I've been using a customized settings for rendering:

f=mp4 hq=1 acodec=libmp3lame ab=256k ar=44100 vcodec=mpeg4 minrate=0 b=3000k
s=1280x720 aspect=%dar mbd=2 trellis=1 mv4=1 subq=7 qmin=10 qcomp=0.6 qdiff=4 qmax=51 pass=2

It turns out pretty well. However, when I upload the finished product using the rendering format above it seems as though the youtube backend rendering processor takes that video and makes the quality a little worse after it processes it. Is there a method to render in kdenlive that makes youtube's rendering system happy where it does not further change the quality?

AFAIK there is now way around Youtube processing. Just upload the best quality possible.