The Latest YouTube Redesign: A Short Review

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Some websites keep their original design for the sake of familiarity, but YouTube isn’t one of them. Just over a month ago, the social media website popped up on browsers around the globe showing the results of its latest redesign effort: a new homepage, new channel design, and new aesthetics. If you use YouTube to promote your business, it’s worth considering how this year’s YouTube redesign will impact content sharing.

New Homepage

The new homepage makes it easy for users to find their favorite channels. To find channels, users consult the left side of their account page, where channels are arranged according to preference. Unlike the previous homepage, the new one places the homepage feed in the center of the page. To change the feed, users select a different channel from the left side of the page.

The new homepage’s viewer friendly design makes it easier to access channels; it also makes it easier to discover new ones. Users can link a YouTube account to their Facebook or Google+ account to see videos that friends are sharing.

New Channel Design

One goal of the YouTube redesign is to make finding videos easier – a goal accomplished by the creation of four channel templates that allow uploaders to feature videos in different layouts:

 

  • Creator, which features a variety of custom playlists
  • Blogger, which highlights an uploader’s recent videos
  • Networks, which displays a video above video channels
  • Everything, which offers a mix of the first three templates

 

Depending on what you display, and to whom you intend to display it, the new page templates can increase your options for reaching your target audience. Whether a business has extensive video content, or it just started uploading, the new templates make it easy to present video content in a compelling manner.

New Aesthetics

YouTube looks newer than it has in awhile. Its 2010 redesign didn’t dramatically alter what came before, but the 2011 makeover definitely has. In addition to cleaner, sleeker lines and richer blocks of color, the page and video box are wider, and what were once top tabs have basically become a navigation bar. These changes give the website what many are calling a more professional appearance – a look that some users lament nostalgically, but one that suits businesses just fine.

The better YouTube videos and the pages that feature them appear, the more reason people have to watch them, and that’s what the website is about.

Optimizing YouTube Pages

For businesses, taking full advantage of YouTube involves optimizing their YouTube videos – a process that begins with consulting a search engine marketing (SEM) firm that specializes in video optimization. With web users increasingly getting their information from web videos, YouTube optimization is one of the important Internet marketing strategies for businesses that earn revenue online. To learn how YouTube optimization can benefit your business, and how to take advantage of the website’s latest developments, contact an SEM firm. buy youtube favorites