How the YouTube algorithm works

Hello! Here are some things I've learned about how the YouTube algorithm works, during my time as a creator there.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world. Creators should approach it accordingly.

The more niche a video, the better the algorithm likes it, so it can show your videos to people likely to be interested. YouTube will like you more if each video is about one thing and one thing only, because this makes searchable keywords easier too.  A title like How To Wrangle Geese is stronger, SEO-wise, than How To Wrangle Geese AND Make Them Sleep. (Do geese sleep? They must, surely.)

An ideal video title has a searchable keyword in its first half, perhaps then followed by an enticing non-searchable phrase if you have the stomach for that. For example: How To Wrangle Geese - EVERYTHING You Need To Know!

The algorithm looks at the title (the first half especially), then at your video description (bonus marks if the main keyword in your title, i.e. How To Wrangle Geese, is repeated here.) Then it looks at your video tags, where the main keyword should be repeated once again, among various other related keywords.

As soon as YouTube feels confident that your video is about something, it shows your video to potentially interested parties. If the click-through rate (the percentage of people who click your video thumbnail - so make it good!), watch time (percentage of video viewed before viewers switch to a cat video instead) and viewer engagement (likes and comments) are decent, it will show the video to a bigger bunch of people, and so on until virality ensues. Hopefully.

So, how are we supposed to know how to optimise our YouTube videos, to maximise views and watch time? I strongly recommend that creators use a desktop browser app called TubeBuddy - and not just because I can offer you a 20% discount.

Using TubeBuddy, you can work out what the best keyword(s) will be for any given video. Using the Keyword Explorer tool (see interface below), you type in a potential keyword phrase and TubeBuddy gives you a score out of 100, based on several factors, such as how many people search YouTube for that keyword and how much competition there is. You can do this in the free version, but a subscription gives you an added advantage, because the result is 'weighted' to your channel, i.e. specific to your own channel's strengths.

There's a free version of TubeBuddy that you can check out and see how you like it. If you choose to join me in subscribing, be sure to use my special coupon code ARNOPPBUDDY for a huge 20 PER CENT off! Furthermore, TubeBuddy offers a special Rising Star discount to YouTubers whose channels have fewer than 1000 subscribers. 

Full disclosure: I'm a TubeBuddy affiliate, and so if you sign up using my link, then decide to subscribe, I receive a commission at absolutely no extra cost to you.

Lastly, look out for my new goose-wrangling channel, coming soon! *

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* Lies, obviously.