How To Make the YouTube Algorithm Work for You?

Today, with over 2.3 billion monthly active users and 300 hours of video posted per minute, YouTube is now the second-largest social networking site. YouTube is evergreen. It grows over time, you can monetize it, and it has a lot of power. YouTube is a powerful tool that you can use to your advantage. You can also make the YouTube algorithm work for you. If you implement these strategies and tactics, the YouTube algorithm will reward you with more views and subscribers, increasing your revenue per video and engagement with your content on and off YouTube.

What is the goal of YouTube’s algorithm?

YouTube’s algorithm is designed to discover the most shared and watched content across the platform and to optimize the sharing of that content across YouTube. The primary goal of YouTube’s algorithm is to ensure that videos that get a lot of views are uploaded. As your viewers become accustomed to watching your videos, they will share them more often. However, part of what is happening behind the scenes on YouTube is a more sophisticated form of optimization.

The algorithm’s goals are two-fold:

Find the right video for each viewer:
The algorithm is constantly working to understand how different viewers find videos on YouTube to make recommendations more accurately. For example, suppose you are creating a series of videos that share the same topic or topic area. In that case, the algorithm will know what type of video is most likely shared across YouTube and adjust its recommendations accordingly.
Remind viewers to watch again:
YouTube wants your content to be among uploaded videos that viewers want to watch repeatedly. An uploaded video’s goal is to remain on a viewer’s ‘watch list’ for as long as possible.

How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work For You?

There are six different sites on YouTube where you may find videos. YouTube has a well-defined AI-based algorithm that determines how videos will appear in these six categories to best suit viewers’ interests.

1. Search Results
The first site the algorithm looks at is the search results. YouTube is constantly looking for videos that people are searching for on a wide variety of topics relevant to what you are posting your video on and how you are posting it. Make sure your video appears as a result in the search results.

Create engaging content: Use keywords that people search for.
Add tags: Use the labels of your video, so they appear in relevant searches.
Optimize your title: Use the best keywords that describe your video.
Add annotations: Add annotations to your video, so they appear in related searches.

2. Recommended Streams
The second site the algorithm looks at is the recommended videos page. First, your video will appear on several lists of related videos. Next, it will move to a recommendation system that looks at past performance. The algorithm’s initial recommendation is based on the viewer’s previous viewing history. The following questions assist YouTube in selecting videos that are specifically picked for the happiness of its viewers:

What kinds of videos have they previously viewed?
Do they spend most of their time listening to music?
Do they keep up with vlogs?
What networks do they typically view videos on?

3. Notifications
The third site the algorithm looks at is the notifications page. The algorithm assesses the content a user is watching. For example, if you are showing a video at the same time as other videos that it identifies as similar, your content will not be ranked highly. The algorithm will make recommendations to its users based on what they watch throughout their daily lives and how often they view these videos.

4. Channel Subscriptions
The fourth site the algorithm looks at is the subscriptions page. YouTube considers whether many subscribers have subscribed to a channel to your channel or if it continues to be subscribed as you post more content. The algorithm looks at subscriber growth on your track and whether or not it is growing one day after posting your video. The algorithm looks at how many new users you are getting daily and how much your audience is engaged with your content:

YouTube will increase your video’s ranking if people watch for longer than 30 seconds.
If people are watching from a country, you are not in, YouTube will increase your video’s ranking.
If people are watching to the end of your video, YouTube will increase your video’s ranking.

5. Trending Streams
The algorithm looks at trending streams and other streams similar to your content. This is an update of the algorithm’s initial recommendation based on similarities between video contents. The algorithm looks at how the videos correlate on social websites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs, as well as several other factors such as how popular they are in different countries and information about what kind of content they are showing.

6.YouTube Home Page
The YouTube home page is a collection of the other sites that YouTube looks at. First, it will look at the search results. Next, it will look at trending videos or videos that are similar to your own. It will then look at subscriptions to channels identical to yours, and finally, the algorithm looks to see how your content relates and correlates with those of other users you might befriend.

Recently, YouTube has changed its algorithm again based on analyzing and tracking user behavior. They discovered that users prefer recommendations for more engaging content, which is why the new algorithm focuses on what viewers are likely to watch next in their “watch time” rather than just looking at video views early on in the video lifecycle.

Conclusion

The YouTube algorithm is a complex process that may seem ambiguous initially, but it does have some advantages that most other video services do not. The algorithm continues to improve and adapt as YouTube learns more and more about what viewers like to watch. In the end, you have the power to improve your video’s performance by making sure it has the appropriate tags and keywords and make sure you adhere to their community guidelines.