How To Get More Traffic on Your YouTube Channel

How to Get More Traffic from YouTube

95 Comments / Blogging Tutorials, YouTube / By /

Updated April 8, 2017

Each day, YouTube gets massive amounts of traffic on the internet, but what I'd like to share with you in this post, are a few tips that I've used to get traffic from YouTube – coming back to my blog.

With a few simple steps you can get traffic coming to your blog from YouTube also and best of all, each and every one of these techniques is absolutely 100% free.

The key to getting traffic from YouTube

How to Get More YouTube TrafficIt's no secret that video marketing is one of the best ways to promote your blog and your brand. Create a video that's inspirational, educational, artistic, funny, entertaining or interesting enough to capture the attention of your audience, and you've just made a new fan who can't wait to subscribe to your YouTube channel or share your video on social networks with family and friends.

You might even be the next YouTube sensation like my friend Lisa Irby, but at the end of the day, what you really want is for people to take enough of an interest in you that they take the time to subscribe to your channel and eventually visit your website or blog.

Take the YouTube Course Now!

The simplest way to get those adoring fans from YouTube back over to your site is by asking. I know you might think that goes without saying, but there are lots of people who post videos on YouTube and never even mention their blogs and in some cases they don't even have a blog (kinda sad right?).

So don't think people will go searching for your website on Google. At some point during the video you should do this:

[clickToTweet tweet=”In your video you need to tell people exactly where you want them to go! #youtubemarketing” quote=”In your video you need to tell people exactly where you want them to go!”]

Drive Blog Traffic with YouTube Cards and End Screens

The other word of advice is to add YouTube's mobile friendly cards and End Screens to drive traffic to your site from people viewing your videos on the go.


In this video I'll demonstrate how to place YouTube Cards on Your Videos that link to:

  • Your Website
  • Fundraising (like Patreon or Kickstarter for example)
  • Your Podcast on iTunes, Google Play or SoundCloud
  • Merchandise (Etsy, Gumroad, Shopify, Zazzle, Teespring, etc.)
  • You can create a poll your audience
  • An event (Evenbrite, Ticket Master)
  • Another YouTube Video or Playlist

YouTube End Screens are another tool that add interactive features for those who reach the last 10 seconds of your video. This is really powerful right, because you know that if someone makes it that far they are truly into you and probably want to hear more of what you have to say! Watch how you can Add End Screens to Your YouTube Videos.

Discover how to use this unique (and I must say BRILLIANT) feature on YouTube and see how to:

  • Locate the End Screens Interface
  • Scroll Through the End Screens Templates
  • Create an End Screen
  • Link to you latest video on YouTube
  • Let YouTube pick the Best for Viewer video
  • Copy an End Screen Template to another Video
  • Bulk add End Screens to Multiple videos with TubeBuddy

YouTube End Screen Views and ClicksIn this screenshot above you can see that thousands of people who watch my YouTube videos are seeing my End Screens and hundreds are clicking on them. Most of these clicks are going to other videos but they are also sending people over to my “Gear Page“. That's where I have Amazon Affiliate links to all the gear I use to create my videos. Here are some of my results.Amazon Product Link Clicks and Sales

I know this is working for me. I'm starting to see a nice boost in my sales on Amazon and as you can see here, I had 1,700 click and 60 items were purchased!

I hope that by sharing this with you, I inspired you to start using YouTube Cards and End Screens to grow your channel and at the same time drive traffic back to your blog!

If you've tried any of these tools and tactics on YouTube, please share your experience with us in the comments.

Don't forget to check out these additional resources:

95 thoughts on “How to Get More Traffic from YouTube”

  1. Kimi

    Hi Ileane!

    Very interesting video, thank you for this. I personally don’t use the wordpress stat, but I 200% agree with you that we can get massive traffic from YouTube videos.

    Especially now, when Google seems to change its algo often we must get backlinks and traffic source from different sources, including YouTube, considering it’s one of the biggest video search engines out there.

    Keep the good informations comes up

    Best wishes

    Kimi.

