Have you ever filmed a promo encouraging viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel? Without setting a custom URL for your page, the web address probably looked like this: 

So let’s put an end to long, alpha-numeric addresses. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to set a custom URL for your YouTube channel.

How to See If You’re Eligible For a Custom YouTube URL

Before we dive into the tutorial, let’s check your eligibility for custom URLs. Here’s how you do that:

Go to the YouTube Studio. You can reach it by clicking your channel’s profile image on a desktop screen.

Click ‘Settings’ in the left navigation bar.

Once the settings pop-up appears, click ‘Channel’ in the left navigation bar.

In the uppermost menu, click ‘Feature Eligibility’.

At the bottom of the screen, click ‘Status and Features’.

Next, you’ll see an older-looking YouTube page. If YouTube hasn’t updated it before you read this, you should be able to scroll down and see if you’re eligible for a custom URL, as shown below:

Need a visual breakdown of these steps? Watch our video tutorial to make sure you’re doing everything correctly:

Who’s Eligible For a Custom YouTube URL?

If you’re eligible to set a custom URL, congrats! You can enable this feature in the same ‘Status and Features’ page you’re currently in.

However, if you’re unable to set a custom URL, don’t worry. That just means you have some requirements to meet before turning on the feature, which includes:

Growing your YouTube channel to at least 

Reaching the 30-day milestone for having a channel.

If you haven’t satisfied the last two requirements, you can upload these items to your channel by moving your mouse over the channel icon or channel banner. When the camera button appears, click it to upload your banner/icon art.

Finding the Custom URL Screen In YouTube Studio

Now, if the ‘Status and Features’ page no longer exists, there’s another way to reach the custom URL feature. Simply do this instead:

In the channel section of the settings page, click ‘Advanced Settings’.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Manage Your YouTube Account’.

Once the account page appears, click ‘Advanced Settings’ in the left navigation menu. At last, a new page will appear with the option to set a custom URL for your channel.

How to Set a Custom URL for Your YouTube Channel

If you watched the tutorial video above, you may have noticed a bit of Russian text - that's because we have a 

, but today, let’s claim a URL for our Russian channel to show the process.

Back on the advanced settings page, all you have to do is click on the ‘You’re eligible for a custom URL, claim it here’ link to get started, which you can see in the previous screenshot.

As you can see in our case, YouTube has already turned our channel name into the custom URL. So, all we need to do now is agree to the terms of service, and double confirm that this is the URL we want for our YouTube channel.

Back on that Status and Feature screen, it now confirms that we’ve claimed our new URL. If we click on the link, it sends us back to our channel homepage without a hitch. Success!

Don't worry if you see the words channel, user, or simply the letter C within your URL. From now on, you can direct people to YouTube.com/yourchannel.

, you can remove your current custom URL and claim a new one up to three times each year. However, we say this with hesitation. YouTube’s tutorial to change/remove a custom URL didn’t match the platform features, so it may be in the middle of updating this feature.

Setting a custom URL turns a jumbled mess of characters (your current channel ID) into something simple, memorable, and readable. Most people use their channel name to personalize a custom URL, but you can set it to anything you want, within reason!

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

 then make sure to download vidIQ for more subscriber insights. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps. 

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

If your YouTube channel’s URL contains random characters, it’s time to update that web address. Here’s how!

How To Get a Custom URL For Your YouTube Channel

When viewers come to your YouTube channel, they need a quick summary of who you are and what they can learn from you. The faster they discover those things, the more likely they'll be to watch your content, engage with it, and subscribe to your channel.

The best way to make sure that happens is by customizing your YouTube channel homepage. There are many features to experiment with, and depending on how you organize them, you can take your channel from novice to pro YouTuber - at least visually. A YouTube channel with these five assets is in a better position to get more views and subscribers:

A profile icon that looks good in a small, circular format

A featured playlist(s) section to showcase your topics/niche

A channel trailer that explains your content

Visually, those are the things you need to set yourself apart from the competition.

If you want to know how to set up these features, keep reading. We’ll walk you through the various steps of customizing your YouTube channel homepage - something every creator should learn how to do.

How to Find The YouTube Channel Customization Screen

Let’s start by customizing the layout of your YouTube channel homepage. You can make these changes and more in the YouTube Studio via the customization screen. Before you start tinkering with the settings, keep in mind that all changes affect your channel’s layout on both desktop and mobile.

Follow these steps to reach the customization screen:

From most YouTube desktop screens, click on your profile image in the top right corner and go to the YouTube Studio.

