What are some ways to get traffic? Lots of them! Today, we’re going to discuss a few of the best ways to develop YouTube channels. Quite a big chunk of traffic comes from the sidebar of recommendations. The look of this box depends a lot on what the user was looking at before. Nevertheless, if you optimize your videos and channel, the chances of appearing in the sidebar become greater.
First, let’s understand YouTube’s recommendations. The block consists of essentially three subsets.
- Suggested – clips that are selected by the algorithm.
- Related – videos that are similar to yours.
- Recommended – clips that YouTube suggests, based on what you’ve watched.
YouTube uses algorithms to determine what to offer. They consider Watch Time, relevance, viewing history, comments, likes, shares, and a host of other less obvious things. YouTube video promotion service – Prodvigate – offers to consider how to influence the key metrics so that your channel grows, develops, blooms, and brings joy.
TIP #1. CREATE EVERGREEN VIDEOS
Some formats will still be relevant years from now. First, there are the TOPs. If you make the top 5 best of something or the top 5 most disgusting of something, people will still be interested in your video even a year later.
TIP #2. IGNITE EMOTION TO GET LIKES AND COMMENTS
YouTube recommends videos with a lot of social action more often. If your audience likes (or dislikes) the video so much, it becomes a higher priority for YouTube. Why? Because videos with lots of social action statistically generate more Watch Time. Also, if a video evokes emotion, a person is more likely to watch other videos. YouTube generally likes this kind of theme; it’s suitable for the amount of ad revenue.
TIP #3. COMMENTS INFLUENCE SEARCHES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Few people know, but YouTube uses the comment form as another source of metadata. In addition to tags, titles, and descriptions, the algorithm recognizes text in viewer feedback. The more relevant the posts you leave, the more chances you have of getting additional views. And if the comments are keyword-laden, that’s great.
We recommend asking questions of your audience and actively communicating with those who provide answers. Practice shows that this helps improve the behavioral factors of the channel as a whole and the specific video in particular. It has a good effect on long-term promotion.
TIP #4. HEADLINES ARE CRITICAL
As the saying goes, Clothes make the man. Headlines and previews are the two main clothes of your video. If they don’t “take” the viewer, they won’t click, they won’t start watching. In other words, headlines should motivate and intrigue first and foremost.
Another good theme with headlines is keywords. If they’re there, and not just in one video, but in several, YouTube will determine – your content is most relevant to your other content. And it will recommend it, creating a chain for viewing. That’s how both your channel and other videos win – the viewer doesn’t go anywhere, they watch your channel.
TIP #5. TAGS, DESCRIPTIONS, AND SUBTITLES
Did you know that Google algorithms parse subs into words and use them as keywords?
In other words, even if you don’t translate the video into another language, it makes sense to create a transcript and upload it to subtitles. Someone is watching without sound; there’s also an audience with hearing problems. And for you, it’s a plus to search traffic. This is one of the highly recommended YouTube marketing tips by top digital marketing consultants. So consider doing subtitles; it might play to your advantage.
TIP #6. LINKING
The human brain is built quite amusingly – it’s like a car with gasoline. Every action requires an expenditure of energy. Making a choice is one of them. To make a choice, a person needs to spend some brain gasoline since the choice directly affects the future, and this future must be imagined, the pros and cons weighed, and so on. So in some situations, it is easier for the brain not to choose at all if there was a ready option. So let’s help our viewers’ brains and relieve them of the agony of choice. Suggest them watch something else with annotations, cards, and playlists.
What can you use to offer viewers your other content?
- Annotations in the video – in the middle and at the end. In the middle – if people start to fall off.
- Cards.
- Description – links to the clips on the topic in the description.
- Say in the video that there is something else worthy of attention.
- Your comment on behalf of the channel with a link to the video. Usually, the author’s comments go at the beginning, they get the most likes, so it’s a good way to redirect traffic.
TIP #7. PREVIEW
Preview pictures play a critical role.
Here’s a little checklist for a good preview:
- Use faces and make them close up.
- Show emotion.
- Use bright backgrounds – that way, they will stand out from the YouTube selection. Also, study your competitors to stand out from them.
- Use outlines and contrast. Human vision is designed that way – what’s contrasty attracts the most attention. Especially for a white YouTube background, this will work well.
- A little logo for branding – and the audience will always know it’s your video. It’s very cool to help stand out from the competition.
- Consistency. One rubric – one color scheme. One channel – one common format. It will be much easier for your audience to recognize your content in the general gray mass if you look like yourself.
- Don’t forget about small sizes. A video picture is compressed several times – it’s usually tiny and shown on the right.
- Don’t put anything in the bottom right corner – YouTube will block it with its video duration indicator. This happens a lot – don’t repeat other people’s mistakes.
- Experiment – this checklist is helpful, of course, but it’s not a strict rule of thumb. Try different combinations of colors, pictures, and text. And analyze what goes best.
TIP #8. THE EXTERNAL WORLD
YouTube loves videos that kick-start views of all other content. If people came to your video from FB and then continued to watch YouTube, your video is automatically better recommended. So YouTube alone isn’t enough to fully develop – master Facebook, Instagram, etc. The more outside sources, the better for you.
Suggested Read: Marketing Hacks from the Expert: How to Create the Most Successful Digital Strategy on YouTube?