    1. Ileane

      Hi Kimi, I have the JetPack Lite plugin installed which is much better the the full blown version of JetPack for my needs. It also helps with a chrome extension that I use called WordPress Stats that will let me know how many visits I have right from my toolbar at any point during the day, without even logging into the blog.

      I know you have some great videos on YouTube and I hope you are adding those links to your descriptions!

      Thanks for your comment Kimi.

  2. Nimsrules

    Vlogging or even simple video marketing is certainly the new trend to get tons of traffic. The catch here is, those readers are gonna end up on your video and hence on your blog based on the specific niche which increases a chance of them being converted to subscribers too. Once again superb post Ileane.

    1. Ileane

      Hi Nimsrules,

      Thanks for your kind words. Let me know if you have a YouTube channel. You are perfectly welcome to link to it here so we can take a look.

      1. Nimsrules

        Lol, I barely get time to blog due my web development projects. But I get learn new things from different channels of course.

        1. Ileane

          Now you make me feel really special that you take the time to visit Basic Blog Tips! Thanks for your support and best wishes with your web development projects.

  3. Megan R. Stinson

    Hi Ileane,

    Honestly I haven’t tried video marketing yet. Maybe I stay in the cave for too long. I guess I need to give it a try. Based on this article I know I will benefit if I try. Thanks for this post.

    1. Ileane

      Megan – get a glove and get in the game girlfriend! LOL!
      Don’t take offense, that’s just a saying and I hope your are familiar with it. 🙂

    2. Samuel

      Videos are a great way to communicate to your readers. Do try it, Megan, and you won’t regret it!

      1. Peter Lee

        I’ve never tried video marketing before but I like to watch videos on YouTube. I think you’re right, videos are a great way to better communicate with readers as people tend to like watching videos more than reading.

  4. david

    Hi Ileane, I’ve actually been looking for more information on this topic lately, I am so glad that you are posting on it. I want to learn how to do better with video. Thanks for providing this info. you have a great voice by the way – very pleasant to listen too.

      1. david

        Keep up the good work Ileane, you have a gift for sharing what you know and you are pointing out things that I often overlook. So it is great training for me.

  5. Barry Wells

    Hi Ileane,

    Thanks for taking part in the video blog challenge I’m currently holding. Thanks also for telling people about it and linking to it, that’s very much appreciated.

    Your videos are always so educating and this one is no exception. I have been adding my blog URL to the start of my descriptions ever since I started creating videos but I have never thought of adding extra URL’s to my Social Media accounts, nice tip 🙂

    I have started adding additional links in the descriptions to the posts that I am placing the videos on but since doing so haven’t been into my stats to check on the results.

    One Question: How do you get the call out boxes to be clickable in your videos? That’s really cool and I’d love to be able to do that .

    Thanks again for taking part in the challenge Ileane, I’ve added your details to the video blog challenge page on my blog 🙂

    Have a great weekend,
    Barry

    1. Ileane

      Hi Barry, the video challenge is an absolutely BRILLIANT idea and you are doing a fantastic job of getting everyone to join in the friendly competition. 🙂
      I need to get working on my next video later today and I’m really looking forward to learning from my fellow video bloggers. Thanks Barry!

  6. Louisa

    Hi Ileane

    Thanks for this video, I’ve recently realised just how easily I can make videos by syndicating content I’ve already written and make slideshows and voice overs. It can be a great way to get a top 10 ranking in a competitive niche. Louisa

  7. Adrienne

    Ah yes, another great video from the lovely Ileane…

    I’ve been adding my URL ever since I’ve been making videos and when I do have other links I share in the video itself I make sure to include them in the description.

    I love that social/blog tip so how do we locate our own do you know? I went to that link and just put my information in but get absolutely nothing. I would think that page is set up since I do put almost all of my videos on my blog. Huh!

    Thanks Ileane, you’ve come through once again and am so glad you are participating in Barry’s challenge.

    ~Adrienne

    1. Ileane

      Hi Adrienne,
      This video challenge is so much fun!
      I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out how YouTube decides if they will create a social page for us or not but I need to investigate to see if I can find out more. When I do, I’ll be sure to give you a shout out.

      Thanks for stopping by my friend.