Go to the left menu panel and click ‘Customization’. Next, you should see a page that allows you to add a channel trailer, featured sections, featured channels, profile icon, channel banner, video watermark, an about section, channel links, and more.

Need a quick visual walkthrough? Watch our video tutorial about how to customize your YouTube channel:

The customization screen - and all the features mentioned above - is divided into three tabs. The layout tab helps you build the visual foundation of your channel. The branding tab is for adding specific styles, colors, and creating an overall design. And lastly, the basic info tab lets you add text and clickable links to your channel.

Be sure to hit ‘Publish’ in the top right corner of the screen when you’re finished editing. Otherwise, the changes won’t appear on your YouTube channel!

Adding a Trailer to Your YouTube Channel Homepage

Now that you’ve reached the customization screen, let’s take a look at the video spotlight feature. You can find it under the layout section, here:

This screen lets you add a trailer to your channel, which is a video that introduces you and your content. It automatically plays when a viewer arrives on your channel, so it’s a good thing to have on your homepage.

If you want to show different trailers to specific viewers, YouTube has some convenient options. For example, you can show one trailer to non-subscribers and a different trailer to people who’ve already subscribed.

To change either of these settings, mouse over the appropriate box below ‘Video spotlight’ and click the three dots to either remove or change the trailer, like this:

In the pop-up screen that appears, search your channel for the video you want to feature, select it, then publish the changes.

At this point, you may not have a suitable video for your channel trailer, and that’s OK. As soon as you’re ready, use these tips to create the best introductory video:

Keep it brief. Aim to make your video no longer than 45 seconds.

Include some B-roll of your best content as you introduce yourself.

Tell viewers who your content is for and why they should watch.

Inject as much personality into the video as you can.

How to Add, Edit, or Remove Featured Sections on YouTube

Below the video spotlight section is an area for featured content. When you want to quickly communicate your niche to viewers, you can add topic-based playlists or video collections to this section.

To start tinkering with this feature, return to the layout tab in the customization screen, then scroll down to ‘Feature sections’.

This will show you all the sections you’re currently displaying on your YouTube channel homepage. To reorder these, simply click and drag the three-lined icon next to any section up or down. To display a new section, go to the top right corner of the screen and click ‘Add Section’. A drop-down menu will appear with several featured content options, including recent uploads, popular uploads, live streams, and more.

For each section, you can click the three dots on the right to edit the content there. In some cases, it will allow you to change a playlist. But no matter what, you’ll always have the option to view or delete one, as shown below:

Want to create a featured section that encourages people to watch and subscribe? If so, keep these four important things in mind:

You can add a maximum of 10 sections to your YouTube channel homepage. Create as many as possible to summarize your channel for new viewers.

Create a playlist that shows viewers what type of content you make. On the vidIQ channel, our introductory playlist includes videos about how to get 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of Watch Time on YouTube. That’s our niche!

Create a recent uploads playlist. It’ll help new visitors understand that they’ve landed on an active, consistent channel.

Write descriptions for your featured playlists. The text shows up in the featured section and adds more context to your video collections.

How to Customize YouTube’s Featured Channels Section [2021 Update]

Right now, the featured channels section appears on the right side of your YouTube channel homepage. It’s been there for years, but apparently, that’s going to change in 2021. Here’s the notification from YouTube explaining exactly what’s happening:

As you can see, YouTube is letting creators display featured channels in the same area as playlists and video collections. You can make the switch today if you want, so here’s how to make it happen:

Click ‘Add Section Now”, as shown in the screenshot above.

Next, a pop-up screen will appear. In the top right corner, type some brief, explanatory text that will become the title of your section.

Navigate to the search bar and type the name of any YouTube channel. Select the one you want to make it appear in your featured channels section.

Once you have a few channels in this section, you can click + drag each one to reorder the list. You can also remove channels from this section.

When you’re done, here’s what the new section will look like:

How to Add a YouTube Profile Picture and Channel Banner

Next, let’s explore YouTube channel branding. To see all your options, click the branding tab on YouTube’s customization screen. You should see a variety of settings for adding logos to different parts of your channel, which helps you build a reputation on YouTube.

We’ll start with the first item on the list, the YouTube channel profile picture. Adding one is simple - all you need to do is click the ‘Change’ or ‘Remove’ buttons on the customization screen to add a new image. This is the same process for adding a channel banner, which we’ll explain very soon.

