Figuring out how to get more Views on YouTube holds the key to generating interest and exposure. Unfortunately, generating tons of Views in a short space of time isn’t easy.
Contrary to popular belief, there’s a lot more to YouTube than hilarious cat videos and breakout boybands from overseas. Over the years, YouTube has grown into one of the most powerful and important marketing platforms ever conceived.
A few facts and figures for a little perspective on just how massive YouTube really is:
- YouTube has 2 billion logged-in monthly users
- 73% of adults in the U.S. use YouTube
- 81% of 15 to 25-year-olds in the U.S. use YouTube
- 93% of video watchers in India are watching YouTube
- 70% of what people watch on YouTube is determined by its algorithm
- People upload 500 hours of video every minute
- In the U.S. alone, YouTube generated $5.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2020
- Over 1 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube daily
To put the last of these statistics into context, 1 billion viewing hours per day is more than Netflix and Facebook video combined.
Hence, to say YouTube is the real deal would be something of an understatement. It’s a massive platform that attracts tons of traffic from across the world, every hour of every day.
But how to get more views on YouTube when dealing with such insane competition? More importantly, how could pulling in a few million views for your best videos work in your favor?
How do YouTube Views Work?
YouTube views are among several key metrics taken into account by the platform’s algorithm. As touched upon above, a full 70% of all viewing activity that takes place on YouTube is determined by its algorithm’s suggestions.
This means that if you want to get ahead on YouTube, you need to appeal to its algorithm. Hence, you also need to learn how to get more views on YouTube for your most important videos.
The good news being that there’s no shortage of options to try out, which when combined with one another can begin making a difference in no time at all.
How to Get Views on YouTube
Trial and error has shown that some approaches to getting more YouTube views work better than others. Whatever kind of time and money you plan on investing in your video marketing strategy, these are the tactics and techniques that always push view-counts in the right direction:
Create Great Video Content
At the risk of stating the obvious, nobody is going to watch your content if it is not worth watching. When up against this kind of competition, there’s no room for anything but the most outstanding, compelling and unique video content you can possibly publish.
This means doing everything you can to create and publish content of relevance, value and appeal for your audience. Most importantly, the kind of content they can’t accessed elsewhere from another publisher. The importance of impeccable quality (video and audio) also cannot be overstated. Keeps things polished and professional across the board – don’t compromise your credibility by publishing anything substandard.
Optimize Your Channel
There are two primary objectives to pursue when optimizing your channel. First of all, you need to invest heavily in strong and consistent branding across the board. This means ensuring that everything you do is a direct and accurate reflection of your brand – whatever that brand happens to be.
In addition, it also means optimizing your content for user-friendliness and SEO. It should look fantastic, be easy to digest and also ensure you’re easy to find with the appropriate keywords. Add links to your website and your other social channels, provide your contact information and do everything possible to create a positive and lasting first impression.
Use Custom Thumbnails
The thumbnails you use are every bit as important as the titles you give your videos. YouTube itself has said on several occasions that under no circumstances should a thumbnail be an afterthought. It’s something you need to invest the necessary time, effort and thought in, if it’s to catch the eye of the viewer and grab their attention.
Creativity holds the key to quality custom thumbnails, which should always be an accurate representation of the video’s content. Other rules to follow from a more technical standpoint include the following:
- Use a 16:9 aspect ratio, as this is the most used aspect ratio in YouTube players
- Stick with a resolution of 1280×720
- Image file-size should be less than 2MB
- Always use a .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG format
Don’t cut corners or rely too much on auto-generated thumbnails for your content.
Use End Screens and Cards
Making the most of end screens and cards is the ultimate no-brainer. These are the tools that enable you to promote your other videos and direct people straight to other examples of your work from the video they’re currently watching.
Cards can be used as ‘pop-ups’ at any point during the video, providing useful information or directing the viewer to another video or playlist. You can even create polls to ask viewers for their opinions on your content, or anything else of importance. As the name suggests, end screens are more or less the same, though appear right at the end of the video.
In both instances, end screens and cards significantly boost the likelihood of the viewer checking out your other videos.
Create Playlists
Playlists are surprisingly effective for two reasons. The first of which being convenience – aka the laziness of the typical YouTube viewer. Rather than having to think about where to head for their next dose of entertainment, our playlist automatically cues up the next video. All of which saves the user valuable time and effort in the process.
