How to Use YouTube Shorts to Grow Your Business | 16 Tips to Optimize YouTube Shorts For More Views

YouTube Shorts are a hot topic right now, and if you have a YouTube channel then you need to really consider having them as part of your strategy! Here are ways for you to grow your channel with shorts and optimize them for more views.

16 Tips on How to Use YouTube Shorts to Grow Your Business

YouTube Shorts are 100% worth your time and effort because they will help grow your reach and your channel. The good news is, this can be easier than you may think!

In this blog post, I’m sharing 16 tips on how to use YouTube Shorts to grow your channel and your business as well as how to optimize YouTube Shorts for maximum views. Buckle up, because my tips are NOT the same ones you’ve heard time and again. My YouTube Shorts strategy is different than most, so let’s dive in!

Tip 1: Optimize Every Single YouTube Short

My first tip for how to use YouTube Shorts to grow your business and your channel is to optimize every single YouTube Short. This is not groundbreaking new advice, but it’s so important that you DON’T SKIP IT!

Your Shorts will show up for more people if they are highly optimized. You can’t just upload a video and hope it lands. Remember, YouTube is a search engine first and foremost, and Shorts can rank in search, too. If you’re wondering how to optimize YouTube shorts to get more views, you must include keywords, an SEO-friendly title, a highly optimized description, and relevant tags.

Tip 2: Upload YouTube Shorts From Your Desktop Computer

You always want to make sure that you upload your YouTube Shorts from your desktop computer. Why? Because when you upload from your phone, you don’t have as many options to optimize your Shorts. As you’ve learned, optimization is the name of the game here. You want to set up each video for success!

Upload your Shorts from your computer, use real search terms in your description, and incorporate tags with real search terms for each specific Short.

Tip 3: Add 3 Hashtags

When you add hashtags to the description of your YouTube videos, the hashtags pop up directly under your video. When people click on these hashtags, it leads them to topic pages. This can help you get more traffic and grow your reach on YouTube. Aim to use hashtags with a lower number of posts so you don’t get lost in a sea of videos. However, I don’t recommend creating a brand new hashtag. That will be hard to grow with and get found through.

Tips 4 & 5: Recycle Your Content & Create Direct-to-Camera Videos

I’m all about working smarter, not harder, which is why I recommend that you recycle your YouTube shorts from Instagram.

Download your Instagram Reels after posting them so it keeps the audio and text features intact. Then, upload them to YouTube Shorts. If you want to learn more about my content recycling and planning strategy, check out my Content Planning Workshop.

If you’re a business owner looking to grow as an expert and authority in your niche, then direct-to-camera videos are key! These types of videos are important for building credibility and authority in your industry.

When people can see your face and your mannerisms and hear your voice, it builds know, like, and trust like no other! It makes your audience feel like they’re having a conversation with you. Plus, they will get used to watching videos of you talking. This will lead them to go watch your long-form videos on your channel, which is the ultimate goal for growing on YouTube!

Tip 6: Make Easy Informational Videos

An easy informational video is a simple video where you are doing something OTHER THAN talking.

All of the value is delivered with text on the screen or in the caption of the video. These types of videos are value-based and easy to make. By incorporating these videos into your Shorts strategy, you can create more content in less time.

Again, I recommend creating these videos in Instagram Reels and then downloading and uploading into Shorts. Remember, it doesn’t have to be complicated, my friend!

Tip 7: Post Videos With Trending Sounds From Other Apps

If you really want to know how to grow with YouTube Shorts, you have to hook people into your videos and stop their scroll.

A great way to do this is to use sounds that are or were trending on other apps, like Instagram or TikTok. While the sounds might not trend on YouTube, they can inspire your most creative and personality-packed videos. This is the key to stopping the scroll and getting more eyes on your videos. Many times, users will recognize trends from other apps and they’ll stick around to see how you applied it to your niche. This is one of the many reasons why I believe that YouTube and Instagram are truly the MAGIC combination!

Tip 8: Post Wow Factor Videos

Wow factor videos are where you include cool transitions or elements that make your audience say, “WOW!” Kind of cheesy, I know, but it really works if you want to get more views on your videos! I have a tutorial on exactly how to create a wow factor video and how to film transitions in this video.