Beyond that, there are a few things to keep in mind about YouTube profile pictures. Although you’re uploading a square image, it will be displayed on YouTube as a circular image. That means you’ll have to crop your profile picture using YouTube’s uploader, so don’t put important information in the corner of the image.

There are even more things to consider with your channel banner. First, it needs to fit the dimensions of three media types: TV, desktop, and mobile. When you upload a banner image, YouTube will show you how it looks on different devices. If you need to, you can click and drag the corners of the image to resize it.

Another thing to consider is how visually complex the image is. It’s best to keep it simple and communicate what your channel is about with minimal text, plus some breathing room in your design. 

As a side note, you can change both images - the profile picture and channel banner - by going to your homepage, mousing over either one, and clicking the camera icon.

 This will redirect you back to the customization page in the YouTube Studio.

How to Add Watermarks to Your YouTube Videos

The next branding feature is video watermarks. Enable this setting on your channel, and a small square image will be added to the bottom-right corner of your videos. It’s great for displaying your logo or serving as a call-to-action, encouraging viewers to mouse over the image, and subscribe to your channel.

That's why we recommend adding a subscription-style image rather than a logo. As an added bonus, 

 to download an image that works perfectly as a ‘subscribe now’ button. Use it as you please:

Adding a watermark to your videos is the same process as adding a profile picture or channel banner. While on the YouTube customization screen, click the branding tab, scroll to the watermark section, and click ‘Change’ or ‘Remove’.

Once you have your button, you can decide when (and how long) the watermark appears in your videos. We recommend having it visible the entire time, as that gives your viewers more opportunities to subscribe.

The basic information tab is our last stop when it comes to YouTube channel customization. For this section, we’ll start with something close to many creators' hearts: the name of your YouTube channel.

If your channel name is already the most epic thing ever, you might not need this section today. But if you ever want to change it in the future, the process is simple. While on the customization screen, click the branding tab then look below the ‘Channel name and description’ header. You should see your current channel name, as well as a pencil icon right beside it. Click that icon to type a new name, as shown below:

It’s easy to change your channel name, but you do have to bear in mind the impact it has on your Google accounts. If you have a personal YouTube account and you change your YouTube channel name, that can actually change your Google account name. However, if you have a brand YouTube account, changing the name of your channel doesn't impact your Google account.

We know that sounds really confusing. The topic requires more explaining than we can do here, so watch this video to get all the information you need:

How to Customize Your YouTube Channel’s ‘About’ Section

About a minute ago, while you were reading about YouTube channel names, you may have seen a screenshot showing vidIQ’s channel description. On the front end of YouTube, this is called the ‘About’ section. When viewers want more information about you and your content, they’ll head to this section to find the answers.

That’s why it’s important to speak directly to your target audience when writing your short bio. At the very least, you should:

Explain the value people gain from watching your content.

Include keywords related to your content.

When you’re finished writing your channel bio, go to the basic info tab and paste it in the text box below ‘Channel name and description’.

How to Add Links to Your YouTube Channel Banner

Did you know you can add a maximum of five links to your channel banner? You can use them to promote your website, social media profiles, online store, or other landing pages your audience might find useful.

No matter which links you decide to add, always remember that the first is super important. That’s because on desktop, only the first link includes text. Take a look at our channel banner links and how we draw attention to the most important one:

Underneath the basic info tab on the YouTube customization screen, you’ll see a header that reads ‘Links’. In this section, you can add, remove, and reorder the links in your channel banner as needed. These only appear on desktop; on mobile, links are buried deep in the about section.

How to Add a Contact Email to Your YouTube Channel

Want to collaborate with other creators? Collect inquiries from viewers? First, you’ll need to create and share an email address where people can reach you.

Don't use your YouTube account email as your channel’s contact email. 

This might present a backdoor entrance for hackers. Instead, create a separate email for YouTube inquiries.

When you’re ready to add an email address to your channel, head to the basic info tab. Scroll down to the ‘Contact info’ header and paste your email into the text box.

We hope you find this guide useful! At vidIQ, it’s our mission to educate you on your YouTube journey as you pursue a successful video-making career. If you want more content like this, be sure to subscribe to the 

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and get more views on YouTube then make sure to 

. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps to succeed.  ​ ​ ​

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel.

Your YouTube channel will either entice viewers or make them hit the back button on their browser. To get as many views and subscribers as possible, read these channel customization tips! 

