Reverse Engineering The YouTube Algorithm
- Thread starter elleandish
- Start date
-
- Tags
- algorithm
elleandish
Well-Known Member
I can see many of you disagree with the article author. Thank you for all of the input! I've been on YT since 2013 and my growth has definitely slowed down over the years. I'm constantly trying to research how to make my SEO better and it's been tough.
Entityofsin
I've Got It
I only disagree with the article because it's only pulling incomplete data and results from a single channel. If it was more comprehensive and wasn't talking just one channel, then I'd be a little more inclined to believe what is being said.
Either way, the real take away from the article is it makes you think about the way you look at your analytics.
For someone like yourself who has a large channel centered around beauty products, I would be looking at the correlation between when your viewership started to dwindle and then find those videos that might have caused it. Cause a lot of your content could be placed in the category of trendy cause it's closely related to fashion. It's possible your content has become stale over the last couple years and you need to reinvent your content. Then again, I don't understand beauty products at all. hahaha
elleandish
Well-Known Member
I've looked at my analytics so much, but I can't figure out a real turning point when my sub growth started to plateau. For me at least, I think the content that people want has changed.
The content that people are attracted to nowadays is getting more... "sensational."
Examples: lots of clickbait thumbnails, lots of shock value, Buzzfeed type stuff, lots of "best ways to A-B-C" "top 10 A-B-C" "how to NOT do A-B-C."
Also, I can see YT personalities are becoming more outrageous/silly to entertain their viewers. Personality definitely sells, but I'm not an overly dramatic/funny person. I do have a lot of good fans that support me and like me for who I am, but sometimes it's tough when people expect you to be some sort of overly outrageous character, I've had the comments to prove it, haha.
My videos are mainly tutorials/how-to, I know a lot of YTTalkers are gamers so this may not hold true for everyone.
WeegieMovies
I Love YTtalk
Very interesting read! It's basically the same as it has always been, but YouTube preemptively estimating your view count is a new one to me. They relly do do everything they can to keep the big channels big :/
KiddieToysReview
I Love YTtalk
They do keep the big channels big, it's so obvious from the suggested column.
I don't believe they preemptively estimate a view count per video, but I certainly do believe that they rank each channel in terms of authority for keywords, and serve up videos into anticipated viewing tiers based on that authority.
So for example, if a channel ranks high for "thomas the train" "thomas and friends" "kids playing thomas trains" keywords and has had a few videos 100k+ views around those keywords, then the next "thomas" targeted video released rides off of that trust and authority, and will likely get into suggested of other high sub channels once it passes a threshold in views. A channel with much less authority for "thomas" keywords would have a much harder time getting into the suggested videos of a high sub channel.
So the key is to develop authority for your channel for certain keywords, incrementally build the views on those videos, and have a higher chance of being in suggested for high sub channels. Once that process starts, the algorithm seems to support channels. The key is getting into those tiers.
Entityofsin
I've Got It
Actually, having a tutorial beauty channel reach the subscriber base you have is an accomplishment by itself. Even us gaming channels can do tutorials and not even reach nearly that much success because of the amount of competition doing the same thing. It's why channels grow off the backbone of single individual games then branch out later after gaining success and try different types of gaming content.
The real problem is, according to social blade, you have roughly around a daily view to subscriber ratio of 8%. This means your daily views is about 8% of your subscriber base. That gives me a pretty good indication that your videos have very little subscriber engagement and this is a statement made without looking at your individual video analytics. It could be higher and I really hope it is but if it isn't, getting your audience engagement levels to higher peaks would be a worth while goal to chase after.
Simply changing up the technique of your video editing in your content production pipeline might make the difference in the long term. Making small changes that your audience isn't going to notice is a huge benefit to you. Also, look into utilizing Google+ Circles and Communities to help centralize your audience in one point of active daily engagement outside of your videos. It also can provide a way for your viewers, fans, and subscribers to be active community members around your channel and content. Making them feel like they're valued and part of something larger than just the channel is powerful.
Try working on stuff like that.
KiddieToysReview
I Love YTtalk
Is there a view threshold where you noticed this happening? For example did the video have to cross 100k views before the daily views allocation kicked in?
I have seen similar with two of my top videos. It seems the algorithm picks them up after they passed certain thresholds, then serves them up to viewers for whatever daily view it had allocated, then presumedly will de-rank them when it determines so.
It seems discovery and growth on YT is not as "organic" as we are led to believe.
