How to Make a YouTube Video Trending – As the digital age progresses and changes, the only thing that remains constant is that video content will become increasingly popular. In addition, the famous YouTube likes are getting even more value here.
Video content has been on the rise until recently but it seems that people are nowhere near getting fed up with it. In fact, video content will shortly make up as much as 80% of the entire Internet, and by all accounts, YouTube likes, comments, and dislikes will conclude what we watch the most.
From watching recording of irresistible babies dancing to following the political scene, everything can now be found on the Internet. YouTube is the 2nd largest search platform in the world, right behind Google, which is actually their ‘parent’ company.
Each minute, more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. Given these impressive statistics, where you do not even know how to choose which video to watch next, how to highlight your content at all? Below, find out how important YouTube likes really are for trending.
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Are YouTube Likes the Most Important Factor for Trending?
There are only 2 key factors that directly affect YouTube trending, and these are metadata and audience engagement.
For most people, when they think of video optimization for YouTube, the first associations are the title, tags, description, and the title image – metadata. The most important role is actually the engagement of the audience. Viewers are the ones who decide how the video will be ranked.
Top Factors for YouTube Trending:
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Metadata
Many people will make a video or music video, put on an optional title, do basic optimization… and eventually will not appear in YouTube trending. Why is this happening? This is because the video metadata is optimized but the user experience falls into the background.
Video metadata is an important factor for YouTube trending but search engines still put it in second place because it is not always very reliable. YouTube content creators often use fake tags and so-called ‘clickbait’ headlines, which leads to frequent search engine misconceptions.
Even if content creators do not do it maliciously, YouTubers, in general, are often not exactly the best at describing their videos in the right way. Therefore, the search engine relies more on user experience to determine the relevance of content in a meticulous or particular category.
When a video is indexed for the 1st time, metadata is actually the only thing the browser has to determine the theme of the video and its value. Then when the video is out, YouTube is really good at figuring out which clips people find worth watching and at adjusting the SERP position accordingly. YouTube actually rewards the content that keeps viewers engaged to perform various actions (liking, commenting, disliking, adding to favorites, watching to the end, etc.).
YouTube penalizes certain content. Recognizing that a lot of people enter the clips and give up watching in the first few seconds of the video, YouTube penalizes the content that uses ‘clickbait’ titles. When it comes to penalties, YouTube does this by squeezing them out in the background – not proposing them as recommended and preventing them from entering the trending, regardless of the number of dislikes that are very common on this type of video. That is why it is very vital to produce high-quality content.
The best way to position yourself well on YouTube, in general, is to optimize video content for humans, not robots. Think of the search engine as a group of people, not as a machine because people are the ones who will use the search engine. When you transcribe a YouTube video, you’re more likely to drive more traffic, but you’ll also be able to help people with hearing difficulties understand what’s going on. Give people a great video viewing experience, and search engines will surely reward it.
What metadata do we need?
We drew a lot of attention to the importance of user experience for entering YouTube trending that we almost neglected to take into account the metadata. Here is how to properly optimize your YouTube trending entry video:
- An interesting title written in such a way that it promises value to the viewer.
- Detailed description, which really corresponds to the content of the video.
- Thumbnail that will interest the viewer to click.
- Tags that are really in line with the video.
- Inclusion in the relevant playlist.
Video keyword search tips
There are plenty of free ways to look for keywords and create awareness of what people are actually searching on YouTube.
- Google Trends: Check Google search trends in general. Does the popularity of a particular keyword you plan to use increase or decrease?
- Auto-complete: Just start typing the planned keyword into a search engine, be it Google or YouTube, and the first few suggestions you get in the drop-down menu are actually the mainly sought after.
- io: This is a free of charge keyword search tool, which allows you to check the number of searches for specific terms.
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Engaging the Audience (YouTube Dislikes, Likes, and Comments)
Google usually focuses more on the intent of the search engine than on certain keywords that are actually typed into the search bar. For example, if you type “How to get more views on YouTube”, you get a served video “How to make your video grow from zero views and zero subscribers.” So, “How to obtain more views” is not in the title of the video at all. The word “subscriber“ is in the heading, but no one actually typed it in the search.
Google understands that when someone types “How to get more views on YouTube”, the videos it shows will best help the person asking the question. So, while certain words are not really searched keywords, Google and YouTube will know that the video matches the user’s intent, based on their previous experience.
Instead of cluttering the titles with keywords and descriptions, just write an adequate title that briefly represents the value of what you want to present to the audience. Put yourself in the place or position of someone looking for an answer to a certain question and let the title provoke the following reaction – this video will give an answer to all my questions and show me what I want to know.