In addition, Playlists provide you with the opportunity to assemble something of a ‘showreel’ of your best work. You group a bunch of videos together you know your audience will enjoy, providing something of a snapshot of who you are and what you do.
Playlists can be particularly useful when you’ve an epic archive of content viewers may get lost in, though can still be of enormous value when you’ve just a handful of videos.
Encourage Viewers to Subscribe
What’s the easiest and most effective way to encourage viewers to subscribe? Simple – you just ask them to do so directly. There are various ways of going about this – feel free to experiment with reminders before, during and/or after your videos. Use cards and end screens, ask directly in your own voice or include written reminders at various times throughout your videos.
Whichever way you go, direct requests for subscriptions have been proven to massively increase the likelihood of viewers signing up. Experiment until you find what works best for your content and your channel.
Add Relevant YouTube Tags
Admittedly, getting it right with YouTube tags isn’t going to make a massive difference to how many people find your videos. Nevertheless, even if they bring in no more than a handful of additional views on a regular basis, it’s still better than nothing.
The tags you add should be based around your primary keywords and the content of the video you’re publishing. Keep things relevant and sensible, rather than trying boost the numbers by using tags of no relevance to your content.
Understand the Importance of “Watch Time”
Contrary to popular belief, not all YouTube views are of equal value. If somebody simply scans through one of your videos or watches for a few seconds and bails, it’s not going to do much for your visibility or credibility. By contrast, when viewers watch your content in its entirety from beginning to end, you score way more points with YouTube’s indexation system.
This is what’s referred to as ‘Watch Time’ – the amount of time viewers actually spend watching your content. It’s also another reason why focusing on impeccable content is essential. It’s up to you to do everything you can to prevent viewers exiting before watching your content in its entirety.
Even if this means making your videos shorter to enhance their quality and appeal, it’s something to consider.
Build an Influencer Community
You probably (or should) see yourself as something of an influencer within your niche. In which case, one of the best ways of getting more YouTube views and climbing the ranks in general is to join forces with other influencers. Not those you’re in direct competition with, but anyone with relevance to your niche and your audience, who could promote your work on their channel.
In return, you do the same for them – and everybody wins. Strength in numbers often holds the key to success on platforms like YouTube, when you’re up against the kind of competition that makes it difficult to go it alone. Reach out to anyone you feel you could collaborate with and ensure they know there’s something in it for them, if they’re willing to lend you a hand.
Cross Promote Your Videos
Use every channel at your disposal (offline and online) to market your YouTube channel and your content. This includes your website, your other social media accounts and any marketing materials of any kind you publish and distribute in the real world.
The idea being that rather than waiting around for people to find you off their own backs, you tell them exactly where you are and give them a reason to check you out. If you’re serious about getting your videos in front of as many eyes as possible, you need to market them as aggressively as you can.
Step Up Your YouTube SEO Efforts
Last up, all textual content you produce and publish via your YouTube channel should be SEO-friendly and appropriately optimized. Not to such an extent as to come across as synthetic or forced, but nonetheless enriched with all the keywords and phrases needed to attract the right attention.
Use appropriate keywords in your video filenames and titles, optimize your video descriptions, add cards/end screens with appropriate content and so on. All of which will help you attract more organic traffic and increase your YouTube view-count.
How to Increase YouTube Views Fast?
When looking to boost YouTube views safely and effectively, quality counts. It takes time and effort to gain views on YouTube the traditional way, but investing heavily in the quality of your channel is always the best option.
Nevertheless, there is an alternative approach that can help you get YouTube views significantly faster and without the need for heavy investment. If looking to get things off the ground in the first place, you could always buy YouTube views to steer things in the right direction.
Can I Really Buy YouTube Views?
The short answer is yes, but on the condition that the views you buy are legit. Roughly translated, any views you buy should be sourced exclusively from real YouTube accounts with real human owners – nothing synthetic or bot-generated.
When you buy YouTube views, you immediately present your content as more credible, valuable and worth checking out to the platform’s algorithm. At which point, it becomes much easier for your target audience to find your videos, subsequently generating more organic views.
You can’t rely on purchased YouTube views alone, but they can nonetheless be a great way of setting the wheels in motion. After which, following the guidelines above is the best way of attracting strong and consistent views long-term.
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