Watch this video. Todd Beaupré is the actual person who leads YouTube’s algorithm team. You may have to watch it directly on YouTube.
“The YouTube algorithm is a puppy. It just wants to bring each audience member the thing they’ll like the most” – Dave Wiskus, CEO of Nebula
The algorithm isn’t super complicated from a creator’s standpoint. Focus on these things:
- Getting clicks, aka CTR (clickthrough rate). Optimize title and thumbnail, and make sure your content pays off the click quickly
- Avoid clickbait, and don’t front-load your video with a bunch of boring crap. Don’t bore us; get to the chorus.
- Keeping people watching, aka AVD (average view duration).
- Getting people to watch more, aka Session Time. How long do people spend binging your content?
- If you have a hit, it’s best to double down and make more videos like that.
- When a person stumbles across one video, then they’ll have lots of others to go and watch afterward.
I can’t stress this enough; pay attention to what is working and make more of it! You need to give new audience members more stuff to binge.