Content is key
None of the things that come to your mind when it comes to optimizing the video, such as putting an attractive title, appealing thumbnail, or fully optimizing the video with relevant keywords, will ensure that viewers stay engaged while watching the video. To increase audience engagement, you need to create content that is truly original and attention-grabbing.
The better you handle to educate, entertain, or inform viewers, the more they will be engaged in your video. Viewers will definitely do their part of the job by liking, sharing, or commenting on the video.
How Does Google Measure Audience Engagement On YouTube Video?
How can a search engine predict what the audience thinks of a particular video on YouTube? The browser measures user signals and monitors their experience.
Duration of Watching Videos
The duration of watching a video is the time spent watching the video. Most people agree that this is not a percentage of viewership but actually, the total accumulated time spent watching the video.
For example, let’s say we make a video that is 10 minutes long, and on average, people watch 50% of the video. Such a video received an average viewing time of five minutes. Compare that to a three-minute video that the audience watches from start to finish. Now you would probably think – that’s it, this video got 100% audience retention. No one clicked around and stopped watching. This video is very worth watching, it would have to surpass other videos, right?
But in fact, in practice, these 2 things are equated in an unexpected way. A 10-minute video, which gets 50% viewers retention, will overcome a three-minute video with 100% audience retention. Unusual but true.
A few things that can improve the duration of watching videos are:
- ‘Entice’ the viewer in the first 15 seconds of the video.
- Give value to the viewer by matching the video title to the content.
- Start a DIY tutorial (if you choose this) with a clip of the completed product.
Session Duration
The session duration measures how video contributes to a user’s journey. When someone watches your video, does that person leave YouTube at that point and end their viewing session, or continue watching a couple more videos as a result of watching that particular video?
YouTube’s objective is to attract people to spend as much time on the platform as possible, watching more content and therefore more ads, and discovering latest creators and channels. So their aim is to reward a video that achieves that goal.
This is very important for marketers who feel pressured to drive traffic from YouTube to their website. We know that you have invested a lot of time and money in building your site. However, as much as your website’s visual appearance, style, and overall layout are paramount, if every YouTube video is created with the intent of dragging viewers off the platform and attracting them to the website, it will certainly reduce session duration and affect poor video rankings.
A better answer is to encourage viewers to watch other relevant videos on your channel and send them to your site only if it is extremely significant to the business at the time.
Playlists
When you type a certain word into a search bar on YouTube, what do you get? Obviously, you get a video, but that is not all. Playlists can also come into view on YouTube search results, as well as YouTube channels.
A highly important factor for optimizing session duration are YouTube playlists. Here are a few examples of what you should and should not do when creating a playlist on a channel:
You should:
- make a playlist of relevant topics and categories
- make a playlist of reasonable size: 4-6 videos
- share the link to the playlist so that viewers coming via the link could continue watching
You should not:
- upload the same video to every playlist you have
- make giant playlists of 50+ videos that no one can watch in one session
- share the link just to the video
YouTube Likes and Comments
YouTube likes, comments, favorites, and shares will not directly affect the ranking of videos in the search but will directly affect how your audience reacts to the content. You can use these metrics to find out what to create in the future, or what content your audience responds to:
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Content Freshness Factor
When you post a new video on YouTube, video gets a sticker ‘NEW’. This sticker remains there for the first week of publication. During that first week, Google will be enhancing video rankings to attract the initial traffic. In the first week, YouTube actually collects even the most relevant analytics depends on user experience. YouTube uses that time to collect information to figure out what the video is about, how people react to it, and how much it is actually worth.
Until then, metadata is all YouTube has from video-understanding material. After the first week, the ranking of the video may decline if it did not arouse enough interest among viewers. This is actually the main reason why you should never hire an agency or individual who guarantees that you can rank any video on YouTube in just 24 hours. There is no guarantee in regard to the position in the search results!
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Subscribers
Subscribers are very important for video ranking because they can increase the video viewing time in the first week of posting. One of the best things you can do to position your video is to increase your subscriber base. This gives positive signals and points that go in favor of the video when ranking during that first, critical, week. It can be very, very useful.
A crucial piece of advice for the safe growth of YouTube subscribers is to post regularly according to a set schedule so that the audience knows when to return to the channel to watch the last video. Integrating your channel into a weekly routine would be ideal.
Conclusion
YouTube often gets neglected or overlooked for marketing. Given that it racks up millions of views from all over the world on a daily basis, it is one of the most powerful social media platforms in existence.
Do not look at YouTube as an intimidating platform or a platform that requires putting in a lot of work to build a popular channel before grabbing attention. YouTube gives almost equal chances to all because you will not be needing millions of subscribers to get lots of views.
