You have made your way here because you want to understand the youtube algorithm and how to get your video’s shown more on youtube now there are a few fundamentals to understand in order to achieve the most out of your video’s
The first and most important aspect is that it isn’t simply about getting clicks on your video’s or likes and comments, actually the primary aspect to get youtube to recommend your content is about your average view duration (see below)
You can see this inside your youtube analytics studio and it will clearly state that if you want youtube to display your video’s more you have to raise your average view duration on your video’s first and foremost, so anyone simply clicking a video to give it an extra view or friends who click to go give it a like but don’t actually watch the content will actually be doing more harm than good as it will severely impact your average view duration if they’re watching for a few seconds to simply like and comment rather than viewing the video’s
Although clickthrough percentage is also a statistic which will effect your video’s promotion also because youtube will advertise your video to thousands of people and if it’s not getting a single click something is wrong either with your thumbnails or titles and these aren’t attracting the viewers in and at this point youtube will assume your content isn’t what people are searching for and stop displaying it so you need to make sure your content is appealing in these forms to get clicks, but still remains entertaining to keep them watching (and on the subjects they’re looking for and not just clickbait which they’ll immediately stop watching and reduce your average viewership length)
Another metric youtube really favours heavily is what percentage of viewers are still watching after 30 seconds, this really nails whether or not it’s the content they’re looking for and if most people are still watching the video 30 seconds in you’re more likely to get recommended to others over video’s where people are pretty much clicking away straight away which is why many youtubers will edit a funny clip right at the start of their video’ so it draws people in to watch beyond the start to gather retention and to show this entertaining piece is somewhere in the video to keep watching and enjoy that moment.
Other statistics which youtube finds important at the moment is whether you’re attracting new viewers in and whether these are returning after watching your content, as if they see your viewers are returning for more they’re going to assume your content is entertaining and more importantly keeping people coming to the platform so they’ll advertise your video’s far more if people are returning to watch more of you after the initial finding of your content.
While comments and likes use to be a big deal it really doesn’t seem to have that much impact compared to these primary statistics so if you really want to help someone’s channel first and foremost watch their video’s all the way through it will raise their viewership immensely, or at least watch as much as you can.
With regards to shorts which are a relatively new beast it’s important to ensure that your content is literally snappy and gets straight to the point, too much buildup and people will swipe away, so keeping a shorter short that is all impact and all bang gets more views and more success than something that tells a story over time to the bang, people want to just go bang straight to the good stuff and they’ll watch like and subscribe to great short content that’s snappy and instantly entertaining not a drawn out intro as if it’s not getting to the point in 3 seconds you’ll get swiped away and forgotten so be sure to get straight to the point and draw people in straight away.
If you follow these tips you should see your viewership and the impressions youtube gives you rise (and even get on the frontpage recommendations) make thumbnails which draw people in and encourage clicks, titles that interest people and will make them watch and show what’s in the content (not just clickbait) and make your video’s entertaining enough to draw people in and keep them shorter and snappier so the average percentage viewed remains higher and you should see your channel take off and skyrocket.