  8. bbrian017

    That’s so amazing I never knew anyone was making a living from doing you tube videos hehe. Hey FYI it was also so cool to see blog engage in your top referees that’s awesome Ileane! I love you so much you just made me laugh, I bet your ready to subscribe and give a thumbs up oh no? Wait a minute that’s fine I got more! haha that was so perfect. Ileane do you have a video specially how to add the links and that set up process? I have tons of videos and I’ve never added a link once that is so sad. Is that just in the description during uploading?

    1. Ileane

      Hi Brian!

      I’m so glad you liked the video. I know that Blog Engage is always at the top of my list when it comes to traffic sources. That’s why I’m so supportive of your awesome blogging community.

      I didn’t do a video yet to show you how to add the links but all you need to do is make sure you add the “http://” in front of the link and you’re good to go. You have a ton of video descriptions that you need to add links to, so you’d better get started 🙂
      Thanks buddy!

      1. bbrian017

        You mean I should go back, edit and add links to my articles and home pages now? This is cool to do?

  9. doug_eike

    I enjoyed watching this video, Ileane. One of my near-future projects is to start doing videos. Thanks for the information and encouragement.

  10. Sayed

    Awesome post Ileane, love the video, I’m working on YouTube videos right now and its a good thing to learn this now and apply it to each video before publishing then having to re-edit everything, gonna put a link in both the description and the videos.

    Thanks again. 😀

    1. Ileane

      Hi Sayed, how are you? I’m looking forward to your videos! When are you planning to post the first “real” one?

  11. Abhi Balani

    Hello Ileane,

    What a simple but useful tip… I’ve started working with Youtube, yeah, a little. But I haven’t included link to my homepage in the description (I’ve included in may be, 1 out of 6, my total videos count).

    But thank you very much. I’m gonna keep this in mind when I’ll create another video. I was willing to ask some questions about creating videos and stuff from you. I think, email would be better option for this.

    1. Ileane

      Abhi, I recorded a podcast episode that you should check out. It’s called The Ultimate YouTube SEO Checklist and I left the link in CommentLuv 🙂

    1. Ileane

      Hi Mitch,

      You don’t need anyone watching your videos in order to get backlinks 🙂

      On the other hand, you do need some views in order to get traffic from YouTube. Are you doing any keyword research to for your video titles before you upload them? Check out The Ultimate YouTube SEO Checklist podcast I recorded yesterday (I left a link in CommentLuv) and lets see if we can work on getting you some eyeballs on your videos before this year is out!

      1. Mitch Mitchell

        No, I’m not doing any of that stuff. My videos aren’t training videos so I pretty much create tags based on what I’m talking about. For me, the videos I do are more to add content to my blog posts than necessarily acting as standalone videos hoping to drive traffic. The idea is to get people watching one video on a blog post, then going to watch other videos.

        What I did have to try to remember to do was tell people which website I was talking about in the video; didn’t even think of that until November. lol

  13. Julie

    Hello Ms Ileane,

    I’ve come to your blog from Barry’s list of video challengers and am glad I did. I don’t actually use YouTube much and since they gave the site a bit of a face-lift, even less. But you’ve given a great introduction here to the features the site has, so next time I’m there, I’ll take note of what you’ve shown here.

    Thanks Ileane, top video and I look forward to your next one
    Take Care
    Julie

    1. Ileane

      Hi Julie.

      I watched your challenge video yesterday as well and subscribed to your channel too. Barry’s challenge is helping us expand our horizons already and it’s only day 4. Woot!

      Chat soon.

  14. Romy Singh

    Hello Ileane,

    Awesome and informative article about video marketing.

    Really nice video, I’ve learned something new about video marketing. And soon going to give it a try to see what it can do for me…

    1. Ileane

      Hi Romy,
      I’m glad you like the video. If you get a chance can you stop by YouTube and subscribe to my channel or add the video to your favorites? That would be a big help. Thanks!

  15. Harleena Singh

    Great post Ileane!

    I am just about gathering all the information I possibly can on videos and audios and how to get about doing them! I am seeing YouTube just about everywhere and Adrienne recently posted a wonderful video about how to put up the widget on the blog- so it’s all working up within me to start up with videos soon.

