How to Get Verified on YouTube: 2023 Cheat Sheet

Once you’ve established your channel and built up a solid following, it’s natural to start thinking about how to get verified on YouTube.

The YouTube verification badge provides your account with the ultimate credibility, showing the world that YouTube has confirmed you are who you say you are. Not everyone can get it. But for those who are eligible, it’s an important YouTube milestone.

Here’s everything you know to get verified.

What is YouTube verification?

YouTube verification actually means two different things. The simplest kind of YouTube verification simply involves verifying your phone number with a code sent to your phone. This ensures you’re a real person and not a bot. This type of YouTube verification is available to anyone and unlocks a few extra YouTube features:

• Upload videos longer than 15 minutes
• Use custom thumbnails
• Live stream on YouTube
• Appeal Content ID claims.

To check whether you have verified your account, go to Settings > Account and click Channel status and features. If your account is verified, you’ll see Enabled in green next to Features that require phone verification.

How to get verified on YouTube 4.png

But people also say “YouTube verification” or “verify YouTube account” when they mean getting an official YouTube channel verification badge, which looks like a gray check mark or music note.

This verification badge provides credibility. It tells the world that this is the official channel of a creator, artist, brand, or public figure. And, perhaps most importantly, it helps prevent impostors.

How to verify your YouTube account in 4 steps

Note: To get the simple phone verification mentioned above, which is available to anyone and unlocks extra features, just make sure you’re logged into YouTube and go to YouTube.com/verify.

To get an official YouTube verification badge, follow these steps:

Step 1. Head to the application page

Go to the YouTube channel verification application.

If your channel is eligible to apply for verification, you’ll see the application form. If you’re not yet eligible, you’ll see a message telling you to come back when you’ve reached 100K subscribers.

Note: If you don’t have 100,000 subscribers yet, don’t panic! Scroll down for tips on getting to 100K, and on how to bolster your credibility even without a YouTube verification badge.

Step 2. Complete the form

Fill out the application form. You’ll need your channel name and ID. If you don’t know your channel ID, you can click the link below the channel ID box in the form to find it.

Source: YouTube

You can also find your channel ID at any time from your YouTube account under Settings > Advanced settings.

Once you’ve completed the form, click Submit.

Step 3. Wait

Now you just have to wait while YouTube verifies your account, which can take up to a couple of weeks. YouTube says, “We’ll check different factors to help verify your identity, such as the age of your channel.”

They might also ask you to provide more information or documentation to prove your legitimacy.

Step 4. Maintain your verification

Once you get your coveted badge, here’s what you can do to make sure you don’t lose your verification.

Don’t violate the Terms of Service or Community Guidelines

It’s one thing to get verified on YouTube; it’s another thing to stay verified. Even though you’ve met all the criteria and got a verification badge, YouTube can and will take it away if you violate their Terms of Service or Community Guidelines.

Don’t change your channel name

If you change your channel name, you’ll lose your badge as well. You can apply for verification again using the new name. But since the whole point of the badge is to confirm you are who you say you are, changing your name regularly is not a good idea.

Who can get the YouTube verification badge?

To get the YouTube channel verification badge, you need to meet the eligibility requirements:

• Have at least 100,000 subscribers. For help on that front, check out our blog post on how to get more YouTube subscribers.
• Be who you say you are. YouTube puts this succinctly: “Your channel must represent the real creator, brand, or entity it claims to be.” Makes sense for verification, right? YouTube will check you out and may ask for documentation.
• Have an active, public, and complete channel. You need a channel banner, description, and profile image, and you need to be regularly uploading content to YouTube.

You might see a verification badge on channels with fewer than 100,000 subscribers. This can happen for a couple of reasons.

First, YouTube verification requirements have changed over time, and the channel may have been verified under previous requirements. Or, secondly, YouTube will sometimes proactively verify a channel that is relatively small on YouTube but well-known elsewhere.

The eligibility requirements for the Official Artist Channel music note verification badge are a bit different:

• Represent just one artist or band.
• Have at least one official music video on YouTube distributed by a music distributor or label.
• And meet one or more of the following criteria:
  • Work with a YouTube Partner Manager or be part of a label network that works with a Partner Manager.
  • Participate in the YouTube Partner Program.
  • Have your music distributed by a music partner listed in the YouTube Services Directory for Music Partners.

How to improve your channel’s credibility without a YouTube verification badge

Even if you’re not yet eligible to apply for YouTube verification, you can still take steps to show that your YouTube account is the official one for your brand:

• Choose the right channel name. Your brand name is an obvious choice. For creators, choose something unique that helps you stand out from the competition.
• Use an easily recognizable profile picture. This shows up in search results as well as on your channel, and helps show YouTube users that they’ve found the right account.
• Use YouTube’s customization options to manage your channel layout, banner image, and watermark. All of these options boost your credibility.
• Create a unique and consistent YouTube aesthetic. Your videos should look like your videos. When housed together on your channel, they create a recognizable body of work.
• Engage with your followers. Respond to comments to show you’re a real person who cares what your viewers think.
• Report impostors. If someone is impersonating you or your channel, report them to YouTube. Go to the channel page you want to report, click About, and then click the Report flag.

Note that YouTube verification is not required to earn money on YouTube. If you want to gain access to YouTube’s monetization options and Creator support teams, you instead want to apply for the YouTube Partner Program. It has eligibility requirements too, but they’re much easier to reach for creators. You need to:

• Have 1,000 subscribers
• Have 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months
• Be in good standing with YouTube (no policy violations)
• Turn on two-step verification
• Follow YouTube monetization policies
• Live in a country where the program is available
• Have a linked AdSense account

You can get all the details in our post on how to make money on YouTube.

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