Last month we announced the launch of YouTube Partner Communication Hub, which is the go-to spot for news on the latest features, product updates and other partner-related information. Today we are excited to let you know we have revamped the “Optimization Resources” section of the site and have added a few new documents that will help you make the most of your presence on YouTube. Specifically, we have added resources which show you how to improve content discoverability, increase revenue potential and take full advantage of our Insight tool.



Going forward, we will regularly update the “Optimization Resources” section of the site with new tips and fresh insight -- so check back weekly. You can also opt to receive automatic updates via RSS by subscribing to the feed.

And, as always, let us know what you think!

Bengu Atamer, Sr. Strategist, Partnerships, recently watched “Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat - Audition Outtakes.”

Video has always been a unique storytelling tool, especially useful when reporting the news. From raw, citizen-reported videos from the streets of Tehran, to student documentaries highlighting under-reported issues in local communities, or investigative reporting done by professional news outlets, just about every type of news video can now be found on YouTube. Video is also tightly integrated into the Google News experience, providing users different ways to consume and enjoy news, while giving news publishers the opportunity to reach a greater and more diverse audience.

We are working to make it easier to get your video content indexed in Google News, but ensuring it’s found in a timely fashion is another matter. So we thought we’d share six best practices for how news publishers can increase the discoverability of their news videos.

1. Timely uploads
Videos should be uploaded as quickly as possible -- this will help them reach the news homepage faster and be grouped with the most recent articles.

2. One story per video
Instead of having one video that contains multiple segments covering several different stories of the day, it's a better user experience (and easier for us to index), when there is one story per video, and the video title is specific (not something generic like “Breaking News”). At the very least, the description of the video should match the first story in the video.

3. Categorization
If you are providing general news coverage, select YouTube category “News & Politics” (which is youtube_category_id 25) when uploading your video. If you have multiple channels, clearly identify each category (politics, business, entertainment, sports, etc.).

4. More detailed descriptions
Similar to the first paragraph of a news article, descriptions of the news video should convey the who, what, when, where, and why of the story in a few sentences -- the more detail you can supply, the better.

5. Rich tags
Another way to convey the content of the video is using the keyword tags. Providing keywords that might not be in the description gives us more knowledge of what the video is about. Especially helpful are proper nouns: the names of the people, places, companies, etc. mentioned in the video.

6. Make it Embeddable
Be sure your video is embeddable on other sites since this is currently a technical requirement for being displayed in Google News. Additionally, if your videos are geo-blocked in certain regions, they will not appear in Google News.

If your news organization isn’t already making its video content available on YouTube and Google News, we encourage you to get started. More information on how to submit your news videos to Google News can also be found in the News Publishers Help Center, and you can watch this video for additional tips on news search engine optimization.

Posted by Benoit Lafortune, Sr. Strategist Google News, and Olivia Ma, YouTube News Manager

We’re launching a new video series on the YouTube channel that brings you closer to the people and processes behind YouTube. It’s part of a larger effort to lift the veil, so you can ensure your voice is heard by the staff here and come to know the friendly faces that are as devoted to YouTube as you are.

This is how it works: each month, we’ll announce a topic of general interest, such as partnerships, ads, the future of YouTube, international, and engineering/innovation. (Feel free to suggest other ideas in the comments here.) We’ll open up a Google Moderator page, where you can submit questions related to the subject at hand and vote on questions asked by others. We’ll give you about a week to submit your questions; then we’ll put one or more employees who can best address them on camera, to respond to you in a video which we’ll then post to the YouTube channel.

First up, we wanted to focus on the YouTube Partnership Program, because we’ve heard from you that there’s some mystique around how it all works. This could include questions about Individual Video Partnership. Please submit your questions about partnerships here and vote on others’ until Tuesday, April 13, at 5 p.m. PT. Then, subscribe to the YouTube channel (if you're not already) to be sure to see the response video uploaded about a week later. We’ll also post it to this blog and send it out on Twitter and Facebook.

Sound good?


Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, recently watched “Pink Terror.”

We continue to roll out the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) around the world and today added Mexico to the list. We're recognizing our most popular and prolific Mexican users, like Huevo Cartoons, Polo Polo and Bungolio, for their creativity on the platform by helping them turn their YouTube presence into a money-making venture and hopefully also a full-time job.

As you may already know, YPP allows participating users to choose which of their videos they want to generate revenue on YouTube. We then place ads beside those videos and our partners receive a portion of the money generated from these ads. So if you are in Mexico (or any of the other dozen YPP countries), regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users, and consistently comply with the YouTube Terms of Use, then apply now, por favor.

What if you are a Mexican videographer who's created a popular video but aren't yet able to qualify for full partnership in YPP? The Individual Video Partnerships program allows people to monetize single videos -- "Ataque de Pánico!," "Acapulco Dreamers" and "Quiero ir al Antro" are all examples of this program at work. This means that if you are in Mexico (or Spain, where we also just launched IVP) and you receive an invitation from us to run ads next to one of your videos, we hope you'll accept.

We'll expand YPP to more countries soon, but in the meantime, "¡Bienvenidos, Mexico!"

Posted by Adrián Fernández, Business Development, Mexico