How the YouTube Algorithm Works

Building a YouTube channel from scratch and growing it is not an easy task. If you’re looking to profit from the creator economy by using this video platform, there is a lot you should learn. Since an average viewer watches multiple hours of videos per day or week, getting your content on their Home page or Suggested videos tab can make a massive difference for your channel.

On the other hand, there are more than 500 hours of video uploaded to the platform every minute, so you can probably understand how competitive the industry is. If you want to grow your channel and become a more successful content creator, you first have to learn about the YouTube algorithm, how it works, and how to optimize your content to rank higher.

And when you’re finished, take a look at our other YouTube guides:

What is the YouTube Algorithm?

The YouTube algorithm is instructions when processing videos and its content like comments, description, and likes to rank and recommend your videos.

How Does The YouTube Algorithm Work?

Creating a YouTube channel and growing it is not as simple as it sounds, mostly due to the platform’s algorithm. Just like other social channels, YouTube doesn’t fully discover how its algorithm works; however, there are a few areas that can help you boost your performance. The platform aims to improve the user experience and viewer satisfaction, so it uses personalization, performance, and external factors to create a personalized video recommendation.

Performance: this part of the suggestion system uses features such as the view duration, how interested the viewers are, whether they’re satisfied, etc.
Personalization: the platform personalizes your recommendations based on what you watched before and your previous actions.
External factors: some of the factors that influence the recommendations include whether your videos are relevant, the competition, and more.

The algorithm has an effect of several sections, so below, you can learn more about each one and implement the tips in your marketing strategy.

Your channel’s home page:

Home is the page you see when you first open YouTube. The Home page uses two different metrics to create a personalized experience:

Personalization: as we already mentioned, this social network has millions of videos, so it’s impossible for a user to watch or like them. That’s why the platform focuses on personalizing the suggestions by showing you content related to your previous interests. In other words, YouTube considers your watch history, topics you like, subscriptions, etc., before suggesting videos.
Performance: the metrics that YouTube uses to decide whether it will show your content to other users include the average view duration, average percentage viewed, likes, dislikes, click-through rates, etc. If there’s activity on your videos and the viewers like it, comment, watch, and share it, the platform will show it to more users. In other words, the more people engage with your content, the more the platform will show it on people’s Home pages.

You should take a very good look at your channel’s Home page because it’s one of the top traffic sources for your business. If people like what they see, they’ll decide to scroll, watch, like, and more. That’s why the home page should be carefully curated and on-brand with your content.

YouTube’s very powerful search engine:

YouTube has a very powerful search engine you should use to your advantage. Learning all about YouTube SEO will help you rank higher, and your content will reach the ideal audience to grow your business. In other words, you should research the best keywords and optimize your content by including them in the video titles, video descriptions, etc. The words you use should be relevant and related to your content if you want the search algorithm to rank you higher. The platform also looks at videos with high engagement within the same search query.

Trending tab that shows the most popular YouTube content:

Is your wish to create a popular video that will make its way to the Trending page? A Trending tab is a place that shows the most popular content, and the list can vary depending on a user’s location. The three factors that this section uses include:

Rate of growth in terms of views
The location of the views
The number of views

Being a part of the Trending tab is a dream come true for content creators. Since these are the most-watched videos on the planet, you can only imagine the growth you can experience from being on the list. However, since there are no secret ways to get there or a trick to boost your rate of growth in views, you should stick to posting quality content and having a regular schedule.

Your active YouTube subscribers:

Every content creator’s goal is to have as many channel subscriptions as possible. Your active subscribers are your biggest audience because they engage with your content, watch your videos, and will always see your videos on their Home page.

Subscribe button to a channel:

Once you hit the Subscribe button to a channel, you can also decide to receive notifications for new videos. You can adjust these notifications when you click on the bell button next to the Subscribe button.

YouTube’s Algorithm Has Changed Over Time

Although the YouTube algorithm hasn’t gone through as many changes as the algorithms of other networks, it has still evolved a lot since the begging. During the period of time we talk about below, the platform learned that showing its user base what they want to see is an essential thing, so they paid a lot of attention to increasing user experience and making more personalized recommendations.