    And of course, you have been into videos and podcasts also I think for such a long time. Subscribing to your YouTube videos as well, as I sure do need to learn more and all that I can from all this!

    Thanks for sharing 🙂

    1. Ileane

      Harleena,
      I really appreciate you for subscribing to my YouTube Channel. YouTube likes it when we have more subscribers and then they show our videos higher in the search results. I’ll be sure to return the favor when you start uploading your vids.

      Chat soon!

  16. Lauren

    Hi Ileane,
    I liked the video here and for me youtube is a great source of traffic. I have been experimenting with different kinds of youtube videos and I found that sock puppet videos and talking head videos(a video with face of person explaining something) are a hit these days. Sock puppet videos sound funny but believe me they have bought me good amount of unexpected traffic.

  17. Latha

    Ileane great video. I also place links in my description. Have to optimize using your tips in mind.

  18. Karen

    I still haven’t taken the plunge to make the most out of YouTube, yes I know it would be great to use it for perhaps my film reviews, but I’ve always been better behind the camera than in front of it.

    May be I should just go for it one day 😉

    1. Ileane

      Hey Karen,

      You never need to get in front of the camera to make videos! You’ve got a ton of techie tips to share that you can do with screen capture like Screencast-o-matic. I was making videos for 2 years before Lisa Irby finally challenged me to get in front of the camera. Now here comes Barry with another challenge, I guess I’m just a sucker for challenges 🙂

      Anyway Karen, just go for it!

  19. Saikrishna

    Hi Ileane,
    I was just wondering how people get visits from youtube.. Now its clear.

  20. PRO BLOGGING

    Hello i want to ask you some thing,before 1 week i am getting 200-300 traffic per day but now i am getting only 35-40 traffic per day

    1. Irfan

      Hey problogger,

      Your blog must have been affected by Google Panda. You should concern regarding this issue on webmaster forum. Try this asap or you will loose your readers.

      Hi Ileane,

      One should have to focus on keyword of the Title/description before we upload any video on youTube?

      1. Ileane

        Irfan, first I want to say that I appreciate you for giving a response to the comment about losing traffic.

        We can look at keywords and I have a few more tips that I added in the podcast episode for the YouTube SEO Checklist. Check out the link in CommentLuv.

        Thank you!!

    2. Abhi Balani

      Irfan is right. May be, it’s because of Google panda’s latest update. What is you #1 traffic source? If it was Google, then yes Panda could be the reason.

      1. Ileane

        Abhi, thanks for offering your helping hand my friend. (still picturing you with your head in the freezer) 🙂

        1. Abhi Balani

          LOL!! Oh come on, forget about it now. Even I’m still laughing. 😀 But hope you liked my entry.

    3. Ileane

      Before I can answer that question I need more information.

      First let me say that this post is about getting traffic from YouTube and you didn’t even mention video in your comment so the question is somewhat off topic. However, I’ll attempt to help you, but I need to know more.

      How old is your blog and where was the traffic coming from?

      Here’s what you need to look at.

      Are you using Google Analytics? What are the top 5 referrers in GA and what are the top 5 pages that are being viewed?

      I know some of my friends have already responded to this question and perhaps they know more about your blog than I do. But I would not assume that your drop in traffic is a result of Panda unless most of your traffic was coming Google in the first place and now you don’t have any. Also, maybe there was one or two posts that ranked high, but now the traffic is falling off naturally.

      There is a lot to consider – but on the other hand most likely my friends are correct and your blog was affected by a Panda update.

      In that case you need help with building up your other referral traffic so that this won’t happen to you again. Are you a member of Blog Engage?

  22. Dawn Kay

    Hey Ileane

    What a fab video and if people aren’t on You Tube I think they definitely will be after watching this.

    I do put my blog url right at the beginning of my video but didn’t realize you could add other links and ask people to sign up to your mailing list aswell.

    I luv that new social blog page you was on about in the video so can’t wait for you to do a video on that.

    What a great entry into the video challenge and I look forward to your next one.

