YouTube upload checklist — before you hit publish

Why a checklist beats memory

Most upload mistakes aren't creative, they're small: a title cut in the wrong place, chapters that don't show up because the first one isn't at 0:00, an end screen with no room in the last seconds, a Short whose caption hides behind the like button. Each one is easy to fix before publishing and annoying to fix after, when the first viewers have already seen it.

Going through the same list every time also makes uploads faster. After a few videos, you stop thinking about the boring parts and spend that time on the script and the edit.

Long videos vs Shorts

Long videos have more surface to get right: thumbnail, chapters, cards and an end screen all affect what viewers watch next. Shorts are simpler but stricter about space: buttons on the right and the caption at the bottom cover part of the frame, so text has to stay inside the safe zone.

Both share the essentials: a hook that delivers on the title, a description that explains the video in its first lines, relevant hashtags, reviewed captions and the right audience setting.

The numbers YouTube actually publishes

Where YouTube Help gives a number, the item says so and links to it: titles up to 100 characters; chapters starting at 0:00, at least three and 10 seconds each; end screens in the last 5 to 20 seconds of videos that are 25 seconds or longer; up to 5 cards per video; up to 3 hashtags shown above the title, and all of them ignored if you add more than 60. Everything else is practical advice, and it's written as advice.

Make the repetitive parts once

Subscribe reminders, lower thirds, chapter cards and end screens repeat in every video. Make them once with your channel name and colors, export them with a transparent background and reuse them — that's the part of this checklist our templates take off your plate.