YouTube is an excellent platform for finding a global audience for your videos. After all, it is used in several countries, offers in-built features for subtitles additions in multiple languages, and is a free network for creators and viewers alike. However, building brand image here can take time, and so can the process of monetizing the content you create. One engagement metric of interest here is video views. A view is registered if your video has been played for at least 30 seconds, and the play should not show any bot activity. YouTube specifically states that when you aim to monetize your content, they check your accumulated watch hours and most viewed videos while reviewing your channel, among other things. Many creators buy YouTube views and other forms of engagement to hasten their channel-building process. However, you can do several different things to boost your video views. Let’s check them out.
What Matters to YouTube Algorithms?
The YouTube algorithms use several factors to decide if your video is worth boosting its rankings on feeds and search results. Some essential social signals include:
- Watch time: it is the total time a viewer spends on your video.
- Average views per viewer: an individual count of how frequently a particular viewer has watched your videos on average.
- Audience retention is the average of how much of a video is usually watched per view and how often.
- The click-through rate (CTR) is based on how many thumbnail impressions have led to signals.
- Engagement metrics: these are the other signals like saves, likes, dislikes, shares, and comments.
Why Do You Need to Aim for More Views on Your YouTube Content?
As you can see from the above, views are one of the most favorite parameters considered by the YouTube algorithms while deciding your video’s positioning in search results and regular feeds. In other words, the higher the number of views on a video, the more likely you are to:
- Feature higher up on search rankings;
- Get more traffic to your channel;
- Interest visitors in subscribing to your channel;
- Find an active and loyal community for your videos;
- Build a reputation for yourself in your niche community on YouTube.
All of this will help you move up faster on the part of overall organic growth as you earn a name for yourself as a great content creator on the platform.
Tips to Make Your Video Views Grow Naturally on YouTube
Professional content creators use several intelligent strategies to grow their brand on YouTube. While some of these require a monetary investment, many are about how you present yourself on the platform. Let us look at some of the ways you, too, can attract more views to your YouTube content:
Know your niche:
You must have a clear content niche for your channel if you need audience retention and to increase your view counts. It would help if you remembered to keep yourself updated with new developments in your niche, audience expectations, and presentation ideas. Show your audience that you know your area well, and they will come back to view more of your content.
Keep your content focused:
It is easy to get swayed by trends and create videos like those currently in vogue. While this is a great strategy to incorporate into your content creation, you must do it skillfully. Join the viral trends by giving them a twist of your own. Stick to your niche and adapt the direction to your area of expertise. Keep in mind that what you need is to capture your audience’s attention with an upload that is engaging and, at the same time, isn’t gimmicky.
Pay attention to technical details:
When creating content, the quality of your video recording is also essential. To give your audience an optimum user experience, check your sound and video formatting before uploading anything to the public. Ensure clarity and the slightest noise in both audio and video components.
Aim for an all-inclusive audience:
Although the video is primarily meant to be seen and heard, it may not be possible for your visitors to use all faculties at all times. Sometimes commentators watch videos on mute, while you may have visitors who cannot hear at other times. Similarly, you may have visitors who rely more on the audio component than the visuals. Make your content accessible to everyone who visits you so they can stay long enough on your videos for their watch to count as views. So, add closed captions, alt-text, and subtitles for all categories of viewers who use the platform.
Use YouTube shorts to boost organic traffic as conversions:
Another great way to accumulate views within a short period is to make YouTube Shorts. These are microfilms of one-minute duration or less. Given the short attention span of most YouTube surfers, this content is gaining more daily popularity. You will likely have far more views on a Short than on a regular video post. So do include creating shorts as a regular part of your content strategy. Shorts work best when filmed vertically, as most users check Shorts on handheld devices like cell phones.
Know when is the best time to post:
Many views can come rolling in when your post is newly uploaded, provided you post them at the right time. How do you know when the best time for you to put up your videos is? Research to find out when your target audience is most active online. You can use the audience report that can be accessed through the inbuilt analytics tool of the platform to understand when you get most watch times and from which regions of the globe.
Be an engaged member of your niche community:
Although you may feel you are pitted against everyone else in the world, your niche vying for the same audience’s attention, keep in mind that YouTube is a social sharing platform. Do not forget the “social” aspect when concentrating on video sharing. Be active in discussions started by your niche community. Watch the videos of your fellow creators and engage in conversations with them. Not only will you find reciprocal views and other forms of engagement, but you will likely also find collaborators for future projects!
Collaborate to create content:
It is one method that never goes wrong. When you join with other YouTubers in making videos, you combine your skills, expertise, and talents and open yourself up for immediate viewership by each other’s active followers and visitors. There is no limit to how many creators can team up to make a video. It is good to network and find partners for your professional projects. You could collaborate with others in your niche, allied areas of work, loyal fans, or even internet celebrities.
Ensure that your content has great SEO:
It is one area where you cannot afford to make repeated mistakes, as YouTube content is not just searchable on the platform. You can look for them on most major search engines. If you have the right keywords in your life or description and tags, you can feature high on searches, increasing the likelihood of your video getting views. Use the wrong keywords, and you will be lost among the millions of videos uploaded daily. Research what specific searches are run by your target audience and try to incorporate the most relevant ones in your video description. Try to use the significant keywords within the first half of your first sentence, as this is what usually shows up alongside the thumbnail of your video in search results. Here are some ideas:
- Keep the headline catchy and easy to understand.
- Use long-tailed keywords that give more details rather than cryptic ones or ones that cover a vast area.
- Keep the critical description in the first 50 chars if possible.
- Use the correct tags.
Remember the importance of great thumbnails:
As already mentioned, your video’s thumbnail appears in search results alongside the beginning of its description. So, customize your thumbnails attractively to ensure you get a great CTR. Like with keywords, choose an image that is:
- Relevant to your key content.
- Keep consistency in the style of your other content thumbnails to simultaneously create visual branding for yourself.
Invest in influencers
The influencer industry is growing huge by the day for a reason. Influencers can get their followers to trust them easily. They “influence” the building of public opinion, social proof, and viewing choices on YouTube. They can even influence your visitor to turn into an active follower or loyal client. If you want to invest and grow your brand image, putting your penny’s worth of trust in an influencer can be your road to success. Remember that there are several touts, so you must thoroughly research who you choose to work with. Scout out a genuine influencer who fits in with your ethics, business needs, and budget, and let them do their magic to help you increase your video view counts!
Put in a few YouTube ads:
If you need to purchase advertisements, placing your trust in the inbuilt ads system of the platform works best. You can choose if you want to promote an old video as a sponsored post or create new ads with YouTube ads. You can further specify your niche, target audience, traffic diversion intent, and budget. You get to decide how long you want your ads to run. Using the platform’s ad managing tools gives you the surety that the content you have paid for will be bumped up on home feeds and search results for optimum visibility and reach for the chosen ad period. It increases your ability to get more views by leaps and bounds.
Use other platforms to give your videos more exposure:
Don’t just market yourself on YouTube. Since YouTube content can be viewed by anyone and not necessarily YouTube account holders, think of attacking viewership from outside the platform. Be your marketing agent by posting about your videos on any other social media platform you have an accounting on. Tag fellow creators and use op-eds. You are promoting yourself by using embedded links in blogs, email lists, and online forums of relevance. You can also send in articles and guest posts with your video link on various online magazines that cater to your niche and are likely to be read by your target audience.
Believe in CTAs:
There’s great value in direct communication. One of the best ways to build up your viewer community on YouTube and elsewhere is to maintain engaging conversations and directly interact with your audience. When interacting, it is also okay to professionally ask for help improving content engagement. Get more viewers by asking for more views. You can place call-to-actions anywhere:
- In your YouTube videos for other videos;
- On other channels and platforms, directing your followers to view your YouTube content;
- Live sessions and articles on forums are carried to your niche audience.
You can use stickers, animations, segment breaks, or talk to your audience. You can add click-to-action links alongside your call-to-action to direct traffic to your videos easily if your broadcast platform allows you to do so too. For some, placing a click-to-action logo strategically also attracts more visitors to their channel.
In a Nutshell
A high number of views will bring your YouTube channel better exposure and bring you a newer audience. Focus on retaining your audience because the more you try to keep your audience’s attention, the more likely they will stick around to watch more of your videos. Organize your YouTube SEO, and remember to interact with your audience. You do not always need to put in a big budget to boost traffic to your videos successfully. But you need to be updated with all new changes in your niche, the platform updates, and your audience’s online behavior. Research and build your channel up qualitatively, and your views will also increase.