You will need to create these transitions in the Instagram app inside of Reels and then download them and upload to YouTube Shorts. Wow factor videos are good to include in your content strategy because they keep your audience on their toes. You don’t want to only post one type of video content and be too predictable or “snooze-worthy.” Mix it up and hit your audience with wow factor videos that they don’t expect!

Tip 9: Use Fun Effects

Fun effects are another key way to grow your channel with YouTube Shorts and get more views. This can include the green screen effect to record a reaction video, fun transitions, or a filter that duplicates you. Just make sure that the effect adds to the video or emphasizes what you’re saying. You don’t want to distract or overwhelm your viewers from the purpose or “meat” of your content.

Tip 10: Schedule Your YouTube Shorts

I love a good time-saving, efficient process. To save yourself time and brainspace, you can schedule your Shorts just like your long-form YouTube videos. When uploading, simply click “schedule” instead of “upload” and choose your time. This allows you to ensure your Shorts are going out when you want them to, without being tied to your computer 24/7 (or forgetting to post them altogether!).

Tip 11: Use AI to Brainstorm Titles

As I mentioned earlier, it’s so important to optimize your YouTube Shorts titles. Your title is the hook that draws people in, creates curiosity and interest, stops the scroll, gets them to keep watching your video, or makes them want to click over to your channel to see what else you can teach them. Therefore, you want to choose the best, SEO-friendly title for your specific Short. You can use AI to help you do this using TubeBuddy (my personal fave!) or VidIQ.

Tip 12: Use Emojis in Your Titles

Who doesn’t love a good, well-placed emoji, right?! People love emojis and they really stand out against your video in the background. Including emojis that show real emotions in your title draws the eye down to the title and description. This can help you get more views on other content and grow your channel and business.

Tips 13 & 14: Use Analytics to See What’s Working & Don’t ONLY Post Youtube Shorts

When creating content on YouTube, you always want to use your analytics to see what’s working and what people are loving so you can create more content like that. However, you don’t want to fall into the YouTube trap of niching down too much and creating content about only one topic. Doing this hurts the views on your other videos due to the YouTube algorithm.

That’s why I teach my clients to use content pillars, which I talk about in this video. Using the content pillar method keeps your content related to ALL areas of your expertise.

If your goal is YouTube channel growth, especially as a business owner, don’t JUST post YouTube Shorts.

What is really going to grow your channel is optimizing your long-form videos. I use and coach all of my clients and students to use TubeBuddy to find the best keywords and create videos around those.

Tip 15: Focus on the Right Kind of Viewer

While this might sound a little crazy, the right kind of viewer is NOT always just your ideal client, even though you SHOULD focus on them, too.

The RIGHT kind of viewers are the people who actually want to learn from you and not just binge-watch entertainment-style videos in their feed. To focus on the right kind of viewer, speak to their paint points and mention in your direct-to-camera Shorts that you have an entire video on your channel that talks about this topic.

This helps get them over to your long-form content, which can help increase your views and channel growth. Always make sure they know that you have more to offer besides YouTube Shorts.

Tip 16: Use Google Trends For Ideas

The final tip for how to grow with YouTube Shorts is to use Google trends to come up with Shorts content ideas. Simply type in the topic you want to talk about, select worldwide, past 7 days, and YouTube search. This can help you find those highly-searched breakout topics to help you come up with Shorts and long-form video content ideas.

Ready to Get Consistent with YouTube Shorts?

There you have it, YouTubers! I hope these 16 tips for how to use YouTube Shorts to grow your business and how to optimize YouTube Shorts for more views helps you see how simple it really can be to create a kick-butt Shorts strategy!

You can learn how to create consistent content on YouTube with weekly YouTube videos and Shorts (plus learn how to create consistent Instagram content and grow an engaged email list) in 12 hours or less per month in my Content Planning Workshop. Inside of this workshop, I’m dishing out my FULL content repurposing strategy so you can work smarter, not harder while achieving BIG business growth!

Would you like to learn more about video marketing strategy or social media marketing? Check out my other blogs on topics like video strategy, video tips and techniques, confidence on-camera, YouTube marketing, Instagram marketing, entrepreneurship and more.