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Writer's pictureFaisal Mateb Aljebrin

Tips to Use YouTube's Algorithms to Your Advantage

Information in this post was gathered from Hootsuite, Reddit, and my two previous blog posts, providing general information on YouTube's algorithms, and the technical aspects of YouTube's algorithms.


Picture showing YouTube's trending page and Case Neistat's subscriber count
Image courtesy of Unsplash

Now that you understand YouTube's algorithms and how they work behind the scenes, if you have been following my previous posts in this series. It is time to finally put all this information to use and see your consideration of these algorithms payoff using the following tips.


Optimizing for the Suggested Videos' Algorithm

As mentioned previously, this algorithm not only takes into account viewer personalization and content performance, it also considers videos watched together, videos related by topic, and the viewer's watch history.

Based on these metrics, Hootsuite provided the following tips to content creators on the platform:

  1. Use YouTube Analytics to check out what other videos your audience has been watching to gain a better understanding of your target audience's interests.

  2. Making Sequels to your most successful content which is a strategy used by most successful content creators on the platform.

3 Tips to Improve Your Organic reach on YouTube based on its Algorithms


Research your keywords:

According to Reddit, an important factor in YouTube's algorithms, namely its search results page algorithm, is the use of SEO. Utilize accurate keywords that reflect the type of content you have published on the platform, using common language that viewers may search for.


According to Hootsuite, you want to use these keywords in the following five places:

  1. In the video's file name.

  2. In the video's title.

  3. In the video's description.

  4. In the video's transcript.

  5. In the video's tags.

Create Irresistible Thumbnails:

The use of clickbait is a practice frowned upon by the YouTube community. However, attractive thumbnails for videos do not have to be considered click-bait if you create them intelligently.


Consider these tips from Hootsuite when creating your videos' thumbnails:

  1. Keep a thumbnail style consistent with your other videos' thumbnails, especially, the most successful ones.

  2. Include intriguing text in your thumbnails.

  3. Make sure your thumbnail is consistent with your videos' search metrics mentioned in the tip above.


Picture showing the home page of YouTube on a laptop's screen
Image courtesy of Unsplash

Keep viewers tuned and watching as many of your videos as possible:

Successful content creators on YouTube always make it easy for viewers to watch more of their videos. Hootsuite instructs how you can also do this on your own channel using the following information:

  1. Use cards: flag and reference your other relevant videos among each other. YouTube's cards feature makes flagging those videos easy, giving you the ability to have these cards appear right when you reference them in your video, enticing viewers to continue watching your videos.

  2. End with CTAs: calls to action are essential everywhere when it comes to creating content, and this remains true on YouTube as well. So don't forget to refer your audience to watch your other videos at the end of your videos.

  3. Create playlists: YouTube's playlists make it easy to group specific videos based on whatever criteria you see fit. Playlists not only make it easy for you to organize your own content, but they also make it easy for viewers to watch all of your relevant videos on a certain topic using one link.


Picture showing YouTube's logo against a dark background
Image courtesy of Unsplash

Now that you have understood YouTube's algorithmic systems, history, technical backgrounds, and how to best optimize your content to benefit from these algorithms, your videos should have no difficulty seeing success on the humungous YouTube platform. This is, of course, given your consistency in posting content to your channel and staying up-to-date on your target audience's interests.


I have compiled this series of blog posts into one place on my free Comprehensive Guide to Using YouTube's Algorithm to Your Advantage, that makes it easy for you to refer back to this information alongside information from my other blog posts through one click which you can check out here!


Resources


Aljebrin, Faisal. “Exploring How YouTube's Algorithm Works in 2022.” The SMMU, 3 Apr. 2022, https://www.thesmmu.com/post/exploring-how-youtubes-algorithm-works.


Aljebrin, Faisal. “The YouTube Algorithm in 2022 and Its Technical Aspects.” The SMMU, 26 Apr. 2022, https://www.thesmmu.com/post/the-youtube-algorithm-in-2022-and-its-technical-aspects.


Cooper, Paige. “How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work in 2021? The Complete Guide.” Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard, Hootsuite, 21 June 2021, https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-the-youtube-algorithm-works/.


Jain, Rishab. “R/Newtubers - the STB Technique: Cracking the YouTube Algorithm.” Reddit, Reddit, 1 Sept. 2021, https://www.reddit.com/r/NewTubers/comments/pfodr9/the_stb_technique_cracking_the_youtube_algorithm/.

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