How to Make a Custom Thumbnail for Twitch and YouTube for Free!


Did you know that there is actually a rumor going on that thumbnails that you use in Twitch actually affect the partnership qualifications? Whaat.. I did not know that. Well actually this is already a bit older rumor but it makes sense if you think about it.

Custom thumbnails for Twitch videos make the videos page appear much more professional than the automatic thumbnails. So does that affect for the Partnership qualifications where Twitch will decide if you are fit to be a selected partner? You can think yourself about that.. 😉

When you upload a custom thumbnail for your videos and add a description and tags. You may actually get your Twitch videos appearing in the Google search results when you upload a thumbnail for them… WHAATT! YES!

Video Search Results with YouTube and Twitch

This little thing has been kind of a secret i have been sharing for just couple insider friends. You can actually get double spots in the google with Twitch and YouTube by uploading the same thumbnail for both of the platforms. We actually used this same thing earlier when the VIDEO SEO was coming in before the age of Twitch.

There was this software that is still around which is Vimeo. Vimeo thumbnails rarely appear in search results these days since Google changed  their algorithm so that thumbnails would only be coming from YouTube. This doesn’t seem to be the case anymore since i see thumbnails from Twitch videos appearing quite frequently.

Why do You Need to Have Thumbnail in your videos?

In terms of YouTube what do they think about thumbnails? From my experience.. If you want to rank any of your videos.. Get a thumbnail immediately when you post the video. It has huuge affects in terms of video SEO.

This overly sized image 👇 is an ad.. It’s not just any ad but a useful one it is!

OBS pro obspro
OBS pro 2

Poof 🧙‍♂️ Now the ad is gone..

Also the thumbnails are a huge thing in branding. I suggest you to have a look at Wild4Games, Gothix Model, ashnichrist and Gael Level:s videos. The whole archive of amazing information looks sick and they all look different.

How to Make a Thumbnail for Twitch and YouTube videos?

Justin Brown has created an awesome tutorial / guide how you can create an awesome looking video thumbnail for your videos with a free tool called Canva. Of source for us Twitch streamers there already has been a great thumbnail tool from NerdOrDie that you can also use.

But you can’t really make a super cool looking thumbnail with that like you can do with Canva. But now! I’ll let Justin take the reigns and show you the ways to the greatness with thumbnails and Canva.

Credits and +1 rep: For Justin Brown about the video!

Tools and Resources for Twitch and Youtube Thumbnails

Twitch and YouTube Thumbnail / VOD image sizes

YouTube and Twitch actually has the same sizes for thumbnails which is 1280 x 720px. So you can create one and use them on both platforms! This is pretty neat.

If you want to know more about graphics sizes for streamers check out the Twitch Streamer – Graphics Sizes cheat sheet where you can find them all! Including social media image sizes. Here are a couple of straight links you might need: Twitch Graphic – Sizes and here YouTube Graphic – Sizes.

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