How You Can Leverage YouTube Playlists to Develop Your Channel?
YouTube has transformed from a niche cat - video site to a mainstream content platform, leading to more people binge - watching on it. A great way to benefit is through YouTube playlists.These are groups of videos linked by a common theme. They simplify viewers' experience, playing videos in sequence, keeping them engaged. Playlists show up in searches, and strategic curation can boost your YouTube growth. Both viewers and creators can make them. Let's explore further!
- Author: Shine
- Update: Mar 14, 2025
Making Popular YouTube Playlists
The top - notch YouTube playlists share several common elements, like an engaging title, a clear theme, and an eye - catching thumbnail. In this part, we will present eight suggestions for assembling a set of videos.
1.Narrate a Tale Through Your Playlists
When constructing playlists, ensure that every video is arranged in sequential order. The aim is to tell a story that progresses as viewers scroll through the list. This implies that you can't just insert random videos in random positions. Your playlist must have a unifying theme.
Take Yamaha_Global's example. Their extensive playlist titled "How to Mix Live Music" begins with a concise introduction, then moves on to discussions about audio equipment, and finally explains how to conduct soundchecks. Each successive video builds on the knowledge presented in the previous one, teaching viewers new skills step by step.
Think of your playlist as if it were the first season of a brand - new TV show. Consider how much content is required to tell a single, coherent story. Decide which 'episodes' (or videos in this case) should come first, second, third, and so forth. By following this line of thinking, you'll be able to determine the appropriate number of videos for your playlist.
2.Incorporate an Attention - Grabbing Thumbnail
Just as regular videos do, your playlist requires a compelling thumbnail to entice viewers to click on it. The most effective YouTube thumbnails feature striking text, vivid and colorful images, and a straightforward design that can be easily grasped.
Take a look at the thumbnail from Outperform. It is associated with a playlist centered around running faster in sprints, and the visual content strongly supports that theme. In the thumbnail, you can see a man actively running on a track, and the phrase "proper sprinting form" is prominently displayed in large white letters.
Bear in mind that one of the video thumbnails within your playlist will serve as the thumbnail for the entire playlist. Hence, it is essential to always utilize high-quality images. Subsequently, you have the option to select a single thumbnail that best represents your playlist.
3.Employ SEO to Make Playlists Discoverable
YouTube SEO involves optimizing your content to be more visible in search engines. Luckily, the process of optimizing a playlist is quite similar to that of optimizing a regular video. You simply need to have a well - crafted playlist title, a detailed video description, and relevant hashtags.
However, it's important to note that all of this hinges on keyword research, which is the task of identifying the terms that people are searching for on YouTube.
Once you've determined these search terms, you can incorporate the most popular phrases into your title, description, and other relevant sections. This will assist the YouTube algorithm in featuring your playlist in search results. The effectiveness is further enhanced when you optimize each video within the playlist.
4.Develop a Separate Playlist for Every Topic You Address
If you aim to expand your channel and gain additional views, you'll require multiple playlists. To initiate the process of increasing the view count, first examine the central theme of your channel. Is it centered around dog training? Or perhaps car reviews? Maybe it's about providing city guides? Regardless of what your specific niche is, dissect it into smaller sub-topics and formulate a separate playlist for each of these sub-topics.
For instance, on the vidIQ channel, we've curated a playlist for nearly every topic we delve into. This encompasses playlists dedicated to YouTube Shorts, thumbnails, titles, and monetization, among others.
5.Make Your Playlists Public
YouTube offers three distinct privacy settings for content: private, public, and unlisted.
Private videos: These are exclusive, and only the individuals you've extended an invitation to are able to view them.
Unlisted videos: Such videos are accessible only to those who possess the specific link to them. They won't show up in regular searches or on your channel for others to stumble upon casually.
Public videos: As the name implies, these are open to everyone. Any user on YouTube can access and watch public videos.
If your goal is to maximize the number of views for your playlists, it's advisable to set their visibility status to public.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
Navigate to the YouTube Studio and select the "Content" option from the left-hand menu.
Tap on the "Playlists" tab.
Tap on the pencil icon that is adjacent to the playlist you wish to modify.
Underneath the playlist title, click on the option to set the visibility to "Public".
While you're on that screen, take advantage of the same interface to enable playlist embedding. Click on the icon consisting of three dots and then select "Playlist Settings" from the options that appear.
Switch on the embedding option to allow others to share your playlists on their websites.