Boost Views: Strategic Partnerships on YouTube for Rapid Growth

YouTube Outros that Grow Your Channel Faster

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Your YouTube outro, or end screen , is your last chance to keep a viewer on your channel. There are a lot of videos in the ‘Related’ sidebar that might catch their attention, or they could decide to go back to their search results.

A good outro will prompt viewers to keep watching related content from you instead of from someone else, and it could even convince them to subscribe.

1. YouTube Outro Basics
2. YouTube Outro Templates
3. How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature
4. How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

Part 1: YouTube Outro Basics

From the video above we can see that it features video recommendations and a prominent subscribe button.

A YouTube end screen might have the following features:

Videos: you can embed links/thumbnails for videos you’ve made on similar topics in order to keep viewers watching your content.

Playlists: instead of (or in addition to) linking to individual videos, you can embed playlists and link viewers to all of your content on a particular topic.

Subscribe Button: prompt viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Background: you may choose to use all of the elements described above in combination with an end card consisting of a moving background or still image. You can even find templates that will have slots for all your thumbnails and buttons.

You may also want to include social icons and handles for your accounts on sites like Instagram or Twitter. These won’t be clickable (you’ll need to add them yourself outside of YouTube’s end screen tool), but they’ll still let viewers know where else they can find and follow you.

Part 2: YouTube Outro Templates Download

Here are 4 sites where you can download templates for YouTube Outros:

Tube Arsenal: this site has a good selection of customizable outros with moving backgrounds. On the Tube Arsenal site, before you download, you can adjust the colors and text included in your outro and even load in your own logo.

You can preview your customized outro by clicking Preview Still or Preview Movie.

Outros on Tube Arsenal cost $9 for 720P or $13 for 1080p.

Outro Maker: you can get animated end screens/outros from Outro Maker for $2.99 a month (or, if you just need one outro, you can probably finish it during your 7-day free trial).

Outro Maker uses the content already uploaded onto your channel to create your outro, so you will need to link the service with your channel.

Biteable: the templates you can customize on Biteable are not specifically designed to be YouTube Outros and will not have slots for your end screen elements. The videos start out a lot longer than you’ll want for an end screen (an end screen can’t last longer than 20 seconds), but you can shorten them by deleting all the ‘scenes’ you don’t need and keeping just the one or two you want.

The clips you can get from Biteable look great, and their process for changing the text and colors is simple and intuitive.

You can create 5 free projects every month with Biteable, but you’ll need to upgrade to their paid service to download them. It’s $30 for one month.

Velosofy: this site has a decent selection of templates you can download for free. However, the downloads are all project files for programs like Adobe Photoshop or After Effects. You’ll need to have the program that goes with your download in order to customize your outro.

You can also find free outro templates by searching for them on YouTube! Lots of people have created free outros to share with the YouTube community.

Besides downloading outro templates from the website, you can also create it with some outro makers or with the video editing software that you are using. Wondershare Filmora video editor is the video editor that I used often, it is featured some cool templates and preset for making an outro. I recommend you try it as well.

Part 3: How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature

Make sure to create a space at the end of your video for the elements of your end screen to sit on top of. Your end screen will not add to the length of your video, it will overlay onto the last 5-20 seconds.

Here’s how you add an End Screen:

1. Go to your YouTube Studio, then switch to Videos on the left menu;
2. Click Details next to the video you want to add an end screen to.
3. Click the End screen in the menu under the lower right window.
4. Click Element to start adding videos, playlists, and subscribe buttons to your outro. You could also choose to use the same layout as a previous end screen with Import From Video, or you could apply multiple elements at once with a YouTube Template.
5. Drag the elements to where you want them and adjust the timing using the timeline.
6. Click Save when you’re done.

