Herman Drost: YouTube Browse Features versus Suggested Videos, what's the difference and
which one generates the most traffic? Stay tuned to find out. The top three traffic sources
of a newly uploaded video within the first 48 hours are notifications, browse features
and suggested videos. Let me know in the comments below what the top traffic sources of a new
video are for you. Hi, my name's Herman Drost. If you want to grow your audience on YouTube
and generate traffic leads and sales on autopilot, hit the subscribe button and click the bell
notification icon so you're notified every time I upload new content. Here's how YouTube
explains what browse features are. Speaker 2: One of those things is what we
know about the viewer and their history of what types of videos they watched before,
what channels do they watch. Do they watch long videos? Do they watch short videos? All
sorts of things like that. We want to know who is this viewer and what do they like?
Then the other thing that can really influence the recommendations of on a home page is the
performance of the video. When we do show this video on the home page, do people that
are like this viewer click on it? Do they watch it? How long do they watch and
how is it performing on average relative to other videos that we might also be showing
to similar viewers? It's a combination of personalization for the viewer and then also
performance. Drost: Traffic from browse features mostly
comes from the home, watch history, subscriptions and watch later. On the home screen, YouTube
shows videos from your subscriptions, videos watched by similar viewers, new videos and
more. It delivers the most personalized recommendations for each viewer. These are typically viewers
that haven't subscribed to your channel yet. You can see all the channels you're subscribed
to by clicking on the subscriptions tab in the left-hand column.
You'll see the videos from today, yesterday and this week. Some of these may appear on
the home screen. What determines your video to appear on the home screen depends on the
watch history of a viewer and how well the video has engaged the viewer. If I watched
videos from your channel before, it's more likely that they'll be recommended on the
home screen of the viewer. Speaker 3: Home is also called browse. Browse
is a verb, it really means somebody looking through either a set of information or in
this case a set of videos without a specific intent about what they want. That's actually
very similar to how viewers behave on Home when they arrive at that destination. Maybe
they come there and they're casual viewers, they're not quite sure with what they want
to watch and I think that matches our recommendations on that surface too where we have a really
diverse set of options. It's videos from your past watch history, it's videos from channels
you subscribe to, it's videos from new viewers and videos that were popular with similar
audiences. Drost: Suggestive videos appear on the right
side of the watch page below the video they're watching on the YouTube app and the next video
to autoplay. Here's how YouTube explains suggestive videos.
Speaker 2: Another main way that videos get discovered is through what you might see in
the product as up next. We sometimes call watch next but in analytics, it's called suggested
videos. Really that feature on the watch page is really around trying to help the viewer
find another video to watch next after the one they're currently watching.
Drost: Viewers often click on these suggested videos after they finish watching the video
they've just watched. That's why YouTube recommends these videos on the right side of the watch
page as you're watching the video. If you want to learn more about how to get discovered
in suggested videos, click the link in the description below this video.
Speaker 2: It's a little bit different from the home page because we already have some
sense of context for that viewer that they've started to watch this video. Unlike the home
page, we'll probably be bringing in a lot more videos that are related topically or
from the same channel to try to help serve those viewers who want to continue watching
the same thing. We also like the home page, we'll look at personalization too and try
to recommend videos that may not be the same topic.
Drost: How can you get more of your videos to be recommended on the home screen on other
people's channels. Number one, keep viewers engaged for longer and encourage them to come
back for more. First, you're going to choose a topic that your viewers want to watch. Secondly,
you've got to create a clickable thumbnail so they click on it to watch the video. Click
the link in the description to watch my video on how to create awesome custom thumbnails.
Third, you got to create a captivating title that satisfies the search engines as well
as your viewers. If you want to get my secret formula for writing great titles for your
future videos, click the link in the description below this video. Fourth, you want to create
great hook at the beginning your video so it captures the attention of viewers within
the first few seconds. If you can keep 50% of your viewers engaged throughout the video,
there's more likely that YouTube will recommend your video to other people's channels.
When people binge watch your videos one after another, then YouTube will recommend your
videos in the search engines. Another thing you do is link to related videos in a playlist
using cards and in screens. When viewers binge-watch your videos one after another, this will extend
a viewing session. The more time people spend watching your videos on the YouTube platform,
the higher probability your videos will be recommended by YouTube.
Number two, keep doing what's working. When you create a video that's working for your
audience, create more of those types of videos. YouTube will service more videos from your
channel that viewers like. Here's how you can see if most of your traffic is coming
from browse features. Log to YouTube channel, click on YouTube studio, click analytics,
click see more, now you'll be able to see the top traffic sources of a YouTube channel.
Click on browse features, now you can see how much traffic is coming from a home watch
history, subscriptions and watch later. You can see the number of views, the watch time,
the average view duration, impressions and the impressions click-through rate. If you
want to see where the traffic's coming from for suggested videos, click on suggested videos.
You will see the titles for the videos that are suggesting views to your channel. These
suggested views can be videos from your own channel or from other people's channels.
Once you identify these top traffic sources, create more of those types of videos. Another
huge source of traffic is YouTube search. These are videos that are discovered based
upon the keywords that people are typing into the YouTube search box. Watch my next video
to learn how to get your videos discovered on YouTube search. Thanks for watching and
we'll see you in the next video