How YouTube’s Algorithm can get you more views

One of many reasons I’d like to one day move to LA is for the networking opportunities there with other established YouTubers.  Just like for TV and movie stars, LA is a real hub for YouTubers as well – most of the big ones live there and many up and comers are moving there. If I were American, I would have probably moved there 3 years ago too, but instead I moved to “Hollywood North” – ie. Vancouver, BC. The YouTube scene up here is still in its budding stage, but I’m sure it’s only going to grow here too as more and more events for YouTubers are being coming together here too, like with the 24OurTube event that I was involved in last weekend.

One of the networking events that took place last month in LA was Tubefilter MeetUp which was a chance for YouTubers to share with each other how to make the most of their YouTube channels by increasing channel and upload views, developing their brands, and growing a small business through YouTube.  Very helpful stuff for online video creators who are wanting to take YouTube as a more serious career. Luckily for those of us who can’t live in LA, they posted a video of the meetup including a discussion about the YouTube algorithm and how it affects everything. For those who don’t know, algorithm is a kind of code or process search engines use to solve a specific problem, so when applied to YouTube, it essentially figures out which videos should go on the home page, or which videos should be the top-ranked and so on, based on a number of factors that are somewhat mysterious at times, and ever changing.

Now, the thing about algorithm is that because of its automated function, there are some YouTubers who think it could be unfair in its selection of the YouTubers who get on top of it whether in the daily, weekly, or monthly lists. Rafi Fine of the Fine Brothers recalled the instance back in 2008 when YouTube kind of came to a bit of a standstill because audiences had simply started to lose their interest as they had been seeing the same videos and YouTubers over and over again on the YouTube homepage. Fine said the YouTube homepage back then basically lost its value, and YouTube wouldn’t have redeemed itself if it hadn’t changed. Another thing that also affected the video rankings were nuissance YouTubers who practiced “category jacking” (those who’d file their videos under totally unrelated categories) and those who created various contests to get into the YouTube frontpage or rankings. I suppose he wouldn’t be very fond on my $1000 YouTube Experiment then since that’s essentially what I was trying to do.

Other YouTubers however, like former YouTube employee George Strompolos and Jason Schnell of comedy channel Reckless Tortuga, don’t necessarily agree with Rafi. Both believe that you don’t have to worry about the results of the algorithm; and simply focus on creating your content. What’s really important they say, is that you engage with your community and use the maneuvers and tricks you already know with optimizing your videos. “A lot of people overemphasize the mystique of the YouTube algorithm… If u want people to subscribe to your channel, let them know that the subscribe button is up there. If you want them to rate your video, tell them to rate your video– I don’t think it’s big of a deal. As you grow your audience using these techniques, you can start to speak with your content… The algorithm, it’s sort of a black box, but at the end of the day, there’s still like ten options so use them and take advantage of them, and they’ll propel you [higher on the list] so go for it,” Strompolos said.

I wrote an eBook about the optimization techniques I use to get tens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of views on my videos (available below) because YouTube is a basically a jungle of content with more than 35 hours of new stuff uploaded every minute.  If you want to stand out, you need your great content to actually be found in the first place – so being smart about the YouTube algorithm will help you be the needle that’s found in their haystack of videos!