Part 4: How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

One of the most important statistics for measuring the growth of Your YouTube channel is Watch Time. You need 4,000 hours of watch time (over the past 12 months) in order to qualify for monetization/the YouTube Partner Program, and watch time also plays an important role in how your videos are ranked in YouTube’s search results.

Watch time is more important than views. If you’re getting views, but people are only watching short sections of your video, YouTube’s algorithm thinks the people who are clicking on your videos don’t like them and ranks them lower.

Outros are one of the best ways of increasing the watch time for your channel, because the whole point of an outro is to convince viewers to stick around and watch more videos. Here are some best practices:

Link to related videos and playlists: if someone has watched one video on a topic to the end, they’ll likely be interested in another highly related video from you. For example, someone who’s watched a Let’s Play for God of War is more likely to be interested in another God of War video than your review of your new gaming headset.

Link to your newest video: YouTube’s algorithm places the most weight on the data it collects about your video within the first 24 hours of it being listed as Public. To give your newest video it’s the best chance at success, you should do everything you can to boost its watch time when it’s first posted and linking to it in the end screens of all your other videos is one way to do that.

You don’t have to change every screen individually, YouTube lets you link to your most recent video automatically.

Link to Playlists: if you can get a viewer watching a playlist of related videos then that’s great for your watch time. If they’re already in a playlist they’re far more likely to watch multiple videos than if they have to go to your channel page and hunt down the content they’re interested in.

Include a ‘CTA’ with your subscribe button: besides just including a button people can use to subscribe, you should ask them to click on it with a ‘Call to Action’ or CTA. This can mean writing something like ‘Subscribe for more videos!’ on your end card, or asking them in an outro voiceover. People are more likely to subscribe if you ask than if you don’t.

Are you using a YouTube outro? What elements do you include, and how do you think it’s helped the growth of your channel?

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

Your YouTube outro, or end screen , is your last chance to keep a viewer on your channel. There are a lot of videos in the ‘Related’ sidebar that might catch their attention, or they could decide to go back to their search results.

A good outro will prompt viewers to keep watching related content from you instead of from someone else, and it could even convince them to subscribe.

1. YouTube Outro Basics
2. YouTube Outro Templates
3. How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature
4. How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

Part 1: YouTube Outro Basics

From the video above we can see that it features video recommendations and a prominent subscribe button.

A YouTube end screen might have the following features:

Videos: you can embed links/thumbnails for videos you’ve made on similar topics in order to keep viewers watching your content.

Playlists: instead of (or in addition to) linking to individual videos, you can embed playlists and link viewers to all of your content on a particular topic.

Subscribe Button: prompt viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Background: you may choose to use all of the elements described above in combination with an end card consisting of a moving background or still image. You can even find templates that will have slots for all your thumbnails and buttons.

You may also want to include social icons and handles for your accounts on sites like Instagram or Twitter. These won’t be clickable (you’ll need to add them yourself outside of YouTube’s end screen tool), but they’ll still let viewers know where else they can find and follow you.

Part 2: YouTube Outro Templates Download

Here are 4 sites where you can download templates for YouTube Outros:

Tube Arsenal: this site has a good selection of customizable outros with moving backgrounds. On the Tube Arsenal site, before you download, you can adjust the colors and text included in your outro and even load in your own logo.

You can preview your customized outro by clicking Preview Still or Preview Movie.

Outros on Tube Arsenal cost $9 for 720P or $13 for 1080p.

Outro Maker: you can get animated end screens/outros from Outro Maker for $2.99 a month (or, if you just need one outro, you can probably finish it during your 7-day free trial).

Outro Maker uses the content already uploaded onto your channel to create your outro, so you will need to link the service with your channel.

Biteable: the templates you can customize on Biteable are not specifically designed to be YouTube Outros and will not have slots for your end screen elements. The videos start out a lot longer than you’ll want for an end screen (an end screen can’t last longer than 20 seconds), but you can shorten them by deleting all the ‘scenes’ you don’t need and keeping just the one or two you want.

