How to increase YouTube watch time for video SEO
YouTube is growing in its popularity on a daily basis. Every other person today wants to create a channel and go online with their videos so as to have popularity on the video platform and have followers, comments, shares, likes, and subscribers.
With such tough competition in the market among the video producers, it has become tough for the algorithm of YouTube to segregate which videos to be promoted and which videos are rich in content.
In fact, just due to the competition increasing on a global scale, it has become difficult even for the video-sharing company to decide the good quality content and the targeted audience.
With this, YouTube itself has come up with new algorithms to define how to make videos reach in a targeted and customized way to the targeted and the potential audience.
This is the reason YouTube has defined “Watch time” now as a factor to determine, how to rank videos in an effective sense.
Now, the question has popped up to increase the watch time on YouTube so as to rank higher.
A few of the strategies that can be used to rank higher on YouTube are:
1. Create a clickable table of contents for YouTube videos
The table of contents has the probability to attract the audience in a customized and effective way.
YouTube allows one to have clickable timestamps in both video descriptions and comments. When a timestamp is being clicked, the users are directly taken to the part of the video that they wish to go through.
Try to make the content of the timestamps quite interesting in a detailed way and clickable. This helps in engaging the audience rather than boring them.
2. Nail your first 15 seconds
When a viewer is tarting to view your video, they must be amazed by the content of the video in just 15 seconds. It is the first 15 seconds of a video that can capture the attention of the audience.
Viewers have the tendency to lose interest quite easily, thus they can leave your video quite quickly. A high bounce rate can result in the ranking of your video going down.
The first 15 seconds of a video must be engaging and interesting. Keeping the audience connected with you for the first 15 seconds can assure your audience has a good watch time.
3. Choose titles and thumbnails that can accurately reflect the content of the video
YouTube video title and thumbnail both send signals to the viewer about the content of the video. While people search for videos on YouTube, the first thing they will see is the title and the thumbnail to decide whether they need to watch this video.
It is the well-designed titles and thumbnails that bring benefits.
Some of the benefits are:-
- They can attract more fans to your channel.
- They can encourage viewers to watch the videos as they know what to expect.
- It makes the content appealing to a broad range of audiences.
Thus, it is highly necessary that the title and the thumbnail are optimized so as to increase watch time on YouTube.
4. Sort your YouTube videos into playlists
Playlists are one of the great ways to tell the audience what the video is all about and how is it relatable to the other content so as to have a clear understanding of suggested videos as per the customer’s choice. YouTube uses a variety of signals to determine which videos should be suggested as a part of a topic, for audiences, and so on. This also helps in the correct classification of the content and increases YouTube watch time.
Playlists increase the engagement rate and the customer watch-time metrics as the audience has a clear idea of what the content is all about and how is it relatable to answer their queries. YouTube, in fact, reads the playlists and can play them automatically in a row without distracting viewers or taking them to other videos.
YouTube is all about attracting the right audience with the right content and the right strategy. Videos have become the new trend and marketing videos in a proper way is all that can give you gain.
The platform has high money earning capability for the users only when the content published is what can attract the audience.
Perfectness is what is mandatory for YouTube videos to go viral and have a larger reach.
5. End screens and cards
The end screen is an excellent feature to direct the potential viewers towards the most relevant videos easily thereby improving the overall YouTube watch time.
Cards can also be used to increase watch time. Many different types of cards can be added such as a Video card (to promote a video) or a channel card (to promote another channel) or the poll card (to encourage the participation of the audience in a poll).
6. Build anticipation with a YouTube premiere
Another way to improve engagement with the videos or the content on YouTube is the right time to publish.
In fact, social media channels can prove to be really great and effective in managing and enhancing the user’s experience.
YouTube Premiere is another effective tool for promoting videos online.
Publishing great content at the time when the audience is online can be termed as an effective strategy for increasing the interactions of users and making the videos viral. Google trends can be used further to have an insight into the time when the audience is online.
Scheduling content through YouTube Premiere is an effective strategy to increase visibility as well as enhance audience engagement.
Conclusion – With more and more businesses going online and demanding a strong online presence, YouTube has become an important entity. Watching hours on YouTube play an important role in ranking the videos. Many different strategies can be applied to increase YouTube watch time.
