How YouTube decides who sees a new channel’s video
A new channel has no audience to show its video to, so YouTube’s system tries the video with viewers it thinks may enjoy it, and learns from what they do. Its Help Center describes three steps:
- 3steps YouTube names: chosen, watched, enjoyed
- 2watch time signals: duration and % viewed
- Nonelink YouTube found between time between uploads and view growth
- 100sof signals, likes among them
- Chosen: when the video is recommended, does the viewer watch it, ignore it, or click “not interested”?
- Watched: does the viewer stay? YouTube uses both average view duration and average percentage viewed.
- Enjoyed: likes and the answers to post-watch surveys.
Personalisation decides who is asked: what a viewer enjoyed before, which videos are often watched together, and how much of a channel or topic they watch. YouTube says the system favours no format, and that it does not know which videos are monetized.
Where the views come from: Home, Suggested and Search
| Place | What YouTube says ranks a video there |
|---|---|
| Home | How well the video interested and satisfied similar viewers, and how often the viewer watches the channel or topic. Subscriptions, videos similar viewers watched and new videos appear here. |
| Suggested (Up Next) | The videos a viewer is most likely to watch next, often related to the one they are watching, personalised by watch history. |
| Search | How well the title, description and video content match the search, and which videos drive the most engagement for it. Not a list of the most viewed. |
Three things outside your control move all three: how many people are interested in the topic, how well other channels’ videos do with the same viewers, and the time of year.
What YouTube says does not matter
YouTube’s performance FAQ answers these directly:
| Belief | YouTube’s answer |
|---|---|
| Tags help videos rank | “Not important.” Tags mostly help with common misspellings. |
| You must upload every day, or every week | Growth in views “is not correlated with time between uploads”. |
| There is a best time to post | Publish time “is not known to impact a video’s long-term performance”; it matters for Live and Premieres. |
| A break kills the channel | YouTube found “no correlation between break length and changes in views”, though an audience can take time to warm up again. |
| One weak video hurts the whole channel | What matters is how viewers respond to each video when it is offered. |
| Uploading unlisted first, then public, hurts | No: what counts is how viewers respond after it is published. |
| Setting your channel to another country reaches it | No: location settings are not used for recommendations. |
| Limited or no ads means fewer recommendations | No: the system does not know which videos are monetized. |
A plan for a channel starting from zero
- 1
Pick a topic people watch, and one audience
YouTube says topic interest sets how many people a video can reach, and recommendations follow what a viewer already watches. A channel that serves one audience gives the system a clear group to try its videos with.
- 2
Make the title and thumbnail honest and clear
They decide whether a viewer chooses the video. YouTube asks for titles and thumbnails that accurately represent the video, and warns against misleading, shocking, disgusting, violent, indecent or loud ones, which can turn viewers away or break its rules.
- 3
Earn the first seconds and the end
Average view duration and average percentage viewed are both signals. YouTube says relative watch time weighs more for short videos and absolute watch time for long ones. The audience retention report shows where viewers leave.
- 4
Use Shorts to be found, and link them to your long videos
Add a related video to a Short in YouTube Studio, so a viewer who liked it can go on to your longer video.
- 5
Make series, so old videos keep working
YouTube says a new episode in a series can send viewers back to older ones, and that viewers binge a channel they have just discovered.
- 6
Read your own numbers and keep experimenting
Topics rise and fall and audiences change. YouTube recommends knowing your audience in YouTube Analytics and trying new topics and formats.
Why views from Home and Suggested drop
Views rise and fall on every channel. YouTube’s performance FAQ lists the most common reasons for less traffic from recommendations:
- Your audience is watching more of other videos and channels on YouTube.
- Your audience is spending less time on YouTube.
- A few videos did very well, or one went viral, but those viewers did not come back for more.
- You are uploading less often than usual.
- The topic your videos are about is becoming less popular.
YouTube’s advice is to keep experimenting with new topics and formats, because an audience’s interests change, and to remember that a channel has to keep the viewers it has and attract new ones at the same time.
How to get more likes on YouTube, within the rules
YouTube says likes and dislikes matter “somewhat”: they are some of the hundreds of signals it considers, next to whether viewers choose your video and how much of it they watch. Likes follow videos people are glad they watched.
Its fake engagement policy draws the line. You are allowed to encourage viewers to subscribe, hit the like button, share or leave a comment. You are not allowed to:
- Use anything that artificially increases views, likes, comments or other metrics, or serve videos to unsuspecting viewers.
- Post content that solely exists to get engagement.
- Trade subscriptions (“sub4sub”) or promote services that sell views, likes or subscribers.
YouTube says channels that break this policy may be terminated, and that hiring someone to promote your channel does not protect you from what they do. Artificial traffic is not counted and can lead to strikes.
Before your next upload
- Who is this video for, and would they choose it from its title and thumbnail alone?
- Do the title and thumbnail say what the video really shows, with nothing misleading or loud?
- Where in your last videos did viewers leave, and what changes in this one?
- Does it link onward: a related video on your Short, the next episode of a series?