The clips you can get from Biteable look great, and their process for changing the text and colors is simple and intuitive.

You can create 5 free projects every month with Biteable, but you’ll need to upgrade to their paid service to download them. It’s $30 for one month.

Velosofy: this site has a decent selection of templates you can download for free. However, the downloads are all project files for programs like Adobe Photoshop or After Effects. You’ll need to have the program that goes with your download in order to customize your outro.

You can also find free outro templates by searching for them on YouTube! Lots of people have created free outros to share with the YouTube community.

Besides downloading outro templates from the website, you can also create it with some outro makers or with the video editing software that you are using. Wondershare Filmora video editor is the video editor that I used often, it is featured some cool templates and preset for making an outro. I recommend you try it as well.

Part 3: How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature

Make sure to create a space at the end of your video for the elements of your end screen to sit on top of. Your end screen will not add to the length of your video, it will overlay onto the last 5-20 seconds.

Here’s how you add an End Screen:

1. Go to your YouTube Studio, then switch to Videos on the left menu;
2. Click Details next to the video you want to add an end screen to.
3. Click the End screen in the menu under the lower right window.
4. Click Element to start adding videos, playlists, and subscribe buttons to your outro. You could also choose to use the same layout as a previous end screen with Import From Video, or you could apply multiple elements at once with a YouTube Template.
5. Drag the elements to where you want them and adjust the timing using the timeline.
6. Click Save when you’re done.

Part 4: How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

One of the most important statistics for measuring the growth of Your YouTube channel is Watch Time. You need 4,000 hours of watch time (over the past 12 months) in order to qualify for monetization/the YouTube Partner Program, and watch time also plays an important role in how your videos are ranked in YouTube’s search results.

Watch time is more important than views. If you’re getting views, but people are only watching short sections of your video, YouTube’s algorithm thinks the people who are clicking on your videos don’t like them and ranks them lower.

Outros are one of the best ways of increasing the watch time for your channel, because the whole point of an outro is to convince viewers to stick around and watch more videos. Here are some best practices:

Link to related videos and playlists: if someone has watched one video on a topic to the end, they’ll likely be interested in another highly related video from you. For example, someone who’s watched a Let’s Play for God of War is more likely to be interested in another God of War video than your review of your new gaming headset.

Link to your newest video: YouTube’s algorithm places the most weight on the data it collects about your video within the first 24 hours of it being listed as Public. To give your newest video it’s the best chance at success, you should do everything you can to boost its watch time when it’s first posted and linking to it in the end screens of all your other videos is one way to do that.

You don’t have to change every screen individually, YouTube lets you link to your most recent video automatically.

Link to Playlists: if you can get a viewer watching a playlist of related videos then that’s great for your watch time. If they’re already in a playlist they’re far more likely to watch multiple videos than if they have to go to your channel page and hunt down the content they’re interested in.

Include a ‘CTA’ with your subscribe button: besides just including a button people can use to subscribe, you should ask them to click on it with a ‘Call to Action’ or CTA. This can mean writing something like ‘Subscribe for more videos!’ on your end card, or asking them in an outro voiceover. People are more likely to subscribe if you ask than if you don’t.

Are you using a YouTube outro? What elements do you include, and how do you think it’s helped the growth of your channel?

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

Your YouTube outro, or end screen , is your last chance to keep a viewer on your channel. There are a lot of videos in the ‘Related’ sidebar that might catch their attention, or they could decide to go back to their search results.

A good outro will prompt viewers to keep watching related content from you instead of from someone else, and it could even convince them to subscribe.

1. YouTube Outro Basics
2. YouTube Outro Templates
3. How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature
4. How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

Part 1: YouTube Outro Basics

From the video above we can see that it features video recommendations and a prominent subscribe button.

A YouTube end screen might have the following features:

Videos: you can embed links/thumbnails for videos you’ve made on similar topics in order to keep viewers watching your content.

Playlists: instead of (or in addition to) linking to individual videos, you can embed playlists and link viewers to all of your content on a particular topic.

Subscribe Button: prompt viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Background: you may choose to use all of the elements described above in combination with an end card consisting of a moving background or still image. You can even find templates that will have slots for all your thumbnails and buttons.

You may also want to include social icons and handles for your accounts on sites like Instagram or Twitter. These won’t be clickable (you’ll need to add them yourself outside of YouTube’s end screen tool), but they’ll still let viewers know where else they can find and follow you.

Part 2: YouTube Outro Templates Download

Here are 4 sites where you can download templates for YouTube Outros:

Tube Arsenal: this site has a good selection of customizable outros with moving backgrounds. On the Tube Arsenal site, before you download, you can adjust the colors and text included in your outro and even load in your own logo.

You can preview your customized outro by clicking Preview Still or Preview Movie.

Outros on Tube Arsenal cost $9 for 720P or $13 for 1080p.

Outro Maker: you can get animated end screens/outros from Outro Maker for $2.99 a month (or, if you just need one outro, you can probably finish it during your 7-day free trial).

Outro Maker uses the content already uploaded onto your channel to create your outro, so you will need to link the service with your channel.

Biteable: the templates you can customize on Biteable are not specifically designed to be YouTube Outros and will not have slots for your end screen elements. The videos start out a lot longer than you’ll want for an end screen (an end screen can’t last longer than 20 seconds), but you can shorten them by deleting all the ‘scenes’ you don’t need and keeping just the one or two you want.

The clips you can get from Biteable look great, and their process for changing the text and colors is simple and intuitive.

You can create 5 free projects every month with Biteable, but you’ll need to upgrade to their paid service to download them. It’s $30 for one month.

Velosofy: this site has a decent selection of templates you can download for free. However, the downloads are all project files for programs like Adobe Photoshop or After Effects. You’ll need to have the program that goes with your download in order to customize your outro.

You can also find free outro templates by searching for them on YouTube! Lots of people have created free outros to share with the YouTube community.

Besides downloading outro templates from the website, you can also create it with some outro makers or with the video editing software that you are using. Wondershare Filmora video editor is the video editor that I used often, it is featured some cool templates and preset for making an outro. I recommend you try it as well.

Part 3: How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature

Make sure to create a space at the end of your video for the elements of your end screen to sit on top of. Your end screen will not add to the length of your video, it will overlay onto the last 5-20 seconds.

Here’s how you add an End Screen:

1. Go to your YouTube Studio, then switch to Videos on the left menu;
2. Click Details next to the video you want to add an end screen to.
3. Click the End screen in the menu under the lower right window.
4. Click Element to start adding videos, playlists, and subscribe buttons to your outro. You could also choose to use the same layout as a previous end screen with Import From Video, or you could apply multiple elements at once with a YouTube Template.
5. Drag the elements to where you want them and adjust the timing using the timeline.
6. Click Save when you’re done.

Part 4: How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

One of the most important statistics for measuring the growth of Your YouTube channel is Watch Time. You need 4,000 hours of watch time (over the past 12 months) in order to qualify for monetization/the YouTube Partner Program, and watch time also plays an important role in how your videos are ranked in YouTube’s search results.

Watch time is more important than views. If you’re getting views, but people are only watching short sections of your video, YouTube’s algorithm thinks the people who are clicking on your videos don’t like them and ranks them lower.

Outros are one of the best ways of increasing the watch time for your channel, because the whole point of an outro is to convince viewers to stick around and watch more videos. Here are some best practices:

Link to related videos and playlists: if someone has watched one video on a topic to the end, they’ll likely be interested in another highly related video from you. For example, someone who’s watched a Let’s Play for God of War is more likely to be interested in another God of War video than your review of your new gaming headset.

