It can be frustrating when you have zero or a few views and subscribers.
You are just getting started on YouTube. No one knows who you are yet and what kind of content you produce.
You spend all that time planning, scripting, filming, and editing the videos, and you’re all excited. You upload it to YouTube, and only a few people watch it.
So meaning it’s easy to grow your YouTube channel if it already has a lot of subscribers and you’re already famous.
Then it’s easy for your videos to go viral or to get more views when you already have a big YouTube channel.
But what do you do if you’re starting from scratch? So today, I am going to share ten ways how to get more views on YouTube.
10 Ways to Get More Views on YouTube
The idea here is, if you want to stand out amongst the rising competition on YouTube, you need to level up your videos.
So here are 10 ways that you can make better videos so that you can get more views.
Design Custom Video Thumbnails
Number one is the thumbnail strategy. This one is super important. You could have the world’s best video, but if no one clicks it, no one’s gonna see it.
And you need to get their click, which means you need to have an attractive, engaging, attention-grabbing thumbnail so that it gets clicked.
For example, you can use bright colors and graphic elements and big, bold text, have your face on there pointing, smiling. Again, just to grab people’s attention.
But the best case scenario with your thumbnail images is having people easily being able to know what your video is about just from looking at the thumbnail image without even needing to read the title of the video.
Produce Long Form Content
The video industry is evolving very fast. It’s getting bigger and louder in many ways.
These creators of long-form content only exist on YouTube and target specific audiences with their work.
However, they can be quite profitable and engage with hundreds of thousands of viewers and followers as they build an audience and a brand with the appropriate amount of production and creative storytelling.
It can be crucial to launching not only your career but also a company with several other talented people and fellow creators by locating the right niche audience and providing content of a high quality that is interesting to watch.
Create Playlists
Number three is to utilize playlists. Playlists are an amazing tool on YouTube that will really help you guide the viewer journey, and have people watching more of your content.
So essentially a playlist is a group of YouTube videos that you get to specify which videos are in there, and what order they’re going to play. You can create as many playlists as you like and each playlist has the potential to rank and show up on YouTube as if it was its own dedicated piece of content.
So just like a regular video, a playlist can have a title or a name, and it can also have a description. By putting some keywords and key phrases, you help people find and consume that content.
You can also use playlists on your YouTube channel page to separate different types of content that you might have on your channel.
Use Cards and End Screens
YouTubers can only use cards and end screens, in addition to playlists, to circumvent the algorithm and directly influence our audience’s next choice.
Cards are interactive, clickable areas that appear at any point in the video. They come in a variety of formats that can be used for things like fundraising or selling merchandise. In this case, however, you want to increase views, so pick a card that links to another of your videos or, even better, playlists.
Audience Engagement
Checking the comments on your videos a few hours after they go live is a habit you can and should be getting into.
Now, there’s a very clear reason for this: Your first comments usually come from your most loyal supporters and fans who are taking time out of their day to put you first.
And not only are they prioritizing their time to watch your content, but they also have enough emotional investment to engage with it as well.
This is one of the many signals of viewer satisfaction that YouTube’s recommendation system is really into. And beyond any notion of the YouTube algorithm, this is your opportunity to build relationships with your community.
Now, this can be as simple and as little as hearting the comment. Only creators can do this. So it notifies the commenter that they received a heart from the creator.
Collaborate with Content Creators
YouTubers are especially interested in collaborations and sponsorships as business opportunities.
There are a lot of YouTube stars who would love to work with you and help each other grow their channels. Make sure you follow the tips below, and it won’t be complicated:
- Specific objectives
- An understanding of your niche
- A partner who shares your goals and wants to grow
Social Media Promotion
If you have 500 YouTube subscribers, obviously one way to promote your content is the community tab. But don’t just re-share the video. People on the YouTube app see more than enough videos auto-playing. So make as an experience in itself.
For example, you can integrate the video into some form of interactive experience via a question or a voting poll. The goal here is to stop the swipe, to get the user to think about the community post itself and that this post may resolve the question or the voting poll itself.
Follow a similar strategy, no matter where you decide to share the video. Be on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you share a YouTube video on another social media platform is gonna feel too much like an advert, unless you already have a well-established audience on that platform.
Make the share in itself an experience the user can engage on whether or not they decide to watch a YouTube video. It’s hard enough moving users from one platform to another. So at least give them some value on the platform they are currently on.
The Best Times to Post YouTube Videos
The most important aspect of running a successful YouTube channel is producing high-quality content. But other factors that impact the performance of your videos are format, frequency, and most importantly, the timing of publishing. Simply you must be aware of the ideal YouTube posting time.
Putting your video on YouTube at the best possible time will ensure that as many people as possible will see it.
Like Google, YouTube takes some time to index your video. To put it simply, before your video appears on people’s home screens or search results, YouTube takes some time to comprehend and process it.
Therefore, it is common practice to publish your video at least two to three hours before your peak time on YouTube; The video will appear prominently in the search outcomes.
For example, if you discover that the best time to post on YouTube is between 7 and 10 p.m., you must post between 2 and 4 p.m. That is to say, check YouTube analytics on a regular basis.
Schedule your YouTube videos today with Publer!
YouTube SEO
There are 3 reasons why we think you should have a YouTube SEO strategy especially if you’re trying to get that initial traction to your videos.
- Suggested and browse views usually require you to have an existing subscriber base and an existing library of relevant videos.
- Search views are super consistent. And consistent views lead to consistent subscribers, assuming you’re delivering on the title of your video.
- Search views have high average view durations such as how-tos, tutorials, and tips videos.
YouTube Keyword Research
Generate a list of keyword ideas. You can simply do that by using YouTube’s Search Suggest feature. This means, open the search on YouTube, type something and Youtube will generate the most popular keywords.
Therefore, there is no need to speculate regarding their popularity. They are definitely recommended to you by YouTube.
You can also copy the keywords that are optimized for a popular video in your niche and paste them into your own.
SEO for YouTube relies heavily on keyword optimization, as you probably already know. Therefore, if a video gets a lot of views, it probably has been optimized for a popular keyword.
Writing Video Descriptions
Your YouTube video description is crucial. Here’s an example:
YouTube and Google can better comprehend the context of your video thanks to your video description. Additionally, the more they comprehend your video, the higher your rank will be.
- Be specific
- Do keyword research
- Use searchable keywords
- Offer value
Upload Subtitles and Closed Captions
Adding subtitles and closed captions to your videos allows you to reach more people. There are many viewers out there who have hard of hearing, or viewers who speak another language.
So adding closed captions or subtitles, means those people will be more likely to click on your videos.
Use Hashtags
On YouTube, you should use hashtags because they make it easier to search. You will increase the visibility of all of your related video posts on social media if you use optimized hashtags.
Using a hashtag will make it easier for viewers to find keywords and related topics by grouping them together. In the title or description, type “#” and start by entering the topic or keyword that you want to link to your video.
You can promote your video using a suggested hashtag or come up with your own to find a hashtag that works for your content.
Key Takeaways
Following the right techniques is a good opportunity to level up your YouTube videos and grow your channel.
- Create an attractive, engaging, attention-grabbing thumbnail so that it gets clicked
- Interact with your audience and build relationships with your community, by hitting a like on their comments or replying to them
- Use Publer, to easily schedule your YouTube Videos
- Make sure you have a YouTube SEO strategy
Which strategy will you use? Tell us quickly in the comments.
Denisa Lamaj
