How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work?

How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work?.

YouTube’s recommendation section is where people are most likely to look for new videos to watch. The videos here are tailored for users so they can click on the videos that YouTube thinks they will be most likely to watch. But how exactly are these videos selected?

Most people refer to this process as YouTube’s algorithm. With its help, the site calculates which videos to add to the section recommended by the user. It also affects the user’s search results. Thus, knowing how this algorithm works is very important if you are a creator trying to reach more audiences.

YouTube hasn’t explicitly stated how this algorithm works. However, they have discussed this from time to time in the past, and after doing some research on the site, people have developed a general idea of Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Ã¢â‚¬â€¹what is going on in this algorithm.

How YouTubeâ€™s Algorithm Impacts User Experience

As noted earlier, there are several areas on YouTube that are heavily influenced by the algorithm. This is the recommended section and search results.

With YouTube search results, the algorithm looks at several different sets of video data. There are literally millions of videos on the site, so they need to make sure the most relevant videos are shown first.

YouTube analyzes video metadata such as title or description and looks for keywords that are most related to the user’s search. So if you know what people are looking for the most, you can include that in your title and description. The degree of interest in the video is also taken into account. These are views, likes and comments to the video.

YouTube puts videos at the top of search results that come closest to what the user would normally click and watch.

With the recommended section, the process is a bit more. The first thing YouTube does is rank all videos based on their performance. This includes things like engagement, how quickly views accumulate, how active a channel is, or how long people have been watching a video.

After the algorithm has determined the video rating, it tries to decide which one the user personally wants to watch. These are things like what topics and channels they usually watch, what recommended videos they’ve watched before, or how long they’ve watched certain videos.

What Data Is Used In The Algorithm?

If you’re wondering what exactly you can do to increase the likelihood that your video will be recommended to more viewers, you might want to know exactly what data is being used in the algorithm.

Here’s the data that YouTube takes into account when it decides to recommend a video:

Impressions: How often does a user click on your video after watching?
Watch Time: How long have users been watching your video?
Activity: How many videos have the user already watched on your channel?
Recent Activity: What topics have the user recently viewed?
User Information: Are they in the typical video demographic?
Session Time: How long do people stay on YouTube after watching a video?
View Speed: How fast is the video gaining views?
Channel Activity: How active is the video channel?
Engagement: Are there many likes, views and comments for this video?

Now, many of these things may not be under your control. However, you have the ability to influence some of these datasets and improve your YouTube video ranking. This will help you appear more frequently on your recommended page or in search results.

How To Get More Viewers With YouTubeâ€™s Algorithm

So what can you do to make YouTube’s algorithm favor your videos? There are many simple changes you can make that will ultimately increase engagement and improve video stats.

Use keywords in titles and descriptions

When people search YouTube, they will use certain words related to the videos they want to watch. If you use words that people are looking for related to the topic of your video, you are much more likely to attract people to view your video.

However, do not overuse keywords as this may seem odd to viewers. 1-2 keywords per line is a good rule of thumb.

Stay active

YouTube rewards active content creators. Make sure you have a consistent video upload schedule and stick to it. You can also try making multiple videos ahead of time so you have a queue of videos ready to post.

This will not only help you retain the followers you already have, but it will also encourage the algorithm to include you more on people recommended pages or in search results.

Keep the viewer’s attention

The longer viewers stay on and watch your video, the more reach your videos will have. This could mean shortening too long intros or irrelevant information in your videos. When people click on a video, they want to see what the title says.

This means you can’t rely too much on clickbait titles because your video really needs to show in order for the viewer to keep watching. And now that YouTube’s algorithm is focused not only on the number of views, but also on the watch time, it is just as important that your viewers are engaged.

Grab attention

YouTube measures video engagement based on views, likes, and comments. The easiest way to get that score up is to get people to comment on your video. You can ask them questions in your video and ask them to answer by leaving a comment.

It’s also important to respond to viewers. If you like and respond to their comments, the viewer will have a much better chance of seeing more of your videos and even following you if they haven’t already.

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