos are about similar topics

• Whether the channels are suitable for the same audience

You can't control what channels appear in the “Related channels” section on your own 

channel, but you can opt out to remove the section completely.

14. Turn your channel recommendation on or off

1. Sign in to your YouTube channel.

2. In the top right, click your account icon > Creator Studio.

3. In the left menu, select Channel > Advanced.

4. Under "Channel recommendations," opt in or out:

• To opt in: Select "Allow my channel to appear in other channels' recommendations."

This allows your channel to appear in "Related channels" sections across YouTube.

• To opt out: Select "Do not allow my channel to appear in other channels' recommendations." This

removes the entire "Related channels" section from your channel page.

15. YouTube - How to add weblinks to your channel

Web links may include:

• A link to your social profiles (Twitter, Facebook...)

• Your email address.

• A link to your website or blog. 

Here's how to get started:

• Sign-in to your YouTube channel.

• Click on the Menu button > My Channel.

• Go to the About tab and click on +Links.

• Enter your email address in the first field:

• To add a link to your blog or website, scroll to the CUSTOM LINKS section and click on 

the Add button:

• To add a link to a social profile, scroll to the SOCIAL LINKS section and click on the Add 

button. Use the drop menu to select the service of your choice and paste the URL of your 

social profile in the adjacent field:

16. How to close a YouTube channel?

• First log-in to your YouTube account.

• Click on the small avatar located top-right > Settings

• In the Overview section, just under your Username, click on the Advanced button

• Click on the "Delete channel" button and follow the procedure.

17. Connecting a YouTube channel to your social 

accounts

This allows YouTube to share you public activity (new video upload, likes..) on your 

social channels.

The procedure is as follows:

• Sign-in to your YouTube channel.

• Go to YouTube Settings > Account Settings > Connected accounts:

To connect to a Facebook page or profile:

• Click on the Connect button.

• Enter your Facebook credentials and click on Log in: