Beyond Audience Counting: The Intricacies of YouTube’s Metrics

How Does YouTube Count Views? It’s Not as Simple as You Think

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

Best YouTube Video Editor - Filmora

After you have created your YouTube channel, do you want to edit videos and upload your first video? Here we recommend using Filmora to easily edit YouTube videos.

You can use Filmora to make YouTube videos with built-in royalty-free audio. Filmora also can help you make YouTube intros. It includes more than 500 templates, transitions, effects, and text resources.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

You May Also Like:
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

Best YouTube Video Editor - Filmora

After you have created your YouTube channel, do you want to edit videos and upload your first video? Here we recommend using Filmora to easily edit YouTube videos.

You can use Filmora to make YouTube videos with built-in royalty-free audio. Filmora also can help you make YouTube intros. It includes more than 500 templates, transitions, effects, and text resources.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

You May Also Like:
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

Best YouTube Video Editor - Filmora

After you have created your YouTube channel, do you want to edit videos and upload your first video? Here we recommend using Filmora to easily edit YouTube videos.

You can use Filmora to make YouTube videos with built-in royalty-free audio. Filmora also can help you make YouTube intros. It includes more than 500 templates, transitions, effects, and text resources.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

You May Also Like:
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

Best YouTube Video Editor - Filmora

After you have created your YouTube channel, do you want to edit videos and upload your first video? Here we recommend using Filmora to easily edit YouTube videos.

You can use Filmora to make YouTube videos with built-in royalty-free audio. Filmora also can help you make YouTube intros. It includes more than 500 templates, transitions, effects, and text resources.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

You May Also Like:
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Video to Increase Views

How to Add Timestamps YouTube Video?

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube has more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users as of now. Every year, this number keeps increasing more and more since now this platform is available in 80 different languages. Be it marketers or corporate creators, everybody is moving towards the platform to present their content to the audience. Thanks to the prominence of this platform amongst the users, it can attract an enormous amount of traffic from all over the globe.

Video marketers, in these times, are trying to make use of this popularity for promoting their brands and products. YouTube Timestamp is also one such tool of this platform that helps you gain recognition and attention from your viewers.

In this article, we will be helping you learn about what Timestamp is, how to add Timestamps to your YouTube videos, and much more.

• Part 1: YouTube Timestamp Introduction
• Part 2: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop
• Part 3: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile
• part 4: Benefits of Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos
• Part 5: Tips for Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos

Part 1: What is a YouTube Timestamp?

A YouTube Timestamp is one of the ‘key moments’ features of Google. It is the best method to link your user to a specific moment of your video. It is very often noticed that people keep skipping the content, as they cannot find what they have been looking for.

In such cases, you can prefer adding the YouTube video Timestamps to improve the retention of the viewers for a longer time. What is more interesting about it is that you can also provide a reference in minutes and seconds of the video.

Part 2: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop?

A very few YouTube videos at present have Timestamps in them. It usually is due to the reason that majority of people are not aware of it. Or, in some other cases, they are still wondering, ‘how to add Timestamps to YouTube video.’

In detail, let us tell you how you can add these timestamps to your videos on Desktop.

1. Log in to your YouTube and move to the ‘Description’ section on the video.
2. For linking a specific part to timestamp, begin by typing the time in the format minutes:seconds.

1. Then add your keyword to the specific video segment and click on ‘Save.’
2. Reload the published video and then check the ‘Description’ section once again and update it accordingly.

That is it, and you are done with adding Timestamps to a YouTube video!

Note: you need to add 0:00 at the beginning of the timestamps so that they can show up. And you may need to add 3 or more timestamps, and each should last 10 seconds or longer.

Part 3: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile?

So, when it is about adding the timestamps on mobile, things are a bit different for sure! However, we have done a thorough research and managed to get a step-by-step tutorial to add these timestamps to YouTube videos on the mobile app.

1. Log in to the YouTube Studio app on your mobile.
2. Click on the ‘Menu’ icon, which is present in the upper left corner of the screen.
3. Select the video and press on the video where you want to add timestamps.
4. Click on the pencil icon, which is present on the topmost right corner of the screen and then add timestamps in the description!

Format - The time is indicated by t=, which is followed by the number of seconds you want the video to start playing from. t= 2m46s is an example of a Timestamp. If the URL of the video contains a question mark (?) at the end, then, in that case, use the ampersand (&) before the time stamp. Example - &t=2m46ss!

Note - Make sure the initial timestamp is “0:00 Start” to activate the YouTube Chapters function. To use YouTube Chapters, you need to add at least three chapters to a video, with each chapter lasting at least ten seconds.

Part 4: Why Should You Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos?

A few reasons why YouTube Timestamps are a must for you to try are mentioned below. Make sure that you go through them!

• Increased SEO Opportunities

The use of YouTube Timestamps can be regarded as a very useful SEO video hack. The ranking of YouTube videos is completely based on the watch time and retention of the audience. Hence, when a user clicks on the Timestamp, YouTube will log this as two views. The initial click counts as the first view. Next will be the second view, which is the Timestamped moment of the video. This 2-on-1 benefit helps in increasing the video ranking.

Now, it is time for all the YouTube creators to switch to this feature for higher rankings. This will take off in 2021, particularly amongst the mobile phone users, since now even Google supports Timestamp hyperlinks. Timestamps will become increasingly important for YouTubers in the coming year.

• User Experience Enhanced

Jumbling for a specific part of a video can be annoying for the user, and they might end up closing it. Anyone would not certainly want to watch the entire 15 minutes of video for nugget-sized information. Hence, using Timestamps is indeed a benefit for you. With this feature, you can now overcome this issue and get a huge victory of an increase in the count of viewers.

• Perk for the Mobile Users

Google has started rewarding the Timestamps for the YouTube videos. It appears to be paying attention to the Timestamps on the videos and then linking to each chapter or header in the YouTube description.

Part 5: Should I Add Timestamps to All YouTube Videos?

Almost every video put up on the internet is designed so as to get optimized as per the SEO trends. Google has mentioned it clearly that “how-to videos which have multiple steps, should have Timestamps .” However, the truth is that every video which is long and has multiple pointers or steps in it should have the YouTube Timestamps in it.

From product reviews to the help tutorials, can reap benefits from this feature of YouTube. This is something you should think about before you start adding chapters to your video.

Conclusion

One of the most effective methods to boost visibility about your brand or product is to create entertaining content online. Using Timestamps in your videos, you may enhance the ranking of your video, enhance the viewer experience, and develop long-term partnerships with a larger audience. You can certainly try experimenting with YouTube at any point in your video and see what happens.

Comment below with your opinions on the results of this new feature and how you feel it impacts your business.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube has more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users as of now. Every year, this number keeps increasing more and more since now this platform is available in 80 different languages. Be it marketers or corporate creators, everybody is moving towards the platform to present their content to the audience. Thanks to the prominence of this platform amongst the users, it can attract an enormous amount of traffic from all over the globe.

Video marketers, in these times, are trying to make use of this popularity for promoting their brands and products. YouTube Timestamp is also one such tool of this platform that helps you gain recognition and attention from your viewers.

In this article, we will be helping you learn about what Timestamp is, how to add Timestamps to your YouTube videos, and much more.

• Part 1: YouTube Timestamp Introduction
• Part 2: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop
• Part 3: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile
• part 4: Benefits of Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos
• Part 5: Tips for Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos

Part 1: What is a YouTube Timestamp?

A YouTube Timestamp is one of the ‘key moments’ features of Google. It is the best method to link your user to a specific moment of your video. It is very often noticed that people keep skipping the content, as they cannot find what they have been looking for.

In such cases, you can prefer adding the YouTube video Timestamps to improve the retention of the viewers for a longer time. What is more interesting about it is that you can also provide a reference in minutes and seconds of the video.

Part 2: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop?

A very few YouTube videos at present have Timestamps in them. It usually is due to the reason that majority of people are not aware of it. Or, in some other cases, they are still wondering, ‘how to add Timestamps to YouTube video.’

In detail, let us tell you how you can add these timestamps to your videos on Desktop.

1. Log in to your YouTube and move to the ‘Description’ section on the video.
2. For linking a specific part to timestamp, begin by typing the time in the format minutes:seconds.

1. Then add your keyword to the specific video segment and click on ‘Save.’
2. Reload the published video and then check the ‘Description’ section once again and update it accordingly.

That is it, and you are done with adding Timestamps to a YouTube video!

Note: you need to add 0:00 at the beginning of the timestamps so that they can show up. And you may need to add 3 or more timestamps, and each should last 10 seconds or longer.

Part 3: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile?

So, when it is about adding the timestamps on mobile, things are a bit different for sure! However, we have done a thorough research and managed to get a step-by-step tutorial to add these timestamps to YouTube videos on the mobile app.

1. Log in to the YouTube Studio app on your mobile.
2. Click on the ‘Menu’ icon, which is present in the upper left corner of the screen.
3. Select the video and press on the video where you want to add timestamps.
4. Click on the pencil icon, which is present on the topmost right corner of the screen and then add timestamps in the description!

Format - The time is indicated by t=, which is followed by the number of seconds you want the video to start playing from. t= 2m46s is an example of a Timestamp. If the URL of the video contains a question mark (?) at the end, then, in that case, use the ampersand (&) before the time stamp. Example - &t=2m46ss!

Note - Make sure the initial timestamp is “0:00 Start” to activate the YouTube Chapters function. To use YouTube Chapters, you need to add at least three chapters to a video, with each chapter lasting at least ten seconds.

Part 4: Why Should You Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos?

A few reasons why YouTube Timestamps are a must for you to try are mentioned below. Make sure that you go through them!

• Increased SEO Opportunities

The use of YouTube Timestamps can be regarded as a very useful SEO video hack. The ranking of YouTube videos is completely based on the watch time and retention of the audience. Hence, when a user clicks on the Timestamp, YouTube will log this as two views. The initial click counts as the first view. Next will be the second view, which is the Timestamped moment of the video. This 2-on-1 benefit helps in increasing the video ranking.

Now, it is time for all the YouTube creators to switch to this feature for higher rankings. This will take off in 2021, particularly amongst the mobile phone users, since now even Google supports Timestamp hyperlinks. Timestamps will become increasingly important for YouTubers in the coming year.

• User Experience Enhanced

Jumbling for a specific part of a video can be annoying for the user, and they might end up closing it. Anyone would not certainly want to watch the entire 15 minutes of video for nugget-sized information. Hence, using Timestamps is indeed a benefit for you. With this feature, you can now overcome this issue and get a huge victory of an increase in the count of viewers.

• Perk for the Mobile Users

Google has started rewarding the Timestamps for the YouTube videos. It appears to be paying attention to the Timestamps on the videos and then linking to each chapter or header in the YouTube description.

Part 5: Should I Add Timestamps to All YouTube Videos?

Almost every video put up on the internet is designed so as to get optimized as per the SEO trends. Google has mentioned it clearly that “how-to videos which have multiple steps, should have Timestamps .” However, the truth is that every video which is long and has multiple pointers or steps in it should have the YouTube Timestamps in it.

From product reviews to the help tutorials, can reap benefits from this feature of YouTube. This is something you should think about before you start adding chapters to your video.

Conclusion

One of the most effective methods to boost visibility about your brand or product is to create entertaining content online. Using Timestamps in your videos, you may enhance the ranking of your video, enhance the viewer experience, and develop long-term partnerships with a larger audience. You can certainly try experimenting with YouTube at any point in your video and see what happens.

Comment below with your opinions on the results of this new feature and how you feel it impacts your business.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube has more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users as of now. Every year, this number keeps increasing more and more since now this platform is available in 80 different languages. Be it marketers or corporate creators, everybody is moving towards the platform to present their content to the audience. Thanks to the prominence of this platform amongst the users, it can attract an enormous amount of traffic from all over the globe.

Video marketers, in these times, are trying to make use of this popularity for promoting their brands and products. YouTube Timestamp is also one such tool of this platform that helps you gain recognition and attention from your viewers.

In this article, we will be helping you learn about what Timestamp is, how to add Timestamps to your YouTube videos, and much more.

• Part 1: YouTube Timestamp Introduction
• Part 2: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop
• Part 3: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile
• part 4: Benefits of Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos
• Part 5: Tips for Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos

Part 1: What is a YouTube Timestamp?

A YouTube Timestamp is one of the ‘key moments’ features of Google. It is the best method to link your user to a specific moment of your video. It is very often noticed that people keep skipping the content, as they cannot find what they have been looking for.

In such cases, you can prefer adding the YouTube video Timestamps to improve the retention of the viewers for a longer time. What is more interesting about it is that you can also provide a reference in minutes and seconds of the video.

Part 2: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop?

A very few YouTube videos at present have Timestamps in them. It usually is due to the reason that majority of people are not aware of it. Or, in some other cases, they are still wondering, ‘how to add Timestamps to YouTube video.’

In detail, let us tell you how you can add these timestamps to your videos on Desktop.

1. Log in to your YouTube and move to the ‘Description’ section on the video.
2. For linking a specific part to timestamp, begin by typing the time in the format minutes:seconds.

1. Then add your keyword to the specific video segment and click on ‘Save.’
2. Reload the published video and then check the ‘Description’ section once again and update it accordingly.

That is it, and you are done with adding Timestamps to a YouTube video!

Note: you need to add 0:00 at the beginning of the timestamps so that they can show up. And you may need to add 3 or more timestamps, and each should last 10 seconds or longer.

Part 3: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile?

So, when it is about adding the timestamps on mobile, things are a bit different for sure! However, we have done a thorough research and managed to get a step-by-step tutorial to add these timestamps to YouTube videos on the mobile app.

1. Log in to the YouTube Studio app on your mobile.
2. Click on the ‘Menu’ icon, which is present in the upper left corner of the screen.
3. Select the video and press on the video where you want to add timestamps.
4. Click on the pencil icon, which is present on the topmost right corner of the screen and then add timestamps in the description!

Format - The time is indicated by t=, which is followed by the number of seconds you want the video to start playing from. t= 2m46s is an example of a Timestamp. If the URL of the video contains a question mark (?) at the end, then, in that case, use the ampersand (&) before the time stamp. Example - &t=2m46ss!

Note - Make sure the initial timestamp is “0:00 Start” to activate the YouTube Chapters function. To use YouTube Chapters, you need to add at least three chapters to a video, with each chapter lasting at least ten seconds.

Part 4: Why Should You Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos?

A few reasons why YouTube Timestamps are a must for you to try are mentioned below. Make sure that you go through them!

• Increased SEO Opportunities

The use of YouTube Timestamps can be regarded as a very useful SEO video hack. The ranking of YouTube videos is completely based on the watch time and retention of the audience. Hence, when a user clicks on the Timestamp, YouTube will log this as two views. The initial click counts as the first view. Next will be the second view, which is the Timestamped moment of the video. This 2-on-1 benefit helps in increasing the video ranking.

Now, it is time for all the YouTube creators to switch to this feature for higher rankings. This will take off in 2021, particularly amongst the mobile phone users, since now even Google supports Timestamp hyperlinks. Timestamps will become increasingly important for YouTubers in the coming year.

• User Experience Enhanced

Jumbling for a specific part of a video can be annoying for the user, and they might end up closing it. Anyone would not certainly want to watch the entire 15 minutes of video for nugget-sized information. Hence, using Timestamps is indeed a benefit for you. With this feature, you can now overcome this issue and get a huge victory of an increase in the count of viewers.

• Perk for the Mobile Users

Google has started rewarding the Timestamps for the YouTube videos. It appears to be paying attention to the Timestamps on the videos and then linking to each chapter or header in the YouTube description.

Part 5: Should I Add Timestamps to All YouTube Videos?

Almost every video put up on the internet is designed so as to get optimized as per the SEO trends. Google has mentioned it clearly that “how-to videos which have multiple steps, should have Timestamps .” However, the truth is that every video which is long and has multiple pointers or steps in it should have the YouTube Timestamps in it.

From product reviews to the help tutorials, can reap benefits from this feature of YouTube. This is something you should think about before you start adding chapters to your video.

Conclusion

One of the most effective methods to boost visibility about your brand or product is to create entertaining content online. Using Timestamps in your videos, you may enhance the ranking of your video, enhance the viewer experience, and develop long-term partnerships with a larger audience. You can certainly try experimenting with YouTube at any point in your video and see what happens.

Comment below with your opinions on the results of this new feature and how you feel it impacts your business.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube has more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users as of now. Every year, this number keeps increasing more and more since now this platform is available in 80 different languages. Be it marketers or corporate creators, everybody is moving towards the platform to present their content to the audience. Thanks to the prominence of this platform amongst the users, it can attract an enormous amount of traffic from all over the globe.

Video marketers, in these times, are trying to make use of this popularity for promoting their brands and products. YouTube Timestamp is also one such tool of this platform that helps you gain recognition and attention from your viewers.

In this article, we will be helping you learn about what Timestamp is, how to add Timestamps to your YouTube videos, and much more.

• Part 1: YouTube Timestamp Introduction
• Part 2: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop
• Part 3: Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile
• part 4: Benefits of Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos
• Part 5: Tips for Adding Timestamps to YouTube Videos

Part 1: What is a YouTube Timestamp?

A YouTube Timestamp is one of the ‘key moments’ features of Google. It is the best method to link your user to a specific moment of your video. It is very often noticed that people keep skipping the content, as they cannot find what they have been looking for.

In such cases, you can prefer adding the YouTube video Timestamps to improve the retention of the viewers for a longer time. What is more interesting about it is that you can also provide a reference in minutes and seconds of the video.

Part 2: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Video on Desktop?

A very few YouTube videos at present have Timestamps in them. It usually is due to the reason that majority of people are not aware of it. Or, in some other cases, they are still wondering, ‘how to add Timestamps to YouTube video.’

In detail, let us tell you how you can add these timestamps to your videos on Desktop.

1. Log in to your YouTube and move to the ‘Description’ section on the video.
2. For linking a specific part to timestamp, begin by typing the time in the format minutes:seconds.

1. Then add your keyword to the specific video segment and click on ‘Save.’
2. Reload the published video and then check the ‘Description’ section once again and update it accordingly.

That is it, and you are done with adding Timestamps to a YouTube video!

Note: you need to add 0:00 at the beginning of the timestamps so that they can show up. And you may need to add 3 or more timestamps, and each should last 10 seconds or longer.

Part 3: How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos on Mobile?

So, when it is about adding the timestamps on mobile, things are a bit different for sure! However, we have done a thorough research and managed to get a step-by-step tutorial to add these timestamps to YouTube videos on the mobile app.

1. Log in to the YouTube Studio app on your mobile.
2. Click on the ‘Menu’ icon, which is present in the upper left corner of the screen.
3. Select the video and press on the video where you want to add timestamps.
4. Click on the pencil icon, which is present on the topmost right corner of the screen and then add timestamps in the description!

Format - The time is indicated by t=, which is followed by the number of seconds you want the video to start playing from. t= 2m46s is an example of a Timestamp. If the URL of the video contains a question mark (?) at the end, then, in that case, use the ampersand (&) before the time stamp. Example - &t=2m46ss!

Note - Make sure the initial timestamp is “0:00 Start” to activate the YouTube Chapters function. To use YouTube Chapters, you need to add at least three chapters to a video, with each chapter lasting at least ten seconds.

Part 4: Why Should You Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos?

A few reasons why YouTube Timestamps are a must for you to try are mentioned below. Make sure that you go through them!

• Increased SEO Opportunities

The use of YouTube Timestamps can be regarded as a very useful SEO video hack. The ranking of YouTube videos is completely based on the watch time and retention of the audience. Hence, when a user clicks on the Timestamp, YouTube will log this as two views. The initial click counts as the first view. Next will be the second view, which is the Timestamped moment of the video. This 2-on-1 benefit helps in increasing the video ranking.

Now, it is time for all the YouTube creators to switch to this feature for higher rankings. This will take off in 2021, particularly amongst the mobile phone users, since now even Google supports Timestamp hyperlinks. Timestamps will become increasingly important for YouTubers in the coming year.

• User Experience Enhanced

Jumbling for a specific part of a video can be annoying for the user, and they might end up closing it. Anyone would not certainly want to watch the entire 15 minutes of video for nugget-sized information. Hence, using Timestamps is indeed a benefit for you. With this feature, you can now overcome this issue and get a huge victory of an increase in the count of viewers.

• Perk for the Mobile Users

Google has started rewarding the Timestamps for the YouTube videos. It appears to be paying attention to the Timestamps on the videos and then linking to each chapter or header in the YouTube description.

Part 5: Should I Add Timestamps to All YouTube Videos?

Almost every video put up on the internet is designed so as to get optimized as per the SEO trends. Google has mentioned it clearly that “how-to videos which have multiple steps, should have Timestamps .” However, the truth is that every video which is long and has multiple pointers or steps in it should have the YouTube Timestamps in it.

From product reviews to the help tutorials, can reap benefits from this feature of YouTube. This is something you should think about before you start adding chapters to your video.

Conclusion

One of the most effective methods to boost visibility about your brand or product is to create entertaining content online. Using Timestamps in your videos, you may enhance the ranking of your video, enhance the viewer experience, and develop long-term partnerships with a larger audience. You can certainly try experimenting with YouTube at any point in your video and see what happens.

Comment below with your opinions on the results of this new feature and how you feel it impacts your business.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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