    Take care

    Dawn

    1. Ileane

      Hi Dawn, I’m glad you enjoyed the video.
      YouTube is pretty liberal with links in the descriptions as long as they are relevant to the topic. Here’s what they say in the YouTube creators playbook about the links you can add:

      “Links to related content or to sites/videos/channels/users referenced in the video”

      That pretty much lets us link to anything we want if we mention it during the video. So even if you had a basket weaving site and you said “by the way I also have a basket weaving site that you should check out…” LOL!

      Very kind of Google to let us do that on YouTube isn’t it 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by Dawn! I’m really enjoying this challenge too.

  24. DiTesco

    Awesome Ileane. I actually saw this one already on YouTube and the information you are providing is indeed something that “everyone” should be doing. I for one have to create more videos and take the advantage of the “power” it has to bring traffic and get backlinks. BTW, I meant to ask you if you have a “sitemap” for the videos you have here on BBT. It is different from that of your “other” content. My speedlink this week talks a bit about it 🙂

    1. Ileane

      Hi DiTesco, I visited your speed link and left a comment with my thoughts about the video sitemap and why I don’t have one.

      I still need to be convinced otherwise and there is a post on SEOMoz that I’d like you to take a look at. After reading this I’m not really convinced that having the video sitemap is going to send more traffic to the blog anyway.

      http://www.seomoz.org/blog/video-sitemap-guide-for-vimeo-and-youtube

      Let me know your thoughts on the article. I’m still mulling the whole thing over and I’ll let you know if I change my mind.

      Thanks Francisco!

      1. DiTesco

        Thanks Ileane for the link. That was a good read and it actually shed a bit more light about how to “embed” videos better.

  25. Vineet Saxena

    Hi Ileane,
    Video Marketing is definitely the fastest and most efficient method of advertising. People love to watch videos and it can bes used as a great source of traffic.
    Thanks for the tips.

  26. laureen

    Thanks for the tips I agree with your post that video marketing generate more traffic for your site but I don’t know how do I made the video of my services ? Can you please guide me ?

  27. Bhavesh Sondagar

    Hi Ileane,
    You are right,Youtube is having PR 9 value and getting backlink from our video tutorial to our blog is very good idea to get traffic from youtube and youtube offers adsense revenue sharing too.So both way we will have advantage.
    Thanks for sharing!:D

    1. Ileane

      Hi Bhavesh!
      Great to see you here after a full day of following you around on all of your networks. It’s been a lot of fun. I hope you get the chance to subscribe to my YouTube channel soon too. Thanks for your comment.

  29. Andrew

    thank you for sharing such a helpful post with us i am sure you are going to help a lot of people with there traffic problems, i really enjoyed reading your post i will be sure to try it out, great and interesting post thank you.

  30. victoria alex

    wow ,these are great tips and i always thought youtube was nofollow links so i never really used it , but thanks to our article i intend to put your ideas and tips into practice thanks for sharing this Ms Ileane

  31. Samuel

    Thanks for sharing your article, Ileane. Since you are pro at this already, the credibility is high for this one.

    I have to get involved in Youtube myself. Thanks.

  32. Zeshan Ahmed

    Nice article Ileane. Youtube is a very good source of getting traffic. But I have a blog which is about poetry. Urdu Poetry. So what do you think Ileane, if I start making videos on poetry then would it be useful for my Blog?

  33. Shalu Sharma

    My youtube account has been suspended. I got an email from Google saying that I was violating a copyright rule and was banned from using youtube. That leaves me out of the equation. Coincidently they sent me an email 4 weeks later that my youtube account has been restored so I tried logging in but as a fact they had done nothing. I was not able to log in. No response from them what so ever. I would avoid youtube altogether.

  34. Vijayraj Reddy

    You get bunch of traffic from youtube… great… and thanks for providing us the video.. learnt many thing from it…

  35. Hafeez Ansari

    Hi Ileane,

    Thank you very much for this very interesting article. I know the YouTube is a very good way to getting traffic but i never tried but after reading this article and video I am seriously thinking that i really missed something very important. Thank you for sharing. 🙂

  36. Shalu Sharma

    Just an update that my YouTube account has now been restored and is fully functional. I will for sure be taking note of those methods mentioned.

  37. Rohan Shankar

    Backlinks from YouTube are nofollow right? I am planning to get a DSLR soon and make videos.