Link to your newest video: YouTube’s algorithm places the most weight on the data it collects about your video within the first 24 hours of it being listed as Public. To give your newest video it’s the best chance at success, you should do everything you can to boost its watch time when it’s first posted and linking to it in the end screens of all your other videos is one way to do that.

You don’t have to change every screen individually, YouTube lets you link to your most recent video automatically.

Link to Playlists: if you can get a viewer watching a playlist of related videos then that’s great for your watch time. If they’re already in a playlist they’re far more likely to watch multiple videos than if they have to go to your channel page and hunt down the content they’re interested in.

Include a ‘CTA’ with your subscribe button: besides just including a button people can use to subscribe, you should ask them to click on it with a ‘Call to Action’ or CTA. This can mean writing something like ‘Subscribe for more videos!’ on your end card, or asking them in an outro voiceover. People are more likely to subscribe if you ask than if you don’t.

Are you using a YouTube outro? What elements do you include, and how do you think it’s helped the growth of your channel?

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

Your YouTube outro, or end screen , is your last chance to keep a viewer on your channel. There are a lot of videos in the ‘Related’ sidebar that might catch their attention, or they could decide to go back to their search results.

A good outro will prompt viewers to keep watching related content from you instead of from someone else, and it could even convince them to subscribe.

1. YouTube Outro Basics
2. YouTube Outro Templates
3. How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature
4. How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

Part 1: YouTube Outro Basics

From the video above we can see that it features video recommendations and a prominent subscribe button.

A YouTube end screen might have the following features:

Videos: you can embed links/thumbnails for videos you’ve made on similar topics in order to keep viewers watching your content.

Playlists: instead of (or in addition to) linking to individual videos, you can embed playlists and link viewers to all of your content on a particular topic.

Subscribe Button: prompt viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Background: you may choose to use all of the elements described above in combination with an end card consisting of a moving background or still image. You can even find templates that will have slots for all your thumbnails and buttons.

You may also want to include social icons and handles for your accounts on sites like Instagram or Twitter. These won’t be clickable (you’ll need to add them yourself outside of YouTube’s end screen tool), but they’ll still let viewers know where else they can find and follow you.

Part 2: YouTube Outro Templates Download

Here are 4 sites where you can download templates for YouTube Outros:

Tube Arsenal: this site has a good selection of customizable outros with moving backgrounds. On the Tube Arsenal site, before you download, you can adjust the colors and text included in your outro and even load in your own logo.

You can preview your customized outro by clicking Preview Still or Preview Movie.

Outros on Tube Arsenal cost $9 for 720P or $13 for 1080p.

Outro Maker: you can get animated end screens/outros from Outro Maker for $2.99 a month (or, if you just need one outro, you can probably finish it during your 7-day free trial).

Outro Maker uses the content already uploaded onto your channel to create your outro, so you will need to link the service with your channel.

Biteable: the templates you can customize on Biteable are not specifically designed to be YouTube Outros and will not have slots for your end screen elements. The videos start out a lot longer than you’ll want for an end screen (an end screen can’t last longer than 20 seconds), but you can shorten them by deleting all the ‘scenes’ you don’t need and keeping just the one or two you want.

The clips you can get from Biteable look great, and their process for changing the text and colors is simple and intuitive.

You can create 5 free projects every month with Biteable, but you’ll need to upgrade to their paid service to download them. It’s $30 for one month.

Velosofy: this site has a decent selection of templates you can download for free. However, the downloads are all project files for programs like Adobe Photoshop or After Effects. You’ll need to have the program that goes with your download in order to customize your outro.

You can also find free outro templates by searching for them on YouTube! Lots of people have created free outros to share with the YouTube community.

Besides downloading outro templates from the website, you can also create it with some outro makers or with the video editing software that you are using. Wondershare Filmora video editor is the video editor that I used often, it is featured some cool templates and preset for making an outro. I recommend you try it as well.