How to Customize Your YouTube Channel

It couldn’t be easier to delete a video from your mobile device, you just need to make sure you have the YouTube app installed and you are signed in to your account.

From the main screen tap your profile image in the top right-hand corner and go to ‘Your Channel’

Click on ‘Videos’ in the top hand navigation bar to bring up a list of your content

Tap the three dots to the right of the thumbnail and title to see the ‘Delete’ option.

You can also delete videos via the official 

Tap the ‘Option’ button in the top left and go to ‘Videos’

Find the video you want to delete and then tap on it

This will take you to the videos edit page - there is a pencil icon at the top, tap on that

Then swipe to the advanced tab and then scroll all the way to the bottom of this screen and you should find the ‘Delete’ option.

Do You Really Need to Delete That YouTube Video?

YouTube clearly states that there is no way to undo this permanent action. So think very carefully about deleting any video as not only will you lose all of the comments and engagement from that video, but you will also lose all of the views and Watch Time too.

 because you want to monetize your content, really think about what effect deleting a video might have if it has contributed in any way towards that goal.

Also, if you’re thinking of deleting a video just because it has a copyright or community strike against it, know that it won't get rid of that strike. If you have a 

, you're much better off using one of YouTube's official tools. There's a full tutorial on how to use it here (only via desktop though):

And finally, if you are embarrassed by your older videos, then watch the videos we first published on the 

. They're not fantastic, but we're proud of them because they're all part of our YouTube journey to where we are now.

Now, if you're much more interested in creating new content and growing your channel, then make sure to grab vidIQ for either your iPhone or Android device. It is free so just search for “vidIQ” on the Apple app and Google Play store.

If you want more insights into YouTube then make sure to download vidIQ. Over 1 million creators use vidIQ to help with keyword and competitor research, channel audits, and so much more. 

And if you’re serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

. Learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

Have you ever wanted to delete a YouTube video quickly but only have access to a mobile device? If the answer is yes, we show you how!

How To Delete a YouTube Video On a Mobile Device (Android or iOS)

YouTube is a wonderful adventure, but my goodness does it attract its fair share of Internet trolls and hurtful comments. But you don’t have to put up with that. It’s easy to cut that negativity out of your life and ban that spammy user for good. Let’s show you how:

From most desktop YouTube screens, click your channel profile image in the top right-hand corner of a screen, and click on ‘YouTube Studio’

From this dashboard, click the ‘Comment’ section in the left-hand navigation bar, to show you all of the most recent comments that you have not yet replied to.

We'll start with an easy example first. The ‘Likely Spam’ tab will contain comments that have been held back by YouTube until you get the chance to review them. It’s here that you’ll find the most ‘sub4sub’ style requests (

To ban any further contact or comments from a user that continues to spam your channel with sub4sub, or any other pointless requests, click the ‘Ban’ icon. You’ll get a pop-up showing you confirmation that this user has now been hidden from the channel.

Banning Users That Have Already Published YouTube Comments

Now, let’s go back to comments that have already been published on the channel. On the same dashboard, click on the ‘Published’ tab. Now, next to each comment on this page, you will see three dots. Click them to bring up the following options:

Options 2 & 3 allow you to either remove a single comment or report it to YouTube. Obviously, don't abuse this system, as this helps no one.

The 4th option is the same as the ban option on the ‘Likely Spam’ tab, effectively banning this user from ever commenting again on your channel and videos.

To keep track of all of the users you have banned from your channel (and if you have a big channel, it may run into the hundreds), go to ‘Settings’ on the left-hand menu, then click on ‘Community.’ Halfway down the pop-up screen, you will see a ‘Hidden Users’ box.

For clarification, each hidden user isn't technically banned from your channel. They can still watch your content, but they can't engage with you with comments, and that includes live chats. If you do have a change of heart, and you want to reinstate the comment privileges for a user, you can remove them from this list.

You can ban someone via the YouTube Creator Studio app, but other than hiding viewers from your content, you can't manage them. You have to go back to desktop if you want to remove that user from the hidden users list.

Reward Your Most Loyal and Active YouTube Subscribers

As a YouTuber, you’ll almost certainly attract your fair share of trolls and negativity on your channel. But there's going to be a whole lot of support for you as well. You may want to reward the most loyal and engaged members of your community by turning them into moderators. They will be absolutely invaluable when it comes to live streams.

And on that note, we just wanted to take a quick second to say thank all to all of our moderators on the 

. You volunteer for what can be a thankless task at times, and it is really, really appreciated.

