Taking on the challenge of getting your video content to rank higher in 2023? Here are our tips on how to master the YouTube algorithm!

Sharing your content on YouTube can feel a bit like playing a game. There are hoops to jump through, rings to collect, and checkpoints to tick off. Getting your videos to rank can be the difference between nobody seeing your latest creation, and gaining a swathe of new subscribers overnight.

People head to YouTube for the video sharing aspect. There are billions of users on the site, making it the second largest in the world. In fact, people around the world watch over 1 billion hours’ worth of content every day! It is also popular for its social media aspects, as well as its influential digital marketing powers.

In short, there’s a lot of potential eyes that could be landing on your videos. But, just like the Instagram algorithm, YouTube has its own tricks and quirks. But, before we dig into how you can become the master of the algorithm, let’s break down exactly what it is.

What Is the YouTube Algorithm

You might have heard the term SEO before. It means Search Engine Optimisation, and is usually applied to Google and websites. However, social media platforms have adopted their own form of SEO and algorithms. This helps sort content into what the platforms feel users would want to see, and also suggested content.

The YouTube algorithm works off of a few things. Some of these include keywords, video titles, descriptions, and your previous content. Cleverly, it also can distinguish the content of your, well, content, so it knows what other videos on the site it is similar to, and who to suggest it to. The finer details and workings of the algorithm do remain somewhat of a mystery, since Google/YouTube prefers to hold its cards close to its chest.

Algorithms are spookily intelligent, and do evolve and learn to some extent. The machines aren’t quite taking over the world just yet, though. You can harness the power of the algorithm by doing a few things when sharing your video content.

Befriend the Algorithm

If you want your videos to appear as part of users’ curated content on their homepage, you’ll need to get SEO savvy. This means getting to know about keywords, search terms, tags, metadata, and potentially YouTube analytics.

Does all that sound a bit scary?

It might seem like a lot, but really it isn’t that tough of a nut to crack, we promise! If you’re a brand new vlogger, or someone who has been sharing content for a while but feels like they’ve hit a wall with garnering views, these tips will make getting your videos ranking a lot simpler.

By the way, it’s important to note that these things won’t necessarily rocket your channel and subscriber rates into the atmosphere. That part is largely down to you and the actual content you create. Taking on board these tips will, however, give your content a much higher chance of being seen in the first place.

Keywords

Keywords and phrases act as the signposts that tell the YouTube algorithm which direction to send your content. Using clear, descriptive, and carefully targeted ones mean your content is more likely to end up at the correct destination. That destination being the eyes of your ideal audience member!

You need to incorporate keywords into your video titles, descriptions, filenames, metadata, and tags. More is more here. These words will relate to the key themes and features of your content, highlighting what it’s about and what people will get from it.

But, you need to use keywords that people are actually interested in the first place. How do you know which ones these are? Using a site like Ubersuggest or Google Keyword Planner lets you perform vital keyword research. Once you’ve done this, you’ll know exactly which are the right keywords for your content.