2005-2012

For the first seven years, after the platform launched, it used the number of views to suggest video content. As a result, potential viewers saw videos that already had hundreds of watched hours, even if these weren’t the kinds of videos the users were interested in. In other words, the recommendation algorithm wasn’t as advanced as today, so only the creators who managed to have a lot of views could rank high. Additionally, the two main strategies creators used at this time were writing clickbait titles and refreshing the page.

2012-2015

During these three years, the relevant videos on this platform were the ones that got more watch time. Although this is still an essential metric, it was the top ranking factor (followed by session time) from 2012 to 2015. Creators started filming short, engaging videos or very long videos to increase their watch time and rank higher. YouTube also introduced the Suggested Video algorithm. The platform’s main goal was to provide the best videos for viewers and increase their satisfaction. Therefore, it started counting likes, dislikes, etc.

2015-2016

This year, the platform worked hard to make recommendations even more personalized. They conducted surveys, took a closer look at the search history, and watch the history of users to improve the experience. Since it’s impossible for someone to watch the entire video library, most users request personalized recommendations that will fit the genre/industry they’re interested in. This and all future changes aim to deliver the right videos to viewers and ensure long-term viewer engagement.

2016

At this point, the platform had to offer millions of videos for its users; therefore, it found it a bit hard to filter problematic content. Many ads promoted violence and improper or offensive behavior, so major brands decided to stop advertising on the platform.

2016 was the year when YouTube did a deep cleaning session to remove all the problematic videos and promote only relevant content. However, until this year, a content creator didn’t get any notifications if they went against the content guidelines. So, the platform introduced notifications to let the creators know they’re doing something against the rules.

In addition, YouTube also explained how individual users are presented with videos that match their tastes. The video corpus is filtered through two funnels before you see the curated list of recommendations. First, it goes through the funnel candidate generation, then the ranking funnel to finalize the list.

2019

One of the newest YouTube algorithm changes happened in 2019. The platform decided to forbid borderline content and eliminate all the inappropriate content that creators share on their channels.

Tips For Optimizing Your Videos For YouTube Algorithm

Now that you learned about how the algorithm works, we created a short guide to help you reach your target audience and increase your exposure. These are all simple tips anyone can try, but they can benefit your channel.

1. Use The Right Keywords

SEO is a big thing on YouTube, so including the right keywords in your titles, descriptions, and content is a must. The search queries should be relevant and popular. YouTube’s search engine will use these keywords to present to users your content, so you should do your research. One of the questions we often get is where can content creators find relevant and popular keywords, so they can rank higher.

One of the best spots to do research is the YouTube search bar. This might sound too simple, but it works. All you have to do is start typing a word, and the platform will offer you the most popular results. These will be keyword phrases that you can use to create content around or to upgrade your videos.

2. Use YouTube Analytics

YouTube Analytics is a free and convenient way to know more about your video performance. It should be an essential part of your content strategy because it will tell you a lot about what you should be doing differently. The categories that you can research include Engagement, Reach, Revenue, and Audience. Once you take a better look at each section, you’ll get a better idea about posting times, video performance, your audience demographics, etc.

3. Transcribe Videos

Did you know that YouTube offers an auto-transcribe option? Once you upload your video, you can add transcription or subtitles to it, then check them in the Creator Studio. The platform usually takes half a day to create the subtitles; however, this will make your videos even better and accessible to more users. You can also enter the subtitles word by word, but since not everyone has the time to do it, the auto-transcribe option is an excellent alternative.

4. Call To Action

Adding a call to action to videos can significantly increase your video views, subscribers, likes, comments, etc. You should remind people how important it is for them to engage with your content and that it’s a free way for them to support your work. A call to action is a simple form of encouragement, so you should include it in all your videos. The ideal time is at the end of the video and during peak moments when the viewers are the most invested in the story.

Conclusion

YouTube is one of the biggest social media platforms globally, so ranking high can be quite a hassle. Content creation is just a small part of your job because you also have to learn how to optimize this content for the algorithm.

So if your question is ‘How does the YouTube algorithm work?’, the answer is quite complicated. This is an ever-changing algorithm, which means you have to follow the latest practices and trends if you want to be popular. In addition, you have to educate yourself on things such as SEO, keyword research, a call to action, and all the other tips that can help you rank higher. There is no way to cheat the algorithm, but the things we have listed can be beneficial.

Author
Recent Posts

Anne Haynes