With the world shifting towards digitalization and business on the web more than physical, the use of different social media platforms has reached new heights. One such platform is YouTube, a rich, entertaining, informative, and exciting platform to be on.
With many guides and tricks, it is now clear that monetization comes along with the views received on the video. But how does it happen? How are views so crucial on YouTube? How to get more views on YouTube videos?
What Counts and Does Not Count As A View On YouTube? - How To Get More Views On YouTube For Free?
A view is exactly what it means on the surface - a view! Each time a viewer looks at your video or intentionally initiates playing it on their device for about at least 30 seconds - it counts as a view. As simple as it gets!
The best part yet - even if you play your own video it counts as a view! Even if a viewer watches your video again, then it would be counted as a new view. But, that’s not it…
What Doesn’t Count?
As per Youtube’s algorithm, it is designed in a way to disregard any plays that could look like it was automated. It only counts the times a real human has watched your video, purposely.
This means, when a bot keeps refreshing or a site auto-plays a video, it will not be counted in the total view count.
Then how can you increase the viewership on YouTube? Let’s discuss the following:
10 Ways To Get More YouTube Views - Your Cheat-Sheet On How To Get More Views On YouTube!
To help you globally stand out and make people watch your video for over one billion hours on YouTube every single day, you’d need to keep a few things in mind. To help you, we have listed the top 10 best ways to get more views on YouTube with more ease and also stand out from the crowd. Read on:
1. Brushing Up The YouTube Basics
Simply put, it's safer to first walk and then run! To start off, take a look at your fundamentals and make sure you ticked all the boxes.
The basic YouTube housekeeping tips include:
- A constant and consistent visual identity. This could include your channel icon or the YouTube channel art
- An informative and completed “About” section. Make sure you include everything and more to help the viewers understand you better
- Keep the contact information up-to-date to help potential customers and brands get in touch with you for collaborations
2. Zero-ing Your Niche And Ideal Audience
If your aim is to optimize the YouTube marketing strategy, you might want to get ruthlessly selective about the goals you set and how the content can help you with them.
This is crucial as you are not making videos for each and everyone out there, but are specific to a target audience.
Therefore, before you step into the zone, it is important to make sure you zero down your niche and work around the ideal audience that you want to reach in order to start off on the right foot.
3. Research - The Key To An Improved Search Ranking
YouTube is accounted as one of the best social media platforms and a search engine that can be can be cracked via a strong YouTube SEO, which is basically optimizing the video to make it search-friendly.
In simpler words, when uploading your YouTube video, you must think from the perspective of a viewer, as to what they might search to help rank your YouTube video to help rank in the YouTube’s results list. For this, you must know what the audience would look for - the tutorials, entertainment, and inspiration.
The best way to attract brand new eyeballs to your video is by ranking in search results, this does not only include subscribers but also people who are interested in the channel via your videos.
But how to improve the videos for a better search ranking on YouTube?
As simple as it gets - Research!
- Look for inspiration to curate your next video based on what the people are looking for. You might want to look in for a pattern and look at the keywords with high search queries and few videos, in other words, low competition
- Use the relevant keywords in your metadata. This is the video’s title, tags, description text, and subtitles
4. Smart Use Of Metadata For Popular Recommendations
If the ultimate goal for you is to get more YouTube views (as it should be), keep a close eye and take a cue from the most popular videos in the same niche.
You might want to start by looking for the top competitors and their popular videos. The aim is to keep the viewers on your platform engaged for as long as you can, for which they wouldn’t even mind looking at ads. This is the job of the algorithm, which is to feed the viewers with one video after another.
Here are a few considerations of YouTube's algorithm:
- The videos that are often watched together
- The past-watched videos by the user
- Relatable topical videos
5. Increase Views Via Custom Thumbnails
This is crucial especially when the potential viewers of your business are in discovery mode which is when they are skimming through the search recommendations and results. This includes thumbnails, one of the major effects on deciding what to watch and whatnot.
Properties that create an effective thumbnail:
- Thumbnails must be clear and accurate to what the video is about. In case it misleads the viewers, YouTube would know and the watch time will automatically decrease as the viewer would get annoyed and stops watching
- The thumbnail must stand out
- It works in tandem with the video’s title
To help make your thumbnail stand out, the process could be as simple as just choosing bright colors or making sure there is good lighting with accurate imagery or expression through high-key visuals.
6. Creating Playlists Equals Double Viewers
Creating a playlist is the best way to minimize the chances of the viewers shifting from your video to another. This is because playlists are similar to the rules of Netflix: one finishes the other begins.
As you’ve already spent so much time creating the video and there is so much hard work gone into it, you might as well minimize your effort by organizing playlists and helping the viewers find the next video - one click away!
7. End Cards: Your Direct YouTube Traffic
Cards and end screens are the two tools that most YouTubers use to bypass their algorithm and influence the audience for their next choice.
Cards are clickable and interactive areas that appear at any given time in a video; they also come in a variety of formats for things like fundraising or selling merchandise. However, for more viewers, these cards can be used to link another video or a playlist.
These are pop-ups, so it’s important that they add value to the video and not just disturb the viewer or spam them. This is why you must make sure that the video or playlist you link is relevant to the moment and also provide additional information or entertainment.
On the other hand, end screens are basic calls-to-actions that are added at the end of the video, that is the last 5 to 20 seconds to encourage the viewers to click onto your next option. You can also use this space to encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel or even visit your channel. Nevertheless, if you wish for more viewers, you must use an end screen to promote the other videos or playlists.
8. Pushing Beyond The “How-to” Videos
Not that these are poor in terms of quality and reach but they just have a wider and difficult audience to crack. Chances are when you’re researching for your target keywords, you’d mostly find most search terms that involve “how to” as there is a large search volume for how-to content.
However, on the other hand, you must work towards attracting new eyes and preaching to the converted. On YouTube, the value-based features of the brand come from the content that is meaningful to the existing fans.
9. Relationship Building With Viewers
The best way to do so is by engaging with the audience. In these videos, the end goal is mostly realistic, sustainable, and organic for more YouTube views.
You must get into the habit of engaging with other YouTubers to increase your chance of them caring about your brand and subscribing to your channel.
Here are a few ideas to help create a two-way conversation:
- Reply to comments
- Frequently run YouTube contests
- Create reaction videos
- Include the content of your fellow YouTubers (with their permission, of course!)
10. Partner Up!
Crossovers, mash-ups, guest appearances, covers - you know you get those jitters when you hear it all. This is the power of partnering up!
You might be a brand of budget and hiring a creator with their own following is an obvious choice for you. But if you are a creator or an influencer, getting more views is your first basic step towards growing and converting on YouTube.
Here, the ideal partners would be aligned in values, charm, and popularity. So what's the wait? Find a way to partner up, come with your own deadline, pull all strings, and set the ball to roll!
To Conclude:
Hope this blog post has helped you with some tips and tricks to increase your viewership on YouTube. Remember, the key is to be consistent, patient, and interactive!
Happy YouTubing!
