YouTube Traffic Sources Explained
A plain guide to where your views come from and what to improve next.
15 min readAnalytics
Blog
Notes on getting YouTube videos found — titles, thumbnails, and what the data actually says.
15 ChatGPT Prompts for YouTube Titles You Can Actually Test
A practical workflow for creating, improving and testing stronger YouTube titles with ChatGPT.
14 min readTitles & thumbnails
How YouTube Search Works: Relevance, Engagement and Quality Explained
A plain-English guide to the YouTube search algorithm and the signals that decide which videos appear first.
10 min readGrowth
YouTube SEO Best Practices for 2026: What Actually Works
The YouTube SEO best practices that work in 2026: search intent, accurate titles and thumbnails, the first 30 seconds, descriptions, chapters, Shorts and analytics.
15 min readGrowth
What Is YouTube SEO?
YouTube SEO is how you help YouTube understand your video and help the right viewer choose it — topic, packaging, metadata and viewer response, not keywords alone.
10 min readGrowth
How to Find YouTube Video Ideas Using Your Analytics
Stop asking AI for random topics. Turn your own search terms, retention moments, and comments into a short list of evidence-backed video ideas.
11 min readChannel strategy
How to Audit Your YouTube Channel With AI
AI can audit your channel - but only with the right data. How to compare periods, group videos, find the real bottleneck, and leave with three actions.
11 min readAnalytics
How to Connect YouTube to ChatGPT With MCP
Learn how to connect YouTube to ChatGPT with MCP, access channel analytics, test the connection, and ask questions about your real YouTube data.
13 min readAnalytics
Can You Use AI to Edit YouTube Videos?
Yes, AI can cut silences, clean audio, add captions, create rough cuts, and turn long videos into Shorts. Learn what to automate and what to review.
8 min readChannel strategy
How to Automate YouTube With Claude: 7 Workflows
Learn how to automate YouTube with Claude using seven practical workflows for research, scripts, packaging, metadata, repurposing, analytics, and channel growth.
13 min readChannel strategy
6 Best YouTube MCP Servers, Compared
There is no official YouTube MCP server. Six open-source options compared by how much access each one needs — transcripts, API keys or OAuth — plus quota limits and 403 errors.
7 min readAnalytics
How to Analyse YouTube Videos with Claude
How to analyze YouTube videos with Claude: give it the transcript via a YouTube MCP server, then ask for summaries, gaps, timestamps and comparisons — plus the one thing Claude cannot see.
7 min readChannel strategy
8 AI Prompts for YouTube Thumbnails (Copy and Paste)
Two prompts, not one: ask a text model for thumbnail concepts, then turn the winner into an image prompt. Eight copy-and-paste prompts, plus the rules that keep AI thumbnails readable.
7 min readTitles & thumbnails
How to Write YouTube Titles That Get Clicks: 12 Rules
How to write YouTube titles that get clicks: 12 practical rules, title formulas, search vs browse strategy, and how to test which version wins.
8 min readTitles & thumbnails
How Long Should a YouTube Title Be? (2026 Limits)
YouTube titles cap at 100 characters but only ~60 show. How long yours should be, where it truncates, plus Shorts title and description limits.
6 min readTitles & thumbnails
YouTube Thumbnail Size Guide for 2026
YouTube thumbnail size in 2026: 3840x2160 at 16:9, 640px minimum, under 2MB. Dimensions, resolution, safe zone, Shorts and the mistakes to avoid.
6 min readTitles & thumbnails
12 Best YouTube Thumbnail Fonts for More Clicks
The 12 best YouTube thumbnail fonts - Anton, Bebas Neue, Oswald and more. All free, all readable at feed size, with a real example of each.
6 min readTitles & thumbnails
10 YouTube Thumbnail Ideas That Get Clicks (With Examples)
10 YouTube thumbnail ideas that get clicks, with real examples for each - faces, big numbers, before/after and more, plus how to pick the right format.
9 min readTitles & thumbnails
Localized YouTube Thumbnails: How MrBeast Does It
Localized YouTube thumbnails let you show a different thumbnail per country or language - the MrBeast trick. Here is how it works and how to make the variants.
4 min readTitles & thumbnails
How to Connect YouTube to Claude AI via MCP
How to connect YouTube to Claude: add a YouTube MCP server as a connector, then ask Claude to summarise, analyse and search videos in plain language.
8 min readChannel strategy
See this on your own channel
VidTraffic reads your titles, thumbnails and analytics and tells you what is actually working — measured against your own channel, not a benchmark. Free to start.