As the 2nd largest search engine in the world, YouTube is a widely used channel to promote, entertain, and educate audiences. YouTube has roughly 22 billion monthly visits and the average session duration is just under 40 minutes.
People like YouTube. A lot.
However, like all things on the internet getting more YouTube views has been a pursuit that people have started to throw money at–sometimes through shady enterprises–to promote their content. People are buying YouTube views in hopes of either fooling YouTube’s algorithms or convincing people that so many others have watched their video so they should too. With its extensive amount of users, YouTube is one of the premier platforms in the world to reach audiences. Whether you’re sharing recipes, teaching people how to create muppet origami, or spoofing presidents, the platform has the ability to reach billions.
So you want to get more YouTube views, but you don’t know where to start? You’ve got the perfect title, tags and description, your video is hilarious and you’ve been promoting like crazy on your Facebook and Twitter page, but your video is still not getting the recognition you think it deserves? We’ve got you covered with a few little known tips that could help skyrocket your YouTube video views.
Before we get started, it’s important to note that Rome wasn’t built in a day and there is no foolproof method for turning your video into an overnight viral success. It may take time for your videos to start taking off, but these seven tips will definitely get you headed in the right direction and get you more views that you’re getting today.
Give Your Video An Appealing Title
It should be short, engaging, and to the point. If your video is about your kid spilling macaroni and cheese everywhere, just call it “Mac and Cheese Disaster.” It should pique your viewers’ interests without giving too much away.
A very effective technique to boost views is to write a title that makes people want to click on it, this is called ClickBait. For example “What this lizard does next will surprise you” or “You wont believe the weird thing this lizard can do”. Consider using your keywords in the videos title. This is one of the main bits of information that YouTube and Google use to decide what your video is about. If your video is about another YouTuber then use their username in the title, this may help your video show up more in their related videos section.
Have Quality and Keyword Rich Descriptions
The video description is where you can better inform the search engines and users just what exactly your video is about. This will help increase the click-through-rate and thus the views, as users will know what to expect in your video.
Try to both stand-out and remain generic; you should capture interest while still trying to rank for short-tail keywords. Entice users above the fold with your descriptions and optimize them correctly for the YouTube search engine as you would with a normal SEO meta description.
Use The Best Tags
Use all of the keywords from your title and description in the “tags” section to get more viewers interested. The more relevant tags you use, the more often your video will pop up when people search it. For example, if you’re posting a video of your cute sleepy dog, you could use words like “Sleepy,” “Dog,” “Hilarious,” and “Cutest.” Make sure you don’t include extra tags in the description, as those are not included when people search for them.
You can use tags that describe your video as well as other relevant popular videos to make sure that as many people as possible see your video when they are searching YouTube.
Playlists
A lot of YouTube users don’t realize that playlists are a great way to increase your video views. A playlist is a list, or group, of videos that will play in order, one video after another after another. The good thing about playlists is that they come up separately in search results. That means, if you’ve got a video about frogs or a playlist about animals that includes the frog video, viewers will have more opportunities when searching to find your video. They may choose to watch your playlist, or they may choose to watch your frog video.
Additionally, because playlists play your videos automatically one after the other, when viewers watch playlists they typically watch more of your videos, which is great for increasing the views across your channel. Playlists can also be embedded, so viewers can watch all your videos together on your blog or website.
Get Branded
So your content is great. But is your channel itself visually appealing? If you want visitors to take your YouTube channel seriously and subscribe to your channel, you need to look professional. Branding your channel will also help users immediately recognize your content. If you have a blog or website, you probably already have some sort of look and feel you use to differentiate yourself from other individuals and/or companies, so it only makes sense to carry over that branding to your YouTube channel as well.
Post Great Thumbnails
They may seem like a small thing (because they are), but thumbnails can have a big impact. YouTube advertises other videos via thumbnail in its sidebar, so you want yours to stand out among the pack. The same goes for YouTube search. Videos with a catchy title and appealing thumbnail usually rank higher, even if the content itself isn’t as valuable, because they have a higher click-through-rate (CTR). To get your CTR where it needs to be, try using tactics such as highlighted areas, arrows, large text, and unexpected or unusual images.
Push for Subscriptions
One of the ways you know for sure that viewers are engaged with your channel is when they “subscribe’ to see any new videos that are posted. Ask viewers to subscribe to your channel in each video that you upload, and keep engaged with your existing subscribed users. Never pay for subscribers. This will only bring down your engagement and hurt the authenticity of your account in the long run. Remember, if you don’t ask your viewers to subscribe, you may be missing out on a lot of potential followers.
Remember, driving engagement with quality content is what develops engaged followers and subsequently, advocators of your brand! Be true to yourself and your brand, and communicate with your audience along the way.