Part 3: How to Use YouTube’s End Screen Feature

Make sure to create a space at the end of your video for the elements of your end screen to sit on top of. Your end screen will not add to the length of your video, it will overlay onto the last 5-20 seconds.

Here’s how you add an End Screen:

1. Go to your YouTube Studio, then switch to Videos on the left menu;
2. Click Details next to the video you want to add an end screen to.
3. Click the End screen in the menu under the lower right window.
4. Click Element to start adding videos, playlists, and subscribe buttons to your outro. You could also choose to use the same layout as a previous end screen with Import From Video, or you could apply multiple elements at once with a YouTube Template.
5. Drag the elements to where you want them and adjust the timing using the timeline.
6. Click Save when you’re done.

Part 4: How YouTube Outros/End Screens Can Help You Grow on YouTube

One of the most important statistics for measuring the growth of Your YouTube channel is Watch Time. You need 4,000 hours of watch time (over the past 12 months) in order to qualify for monetization/the YouTube Partner Program, and watch time also plays an important role in how your videos are ranked in YouTube’s search results.

Watch time is more important than views. If you’re getting views, but people are only watching short sections of your video, YouTube’s algorithm thinks the people who are clicking on your videos don’t like them and ranks them lower.

Outros are one of the best ways of increasing the watch time for your channel, because the whole point of an outro is to convince viewers to stick around and watch more videos. Here are some best practices:

Link to related videos and playlists: if someone has watched one video on a topic to the end, they’ll likely be interested in another highly related video from you. For example, someone who’s watched a Let’s Play for God of War is more likely to be interested in another God of War video than your review of your new gaming headset.

Link to your newest video: YouTube’s algorithm places the most weight on the data it collects about your video within the first 24 hours of it being listed as Public. To give your newest video it’s the best chance at success, you should do everything you can to boost its watch time when it’s first posted and linking to it in the end screens of all your other videos is one way to do that.

You don’t have to change every screen individually, YouTube lets you link to your most recent video automatically.

Link to Playlists: if you can get a viewer watching a playlist of related videos then that’s great for your watch time. If they’re already in a playlist they’re far more likely to watch multiple videos than if they have to go to your channel page and hunt down the content they’re interested in.

Include a ‘CTA’ with your subscribe button: besides just including a button people can use to subscribe, you should ask them to click on it with a ‘Call to Action’ or CTA. This can mean writing something like ‘Subscribe for more videos!’ on your end card, or asking them in an outro voiceover. People are more likely to subscribe if you ask than if you don’t.

Are you using a YouTube outro? What elements do you include, and how do you think it’s helped the growth of your channel?

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

The 5 Key Moves to Double Your Channel’s Traffic

5 Tips to Get More Views with YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist]

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a

In this article, we will give youa checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.

How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention
2. Do Keyword Research
3. Engage Your Audience
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:

Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.

Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.

Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access to Analytics
3. Select the video you want to review
4. Click into engagement
5. See where a dip in watch time

What is Good Audience Retention?

If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.

If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.

In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.

There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.

If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.

How to Improve Audience Retention

Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:

- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)

- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)

- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)

- Edit out the unimportant stuff

- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.

If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.

Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.

2. Do Keyword Research:

Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.

Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?

- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.

- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.

- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.

Why Keywords Matter

keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.

Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.

That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.

Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access Analytics
3. Select Reach
4. Click into Traffic Source
5. Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search

If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.

1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.

2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.

3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.

Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.

Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.

Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.

4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.

3. Engage Your Audience:

It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.

While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.

Here is an example of how it would work:

- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it

- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.

- Boom! Domino effect!

- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.

Get engagements with a call to action:

- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.

- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.

- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.

It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.

4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:

YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.

Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.

Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.

If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.

However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.

If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.

End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .

Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.

Key Takeaways:

1. Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
2. Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
3. Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
4. Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
5. Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.

Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking

Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.

