If your YouTube channel is a mess — broken links, inconsistent titles, janky playlists — this guide is your shortcut to cleaning it up fast. Whether you’re an independent artist or label team, these steps will help you organize your content, surface your best videos, and make the whole channel more professional and binge-worthy. You don’t need to overhaul everything — just follow this checklist and fix what matters.
Table of Contents
1. Fix Your Channel Settings
Start in YouTube Studio → Settings. This section is often skipped, but it controls how all future uploads behave. Take the time to set it up right:
- General: Set your currency to your home country
- Channel → Basic Info: Confirm Country of Residence is correct. Add keywords like artist name (and misspellings), genre, crew, collaborators, and album names
- Channel → Advanced Settings: Set audience to: Not made for kids (unless it actually is)
- Upload Defaults → Basic Info: Set Visibility to Unlisted. Add a default description with socials, website, and hashtags. Add default tags using your keywords
- Upload Defaults → Advanced Settings: Set Category to Music. Set Video Language and Title/Description Language
2. Fix Your Branding
Branding is the first thing people see, especially on mobile. If it doesn’t work on a phone screen, it doesn’t work at all.
- Avatar: Must be clear at small sizes. If people can’t tell what it is on mobile, redo it
- Banner: Use 2048 × 1152 px (6MB max). Check the center portion on mobile — that’s all most viewers will see
- Handle: Try your best to make sure your handle matches your handles on your other social platforms. Sometimes the one you want may be taken – get as close as you can.
- Description: The first line should tell a strong, current story. Don’t leave outdated bios from five years ago
- Links: Make sure every link works. Broken links = lost fans
3. Standardize Your Titles
Go to YouTube Studio → Content. Set the visibility filter to Public. Now go through each video and make sure titles are consistent and properly labeled:
- All official music videos should include: [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
- All audio uploads: [AUDIO]
- All behind-the-scenes: [BTS]
- All live performances: [LIVE]
Click the three dots → Edit title and description to fix them fast without opening the full video editor.
This small change makes organizing content and building playlists 10x easier later.
4. Create Smart Playlists
With your Public filter still on, use the new consistent titles to filter content by type (e.g., search for “Official Video,” “BTS,” “Audio”).
- Select All → Add to Playlist
- Create a playlist for each common video type. Examples include
- Live
- Behind The Scenes
- Audio
- Features
- For Official Videos, make two playlists:
- New Videos: Sorted by newest uploads
- Classics: Sorted by most viewed
Keep playlist titles short and direct. These will appear on your channel homepage.
Create Collaborative Playlists and invite artists you work with frequently to contribute to the playlist. Everyone involved should share the playlist prominently to drive views.
5. Third-Party Uploads
Search yourself on YouTube and look for videos featuring you that aren’t on your channel. auto-generated playlists — often these are VEVO uploads or music videos that live on other channels. If they’re good and relevant, add them to the correct playlist using the three dots → Save to playlist. This connects orphaned content to your curated catalog.
6. Organize Your Homepage
Your homepage should feel intentional. Go to the Customize Channel view and:
- Remove messy, default playlists
- Add your best playlists in a clean order
- Use playlist thumbnails that feel consistent (artist face, high quality, branded)
- Add a Featured Channels section to showcase your close collaborators (and ask them to do the same for you!)
This is what first-time visitors will see. Make it count.
7. Fix Thumbnails That Deserve It
Not every thumbnail needs a redesign — but many do. Here’s how to spot and fix the bad ones fast. For an in-depth article on this, click here.
- Go to YouTube Studio → Content
- Set the Visibility filter to Public
- Scroll through and look at your thumbnails:
- Are they blurry, off-brand, or just bad?
- Do they show a clear, focused face or performance moment?
- Are they too busy or unreadable on mobile?
For the ones that need fixing:
- Screenshot a strong moment from the video (performing, singing, or a title card)
- Make sure it’s clean: no YouTube overlays, progress bars, or clutter
- Touch it up with brightness and contrast
- Upload it as a custom thumbnail
If it doesn’t work on a phone screen, it doesn’t work. That’s your filter.
Use this thumbnail checklist before uploading:
- Clear, high-quality image of your face or performance
- No overlays or busy backgrounds
- Strong contrast and visual clarity
- Mobile-friendly and on-brand
8. Fix Video Details That Deserve It
Descriptions aren’t filler — they’re SEO power tools. Here’s how to update the ones that matter. For an in-depth article on this, click here.
- In YouTube Studio → Content, filter by Public videos
- Focus on your top ~10 videos (most recent or highest views)
- Click “Details” on each and check for:
A. Bad descriptions? Fix them:
- Strong first line (lyric, feature, or link)
- Use artist name, song title, and genre
- Add streaming + social links (clean and clickable)
- Credit all collaborators properly
- Use 2–3 smart hashtags (not a cluttered list)
B. Missing screens and cards? Add them:
- End screen: 1 playlist, 1 video, 1 subscribe, 1 best-for-viewer
- Info cards: Link to a playlist or new release
C. Titles? Standardize them:
Format like this:
Artist Name – Song Title (feat. Name) [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
The more complete and clean your metadata, the better YouTube will treat your video.
9. Add Smartlinks To Videos That Deserve It
Any video that’s actually getting a reasonable number of views should have a smartlink. But whenever possible, use full album smartlinks instead of single smartlinks. You get more streams per listener, and you can use the same smartlink for any video of any song that are all on the same album. Double whammy. Go to artlnk.info and create your smartlink.
Next Steps
If you’re ready to take action on this kind of strategy, check out our campaigns and services that address just this issue:
360 Promo is a full-service music marketing, promotion, distribution and admin company. Learn more about us and what we do at 360 Promo, follow us on Instagram and contact us to tailor a plan that works for you.