How to Create a YouTube Channel Step-by-Step

Once you’re set up and signed in with your Google account, it’s time to create a channel. Click your user icon in the upper right corner. This represents both your Google account and your YouTube account (since YouTube is owned by Google). You will see a drop down menu where you want to click on “Settings”.

From there you will get to your account overview. Under “Your Channel” click on “Create a New Channel”.

The first step is to create a branded account. It can be any name and doesn’t have to be the name you used to create your Google account. However, we recommend that it reflect the brand that the YouTube channel represents.

After entering the branded account name, you may be asked to verify the account via text message or voice call. In this case, enter the code that you received via the option you selected.

Once you’ve verified your branded account, you’ll be taken to the dashboard for your channel. Now it’s time to start customizing.

3. Navigate to the Customize Channel page.

We’ll start with the basic details of your channel. On your channel dashboard, click Customize Channel.

This will take you to the channel customization page.

You will notice three tabs: “Layout”, “Branding” and “Basic Information”. These three tabs will help you optimize your channel for viewers.

4. Add basic information to your channel to make it discoverable.

First, click on “Basic Information”.

Here you enter some basic information about your channel, such as: For example, the language your videos are displayed in and a description that will help users discover your channel when they enter keywords that describe what videos they are looking for. These keywords can include what your channel is about, what problems it solves, what people and products are featured, in what industry, and much more.

You can also add links to websites that you want to share with your viewers. These links will appear above your banner image as follows (more on that later):

5. Upload branding elements to your channel.

In addition to the descriptive details you’ve added, there’s one more element of customization for a new YouTube channel: the visuals.

On the Branding tab, you can add:

profile pic

Your profile photo belongs to this channel graphic. This is how YouTube users identify the creator of a video when browsing video content. This image will be displayed under YouTube Videos on the playback page, as shown below. YouTube recommends using an image that is at least 98 x 98 pixels in size.