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

Tired of Sub4Sub or other spammy comments on your YouTube videos? Find out how to block those annoying users for good.

How to Block Someone From Your YouTube Channel [2020 Guide]

Deleting a video permanently from your own channel couldn’t be easier. Just follow these steps:

Click on your YouTube profile image in the top, right-hand corner of the screen

From this dashboard screen, click the ‘Videos’ link from the left-hand navigation bar

Mouse over any video on this list, to be shown several options.

Click the three dots to the right, and you should see the option to delete the highlighted video

 warn you that this action is permanent and can't be undone, and will make you check a confirmation box to agree to this. Also, this will be your last opportunity to download the video if you need to.

How to Delete More Than One Video From YouTube

If you want to delete videos in bulk, you can use the checkbox column on the left to select multiple videos.

When you do this, a black bar of options appears at the top of the list

Click on "More actions" which will give you the option to delete all of the selected videos

Again, you will need to click the confirmation box to actually delete the videos forever

If you can't find the video you want to delete from this screen, you can use the search bar at the top of the screen which only searches for channel videos, not only videos on YouTube. When you find the video you want to delete, click on it to take you to the edit details page for that video, and you'll find those three dots to the right of the screen. Click here to find the same delete video option.

Think Very Carefully Before Deleting a YouTube Video

So now you know how to delete a YouTube video, let's talk about all the caveats of actually doing so.

First of all, as YouTube clearly states, 

there is no way to undo this permanent action.

 Not only will you lose all of the comments and engagement from that video, but, and most crucially, you will lose all of the views and Watch Time from that video.

So if you are looking to get to your goal of 

, really consider why you want to delete this video.

Also, deleting a video because it has a copyright or community strike on it won't get rid of that strike. And if you have copyright claims on that video, then you probably want to fix it through the 

And finally, if you are embarrassed by your older videos, watch the videos we first put out on the 

Have you ever wanted to permanently delete a video from your YouTube channel? This is a complete guide on how to do it.

How to Delete a YouTube Video [Complete Guide]

T-Series is definitely gonna overtake PewDiePie. No. PewDiePie just got half a million subscribers in a single day.

I woke up to this morning was something quite incredible. First of all, it starts with vidIQ. We did a video last week about another MrBeast antic on the subscriber race. And it'd been doing relatively well, but overnight, it exploded in views. At one point, we were giving it 20,000 views per hour. And that told me something about the current situation with the PewDiePie-versus-T-Series subscriber count. And no doubt, I'm sure you've seen all of these over the past couple of weeks. Live subscriber counts of the battle. The number of people watching these livestreams on Sunday morning exploded. The top result here, FlareTV, at one point had 70,000 people watching the subscriber count. To give you some perspective, that's the entire population of Andorra watching two numbers compete with each other.

This was supposed to be the endgame. The YouTube universe was starting to smell blood. By the end of December the 1st, T-Series was less than a hundred thousand subscribers behind PewDiePie. It seemed as if not even a MrBeast-inspired stunt by Justin Roberts, apparently spending $1 million on a billboard in Times Square, asking people to subscribe to PewDiePie, could save him now.

And by noon, just as PewDiePie surpassed at 73 million subscribers himself, the subscriber gap was down to less than 20,000.

It could've been the billboard, it could've been a tweet, it could've been the livestream. It could've been PewDiePie's latest video with a rather direct title. Or it could've been something going down on Reddit which you're always keen to tell me about in the comments because I forget that corner of the internet. Whatever happened, the subscriber gap between PewDiePie and T-Series has increased once again. The breakdown of the day is astonishing in itself. From noon to nine p.m., PewDiePie gained 350,000 subscribers. Over the course of the entire day, PewDiePie gained 544,000 subscribers.

As for the subscriber gap between PewDiePie and T-Series, you know, the other channel in this story. Well, up until noon, as you can see, it got as close as 16,000 subscribers and then PewDiePie absolutely obliterated T-Series in the second half of the day. Look at the increasing difference between three o'clock and six o'clock. It's astonishing. It should also be noted at this point that T-Series had a pretty good day as well. They average 155,000 subscribers a day, but they doubled that on December the 2nd. And that's rare. Usually, they're very consistent and they don't have such spikes. But what they do have, just like PewDiePie, is passionate, committed fans rallying behind their cause as well.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

It was all set to happen on December 2. T Series was less than 20,000 subscribers behind. By the end of the same day, they were only 230,000 subscribers behind.

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