Do you have videos on your channel that are no longer getting views like this one? For example,
this video has gotten 1,131 views since it was published, but in the last 48 hours, it's got
zero views. In this video, you'll discover 10 ways to get more views on your old videos, so you can
revive them and grow your YouTube channel. [music]
Identify the videos that have little or no views in the last 48 hours. Click on the Content tab in
YouTube Studio to see the list of videos on your channel, click on filter, click views,
click the dropdown, select less than, and you put your value in there. It could be 100, 200,
300, et cetera. I'm going to put in 300, click Apply. This will show all the videos
that have less than 300 views on my channel. Hover over the video that you wish to select,
click on the Analytics icon. Look at the real-time stats for that video, if it says zero views in the
last 48 hours or just a few views in the last 48 hours, then target that video to promote.
Change the title and thumbnail. Perhaps your title and thumbnail are a little outdated since
you created the video so redo the title and redesign the thumbnail that's better than the
one you currently have. It'll take some time for YouTube to reindex your video, but it'll expose
your video to new viewers. You can change your title by just clicking on Details, then rewrite
your title. You can change your thumbnail by scrolling down where it says Thumbnail,
hover over the thumbnail, click on the three dots that says Options, and then click Change.
Now you can upload your new thumbnail. Keep in mind that the average click-through rate for
YouTube videos is between 2 and 10%. If your click-through rate for the video is below 2%,
then it's definitely worth changing the thumbnail. Add your video to a popular playlist. Do you
know that playlists can also be indexed by the search engines? If you have a very popular video
that's getting a ton of views every day, place that video at the beginning of your playlist,
then place your video that's not getting many views as a second video in the playlist. Make
sure that that playlist is a prominent playlist on your channel homepage so first-time viewers
can dig deeply into your content. For example, I have a popular playlist on my channel homepage
called Best of Drost Video, where the first video has got over a million views. If I add my
video to that playlist, it'll start generating views from people checking out the playlist.
Here's how to add a video to your current playlist. Click on Playlists in YouTube Studio,
select the playlist that you want to add the video to or you can create a new playlist up here.
I'm going to select Best of Drost Video, click the pencil icon, click the three dots,
click Add Videos, select Your YouTube Videos, then just select the video that you want to
add to the playlist, so I select this one and just click add videos. You can also reorder
the videos in the playlist by just clicking on the icon on the left and then just dragging it
up to the top or wherever you want the video. Number 4, make your video a channel trailer.
Your channel trailer is the first video that viewers see when they visit your channel homepage.
Usually, it's a video that summarizes the content of your channel and ask people to subscribe to
your channel. Alternatively, it can be a popular video or a video you want to attract more views
for. Here's how to change your channel trailer. Click on the customization link in YouTube studio,
hover over the three dots that says Options, click Change Video,
and select the video from your channel, then click Publish.
Make your video a feature video. A feature video is what people see if they're already subscribed
to your channel, they won't see the trailer video. Your channel trailer is what non-subscribers see,
but they won't see your feature video. To change or add a feature video for returning subscribers,
click on the customization tab in YouTube Studio, hover over the three dots that says Options,
click on three dots, click Change Video, or Remove Video. In this case,
I'm going to change video, so click change video. Select your video, then click Publish.
Create a community post or YouTube story. Community posts and stories get indexed by
the search engines. If you regularly create a community post or upload a new story,
they'll be seen by your viewers. In order to drive more views to your old video, talk about
the topic in your community post, and then link to the video in the post. Keep in mind you need over
1,000 subscribers to get access to community posts and it'll take up to one week to see the community
posts after you've reached the 1,000 subscribers. To create a community post, click on Community,
then click "Post an update to your fans," add some text, click Video, click Your YouTube Videos,
select the video, click select, click Post.
If you want to create a 15-second story that describes the content of your video,
then tap the plus sign at the bottom of the screen in the YouTube app
then tap Add to your story. Your stories will get displayed on the home screen of the YouTube app.
Create a similar video and link to the old video. If your old video contains outdated content,
create a new video with the updated content and link the old video to the new video.
You can link to the updated video in the card, end screen, description, or pin it to the top of your
comments. When viewers read the description or leave a comment, they'll see the updated video.
You can also create a Shorts video which is a vertical video that's only 15 to 60 seconds long,
then link it to the old video. Shorts videos get exposed to mobile viewers that are browsing the
Shorts shelf on their mobile phones. This will help your content get exposed to a new bunch of
viewers. To make a YouTube Short on your phone, tap the plus sign at the bottom of the screen
on the YouTube app. Tap create a Short. For step-by-step instructions to create
a YouTube Short on your phone, click the link in the description below this video.
Transcribe your content, then post it on your blog or website. I regularly post my transcribed
content on my website at drostvideo.com. I also make sure that I embed the YouTube video
within the content. The result is that the Google search engine picks up my content and ranks it on
the Google search pages. For example, I posted this video content on my blog and embedded the
video within the content. As a result, the article appears at the top of YouTube search for the term,
"How the YouTube algorithm works." It also appears as the first video under videos on Google search.
YouTube adds featured snippets throughout the video. As you can see, it says six key
moments in this video, and then shows the timestamps for each particular snippet.
If I click on the timestamp, it'll take me directly to that snippet in the video.
If I check the analytics for that video, 44.8% is external and then the second top
traffic source is YouTube search. It's definitely worthwhile to optimize your videos correctly,
get them transcribed, and make a blog post out of the content.
Promote your video on social media. You should be exposing your content beyond YouTube
by promoting it on social media sites. These can include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Blogger, et cetera. I primarily use Instagram because it's going to rescale my video as a square
video, then post it on Instagram. I can also extract the 15-second snippet from a YouTube video
and post it as an Instagram story. You can also create Instagram Reels or post
your full video on IGTV. Typically, I'll create an Instagram post or Instagram story,
then tell viewers to click the link in the bio to watch the full video on YouTube.
Here's a hot tip to keep in mind. Some videos don't take off until weeks, months,
or even years later. This can be due to your post appearing in Google search, which typically takes
a few weeks or a few months. It can also get a lot of views if it becomes a trending topic or a lot
of people are searching on that particular topic. My recommendation is not to spend all your energy
reviving old videos to get more views but upload new videos that get found in search and suggested.
Watch the video on the screen right now to learn how to get discovered on YouTube
via suggested videos. You'll discover how to get your videos freely promoted by YouTube.