Did you know that YouTube will promote your videos via suggested videos if you do the
right things?
In this video, we'll look at seven ways to get more views from suggested videos on YouTube.
Hello, my name is Herman Drost from drostdesigns.com.
If you want to grow your audience on YouTube and generate traffic, leads and subscribers
on autopilot, hit the subscribe button or hit the bell notification icon.
What are suggested videos?
Suggested videos are a personalized collection of videos that an individual viewer may be
interested in watching next, based on prior activity.
They're shown to viewers on the right side of the watch page under Up next.
They're also shown below the video on your mobile app and the next video in Autoplay.
For most YouTubers, it's a number one traffic source for their channel.
For my channel, the number one traffic source is search because I optimize my videos for
particular keywords.
When someone enters that keyword or keyword phrase in the search engines, my videos often
appear on the first page.
Here's how to check your own traffic sources in YouTube analytics.
Go to YouTube analytics, click on Traffic sources and look at the top traffic
sources for your YouTube channel.
It's probably going to be suggested videos.
If you click on suggested videos, you'll see the titles of the videos that suggested your
videos.
The titles may be similar to the titles of your own videos.
Here's a valuable tip, if you want more of your own videos to appear as suggested videos,
then create more videos on similar topics.
Here are seven ways to increase the number of videos that are suggested by YouTube.
There are thousands of factors in the YouTube algorithm that promotes suggested videos,
but I'm going to give you seven ways to increase the number of suggested videos on YouTube.
Keep in mind the videos that are suggested to viewers are based upon their personal viewing
experience.
For example, if an individual viewer has been watching a lot of cat videos as part of their
past viewing history, then cat videos may appear as the suggested videos on the right
side after they've watched a particular video.
Number one, branded thumbnails.
If someone doesn't click on your thumbnail then they're not going to watch your video.
Try to make your thumbnail stand out from other thumbnails by using a branding element,
such as a logo or your own face.
Your viewers' eyes are looking for patterns.
So if your thumbnails all have a similar appearance like your face or your logo, then people will
know to identify that with your own channel.
Other things to keep in mind when creating your thumbnails is to use contrasting colors
and bold text.
When adding text, stick to the left side because if you add it to the bottom right side, the
time stamp will cover that.
Number two, relevant titles.
Make sure your title is relevant to the thumbnail that you created.
Creating the right title will get people to click on your videos.
Instead of creating your own title, enter your main keyword in the Google search box.
YouTube will create a list of suggested titles based on the keywords that people are entering
into the search engines.
The title should speak to your target audience.
For example, the title of this video is How to Control YouTube Suggested Videos.
I discovered that title based upon suggestions that YouTube gave me.
Number three, description and tags.
Viewers will often read the description while they're watching the video.
Therefore, the first three sentences of your description should clearly tell what the video
is all about.
This helps increase engagement.
When creating your tags, add the title of your video to the first tag.
For the other tags, enter your main keyword in the YouTube search box, and look at the
suggested titles.
Enter those into your tags.
A great tool for finding the best tags for your YouTube videos is TubeBuddy that would
not only suggest the best tags to use for your videos, but will also identify the tags
of your competitors which you can add to your own tags.
Number four, Watch time.
YouTube's algorithm is highly optimized to promote videos with long watch times.
The longer a viewer watches your video, the more chances you have of your video showing
up in suggested videos.
If you want to increase the watch time and the audience retention of your videos, you
need to create engaging videos.
To achieve this, be clear about what your viewers can expect to get in the video in
the first 10 seconds.
You can start off by asking a question or give a preview of what your video is going
to be about.
After you've introduced your topic, go straight into the meat of the content.
Make sure you deliver a strong call to action at the end of your video for the viewer to
watch the next video in your series.
The more videos that viewers watch on your channel, the higher your watch time.
Number five, session start times.
YouTube loves channels and videos that start viewing sessions on their site.
If a specific video gets people to watch similar or related videos, that video will be frequently
suggested for other viewers.
For example, if a viewer watches one of the videos on your playlist, your video gets credit
for starting the viewing session.
If you create multiple sessions start times for your videos all over the net, your videos
will have a higher probability of being suggested to other videos.
YouTube says, "We surface more of what viewers like."
Therefore the longer you keep people watching your videos, the more content will get surfaced.
Number six, upload frequency.
It's kind of obvious, but the more videos that you upload regularly to your channel,
the higher your chances that your videos will be featured in suggested videos.
If you're only publishing one video a week, you might want to increase the upload frequency
to two times a week.
Number seven, use cards, playlist and featured content.
Instead of relying on YouTube to promote your video on suggested videos on other channels
based upon their viewing history, why not promote the videos on your own channel while
they're watching one of your videos.
For example, while somebody is watching one of your videos, why not add a card that links
to one of your playlists.
If your playlist contains a series of videos related to the video that they're already
watching, they'll binge watch more of your videos.
You can do the same with end screens that appear in the last 20 seconds of your video.
Invite viewers to watch the next video or playlist related to the video that they just
finished watching.
Another way to keep people watching is to feature a video or playlist across all the
videos on your channel.
Click the card icon to watch my video on how to feature a video or playlist on your channel.
When you implement these seven points, you'll be able to control YouTube suggested videos
and get more views to your channel.
If you want to learn how to grow your audience on YouTube and generate traffic, leads and
subscribers on autopilot, click the subscribe button below and check out the related videos.