For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.

However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.

- Subscribers know the moment your video is published

- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)

- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers

Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .

Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.

How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>

10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

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

We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a

In this article, we will give youa checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.

How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention
2. Do Keyword Research
3. Engage Your Audience
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:

Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.

Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.

Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access to Analytics
3. Select the video you want to review
4. Click into engagement
5. See where a dip in watch time

What is Good Audience Retention?

If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.

If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.

In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.

There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.

If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.

How to Improve Audience Retention

Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:

- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)

- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)

- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)

- Edit out the unimportant stuff

- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.

If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.

Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.

2. Do Keyword Research:

Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.

Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?

- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.

- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.

- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.

Why Keywords Matter

keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.

Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.

That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.

Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access Analytics
3. Select Reach
4. Click into Traffic Source
5. Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search

If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.

1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.

2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.

3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.

Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.

Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.

Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.

4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.

3. Engage Your Audience:

It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.

While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.

Here is an example of how it would work:

- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it

- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.

- Boom! Domino effect!

- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.

Get engagements with a call to action:

- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.

- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.

- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.

It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.

4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:

YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.

Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.

Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.

If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.

However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.

If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.

End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .

Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.

Key Takeaways:

1. Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
2. Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
3. Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
4. Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
5. Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.

Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking

Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.

For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.

However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.

- Subscribers know the moment your video is published

- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)

- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers

Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .

Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.

How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>

10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

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

We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a

In this article, we will give youa checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.

How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention
2. Do Keyword Research
3. Engage Your Audience
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:

Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.

Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.

Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access to Analytics
3. Select the video you want to review
4. Click into engagement
5. See where a dip in watch time

What is Good Audience Retention?

If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.

If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.

In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.

There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.

If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.

How to Improve Audience Retention

Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:

- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)

- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)

- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)

- Edit out the unimportant stuff

- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.

If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.

Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.

2. Do Keyword Research:

Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.

Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?

- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.

- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.

- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.

Why Keywords Matter

keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.

Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.

That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.

Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access Analytics
3. Select Reach
4. Click into Traffic Source
5. Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search

If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.

1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.

2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.

3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.

Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.

Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.

Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.

4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.

3. Engage Your Audience:

It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.

While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.

Here is an example of how it would work:

- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it

- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.

- Boom! Domino effect!

- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.

Get engagements with a call to action:

- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.

- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.

- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.

It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.

4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:

YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.

Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.

Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.

If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.

However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.

If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.

End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .

Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.

Key Takeaways:

1. Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
2. Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
3. Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
4. Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
5. Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.

Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking

Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.

For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.

However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.

- Subscribers know the moment your video is published

- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)

- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers

Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .

Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.

How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>

10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

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

We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a

In this article, we will give youa checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.

How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention
2. Do Keyword Research
3. Engage Your Audience
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:

Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.

Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.

Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access to Analytics
3. Select the video you want to review
4. Click into engagement
5. See where a dip in watch time

What is Good Audience Retention?

If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.

If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.

In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.

There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.

If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.

How to Improve Audience Retention

Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:

- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)

- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)

- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)

- Edit out the unimportant stuff

- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.

If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.

Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.

2. Do Keyword Research:

Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.

Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?

- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.

- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.

- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.

Why Keywords Matter

keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.

Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.

That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.

Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access Analytics
3. Select Reach
4. Click into Traffic Source
5. Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search

If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.

1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.

2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.

3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.

Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.

Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.

Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.

4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.

3. Engage Your Audience:

It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.

While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.

Here is an example of how it would work:

- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it

- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.

- Boom! Domino effect!

- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.

Get engagements with a call to action:

- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.

- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.

- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.

It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.

4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:

YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.

Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.

Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.

If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.

However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.

If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.

End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .

Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.

Key Takeaways:

1. Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
2. Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
3. Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
4. Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
5. Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.

Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking

Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.

For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.

However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.

- Subscribers know the moment your video is published

- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)

- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers

Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .

Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.

How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>

10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

Richard Bennett

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

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