  38. Gary Jodat

    This is especially true with professional done YouTube commercials. This works wonders for our law firm!

  39. Dipu

    Your article is very deeply giving guideline about traffic from youtube. i really need this type of information so thanks Very Useful and Informative Thanks for share

  40. Mannat

    Today i have learned something new about youtube through your post. I will also use these useful tips to a get numerous traffic. Thank for sharing this value-able information.

  41. Duncan Pattinson

    Many thanks as we have seen an increase over the year on visitors going to YOu tube but minimal conversation to the main website. We will introduce your suggested changes and fingers crossed we should see an increase or maybe a spike

  42. Fritz

    Hey Ileane,

    This is the second time this week that someone mentioned YouTube to me as a traffic builder. I need all the help I can get. Thanks for letting me know about YouTube Cards. Hope it works for me! Thanks!

  43. Amar kumar

    Hey Ileane,

    You have added much informative videos which surely helps people to clear concept regarding YouTube traffic. Video advertising and marketing was changing and exploring a new ways to reach the people and increasing the brand and business exposure with the video. Thanks for sharing these valuable tips with us.

    With best wishes,

    Amar kumar

  44. Sumit Hariyani

    wow ,these are great tips and i always thought youtube was nofollow links so i never really used it , but thanks to our article i intend to put your ideas and tips into practice thanks for sharing this Ms Ileane

  45. Andrew

    Hi Ileane,

    Thanks for the detailed information. It remains only to understand how on the youtube video to catch up with traffic, what would then have to redirect the blog or website. Many people just throw up business with this search engine because they can not attract traffic there.

    Thanks for the answer!

  46. Mike

    Hi Ileane,

    I have only just started investigating the whole Youtube marketing side of things so it is great to get some really useful tips in terms of how to drive viewers from Youtube to my websites. I was totally unaware that you could have end screens or Youtube cards. This will definitely improve my chances of driving traffic. I will be re-running these videos next time I upload a video.

    Thanks

  48. Ella Wilson

    Hello Ileane,

    Awesome and informative article about video marketing.
    Nice video, I’ve learned something new about video marketing.
    I look forward to your next one.

    Thanks!
    Ella Wilson

  49. Blistina Anderson

    Hi Ileane,

    Such a nicely explained post. I was about to skip it. But those middle points did not let me skip..
    I am a newbie and this will definitely help me in future. Thanks for sharing it.

  50. Ahmed Baig

    Very very informative and interesting post, i have never tried youtube before.

  51. Rama Krishna

    Hi,

    This is nice post for traffic from youtube and having nice idea and thanks a lot for sharing with us.

    Regards
    Rama Krishna

  54. John Wright

    You did a great job by posting about increasing traffic. I was really looking for this post. Thanks for sharing this.

  55. Keri Vandongen

    It’s the little things that often make the biggest impact.
    Appreciate how you share little insights, such as deleting your profile image for end screens. Instead of just advertising your Amazon affiliate products on FB, you create a valuable video instead. Brilliant strategy by the way, Ileane!
    Congrats on reaching over 400 000 YouTube views.
    I’ll definitely check out your YouTube course.
    ~Keri

    1. Ileane

      Hi Keri!!

      Thanks so much for all the kind words and for following my journey here on the blog and on YouTube. Chat soon 🙂

  56. Sanjay Reddy

    Great post Ileane,

    I liked the way you promote videos. It’s the best way as people like watching videos. Reading an article becomes a bit boring many a times but listening to someone would be interesting.

    Thanks for your time

  58. Susan Velez

    Hi Ileane,

    Great tutorial on adding end screens to my videos. I’ve just started working with YouTube and haven’t taken the time to add end screens to my videos.

    I think I’ll spend today getting my end screens set up for all my videos. Hopefully, this will keep people on my channel longer and get people over to my blog from YouTube.

    Great tutorial, I went ahead and set up the end screen on my trailer video just by following your step by step video.

    Thanks again, have a great day 🙂

    Susan

    1. Ileane

      Hi Susan!
      I’m glad you found the tutorial helpful. What is the name of your YouTube channel. I’ll take a look to see if I can share any other quick tips. Cheers!

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