How to Create a YouTube Playlist: A Step-by-Step Guide
It’s no secret that YouTube is the home of online videos.
With more than 500 hours of video uploaded to the platform every minute, you can easily find your favorite online video and watch it in a single click.
YouTube offers some features to give users a unique and complete viewing experience — tailored to the way their users consume videos.
The platform also provides content that is easily findable, viewable, and shareable.
One of the features you can enjoy on YouTube is a video playlist.
This post will dive more in-depth into the video playlist feature, why it matters, how to create it, and how you can optimize it for the search engine.
Let’s jump right into it!
Why You Need YouTube Playlists
With YouTube, making playlists is a flexible way to group your favorite videos.
When a user watches a playlist, the other videos in that playlist automatically play.
It only took a single click to watch all your favorite videos on the platform.
If you’re a creator yourself, you can utilize YouTube playlists as a customer engagement tool to enhance your customer experience.
You can use YouTube playlists to curate your content into different categories.
It helps users easily find the right content for them once they visit your channel page.
Playlists can also increase your watch time, allowing YouTube to promote your channel through searches and recommended videos. This will turn lead to more views.
It won’t stop there.
Playlists can also improve your SEO practices on the platform. It can rank for keywords that your audience searches for on YouTube.
In other words, it makes your videos much easier to find in the search results.
Related: What’s Legal and What’s Illegal to Use in YouTube Videos
How to Create a Playlist on YouTube
Creating YouTube playlists is quite simple. The first-ever thing you need to do is decide where you want to host the playlist.
YouTube playlists will automatically be hosted from the channel you create them in.
So, make sure you log in to the right channel before you start creating any playlist.
- Go to your channel page by clicking on the small icon in the YouTube screen’s upper right corner to open a dropdown menu. Then, click on “My Channel” from the dropdown.
2. Select “Playlists” on the menu in the middle of the screen.
You can add and manage all your playlists on the tab. To create a new playlist, click on a button labeled “Manage Videos.”
3. Then, a new tab will appear. You can choose “New Playlist”
After you click it, you need to give your new playlist a name. Don’t worry too much about the name since you can edit it anytime you want.
You should also choose its visibility: Public, Private, or Unlisted.
Right after you type the name and click on the “Create” button, your new playlist will be created.
4. Now, it’s time to add videos to your new YouTube playlist.
To get started, click the “Edit” button. Then, go to “Add videos.” by clicking on the ellipsis button.
5. As you can see from the tabs, there are some ways you can use to add videos to your YouTube playlists.
The first tab is “video search,” where YouTube allows you to add videos using the search feature.
All you need is to type the video title and press enter or click on the “Add videos” button.
The second tab is the “URL” tab. You can add videos by pasting the video URL in the search field.
The great thing about this tab is that you can add videos that are hosted on YouTube or another video-hosting site.
The third tab is “Your YouTube videos.” This tab makes it easier for you to add your own YouTube videos to the playlist.
6. Once you select all the videos you want to add to your playlists, YouTube will take you back to the playlist menu/ editor.
From here, you can take a look at all the videos you’ve added.
Optimize YouTube Playlists for Search
But creating a playlist and letting it sit on your channel, crossing your fingers, and waiting for users to find it isn’t enough to attract more customers.
You need to optimize it to give it more exposure.
Here’s how you do it:
#1. Give Thought-Provoking Titles and Descriptions
Using too generic titles like “Explainer Videos or “Video Marketing” can only make your playlists get lost in the flood.
As you might already know, there are millions of playlists (if not billions!) on the platform.
Instead, you can come up with a compelling, more specific name that highlights the benefits someone will get from your playlist, like “Explainer Videos for SaaS Products” or “Explainer Videos for Fintech.”
After that, you can write a description that supports your title by telling the users why your playlist is worth watching.
#2. Use Keyword-Based Titles, Descriptions, and Tags
Your title should be more than compelling. It also needs to focus on a specific keyword so that it can rank higher on the search results.
You also need to include or mention the keyword in your descriptions and tags.
That way, YouTube has a good idea of what your video is about and recommends it more often to users who’re looking for videos with a specific keyword.
#3. Include Only a Few Videos in a Playlist
YouTube playlists are limited to 5,000 videos.
But, of course, you don’t want to use them all. Adding too many videos in one single playlist can only overwhelm your viewers.
Therefore, it’s always better to make sure to add no more than ten videos per playlist.
It helps the viewers to enjoy the content in the same category without feeling overwhelmed.
#4. Start Your Playlists With the Best Video
One of the most powerful tricks to attract the viewers’ attention right after they click on your playlist is by providing them with the best video content.
So, your best or high-performing video should be the first video they see on the YouTube playlist. From here, you can increase your watch time seamlessly.
Remember that more watch time means a higher ranking on the search results.
You can check each of your video’s performance or analytics on the Creator Studio feature.
That’s been a quick guide to YouTube playlists.
Now, you should have no problem creating ones to get more out of your YouTube marketing strategy.
Download FREE e-Book: A Comprehensive Guide to Making Money on YouTube
If you have another YouTube playlist trick you want to share with us or even a question related to that, feel free to leave a comment below!
