Are viewers watching your videos all the way through? In this video I'm going to
show you 5 things you can do right now to get longer watch times on your
YouTube videos. 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 did you
know that watch time is the highest ranking factor on YouTube the longer a
person watches your video the better it will perform in the search engines
YouTube says if viewers are watching more YouTube it signals to us that
they're happier with the content they've found it means that creators are
attracting more engaged audiences it also opens up more opportunities to
generate revenue for our partners if viewers stop watching your video at the
beginning or in the middle of your video and leave then your videos are not going
to rank well on YouTube or Google if your videos don't rank well, then people
are not going to discover them when they enter the keyword in the search engines.
Here are 5 ways to improve the watch time of your YouTube video
1. Create valuable content create content you're passionate about
and solves one of the biggest problems of your viewers once you've identified
the problem plan out your content so it flows logically as your video proceeds
2. Script your video content this can be as simple as writing out a few
bullet points so you stay on track with your line of thinking plus you lead your
viewer through your content naturally I typically create a list of all the main
points that I wish to cover in my video content then expand upon them as I'm
filming my video 3. Structure your video correctly The hook tell people
what to expect right from the beginning of your video instead of leading with
your logo animation which nobody really cares about tell people what to expect
right from the beginning for example I introduced this video by saying "I'll
show you the 5 things you can do right now to get longer watch times on
your YouTube videos." Only after you've introduced your video content should you
introduce yourself and ask people to subscribe try to keep it real short so
you don't lose the attention of your viewers if you can keep the attention of
your viewers in the first 15 seconds of your video they'll probably keep
watching the entire video Main content. Deliver the content that you promised
in the intro of your video instead of just talking all the way through your
video and risk losing the attention of your
viewers try to reset the attention of your viewers by including graphics end
cards, zooming using b-roll, video clips etc
Edit out the fluff. Remove content that is not relevant to the topic that you're
speaking about also remove any ums and ahhs or mistakes that you've made
while producing a video Call to action. What action do you want your viewer to
take while watching your video do you want them to subscribe watch another
video or opt into your lead magnet don't give too many calls to action because
that will result in indecision and them not doing anything use cards and
end screens for your calls to actions because these are also mobile friendly
4. Lighting and sound. A poorly lit person will decrease the quality of your
video if you can't afford or don't have the space to set up light boxes do your
filming outside or in front of a window typically I use 3 soft boxes, 1 to
light up the background and 2 to light up myself
Sound. For two years I used a
$20.00 lapel microphone and thought the sound was fine. When I
purchased and started using the Rode Smartlav+ microphone my sound vastly
improved click the card icon to watch my review of the rode smartlav+ microphone
5. Keep improving. Keep an eye on your audience retention graph in
YouTube analytics to see if there's any moment during your video where people
drop off if your relative audience retention is about 50% it means that
your video has a better audience retention than all other videos of the
same length on YouTube keep trying different things with your videos to see
if there's an improvement in your audience retention rate sometimes one
small adjustment will expand your audience let me ask you an important
question what are you currently doing to get longer watch times on your YouTube
videos post your answer in the comments below I'd love to read them and others
would too click the card icon to download my free report YouTube editing
secrets you'll learn the shortcut to editing your videos right on YouTube
without having to buy any expensive software if you want to learn how to
grow your audience on YouTube and generate views and subscribers on
autopilot click the subscribe button below and check out the related videos
I'll see you in the next video