YouTube, like any other large site with a huge amount of content, has a particular set of guidelines which decide how to rank everything uploaded. Rather like exams are graded in A, B, C fashion based on the way questions are answered, so YouTube looks at a set of criteria – but they are perhaps a little broader than you may expect. If you are looking for YouTube likes then you should get YouTube likes at Social Media Daily.
It may seem unfair, but content that is liked is noticed by search engines and promoted to more people, while unseen but potentially genius content struggles to be noticed and have that same opportunity. Unfortunately there is no other obvious way search engine bots could possibly classify which things are valid, relevant and engaging to read.
Computers rely on humans to help them, and on YouTube viewers do this by liking videos. So, as the number of likes on a video or channel rises so does the chance of being featured in search results.
Hold on! There’s more to search engine ranking than just likes
While it’s true that YouTube’s search engine algorithm assesses the number of likes awarded there is several more factors which you shouldn’t ignore if you want to boost your own chance of climbing those result charts. These include:
Using keywords strategically
There are plenty of articles free online which provide tutorials on how to identify and use the best possible keywords. There are also paid services available. It makes sense to mention the words and phrases that are popular when people are searching for content.
Produce content people are likely to look for
Within your interest niche make time to figure out what people want to know, see or learn about then deliver it, in a professional way. People have a thirst for knowledge, from the obvious to the obscure – so exploit this.
Tag wisely
Be as accurate as possible, as misleading viewers won’t win you any fans. It’s fine to be a little inventive, but be honest and don’t forget to get the main keywords in there too.
Plan to keep your audience engaged
YouTube’s search engine definitely rewards members who have videos with a good watch time. If viewers are clicking away after a short time into your video your ranking will automatically fall, but this can be avoided.
Make sure the length is appropriate for the topic, there’s no wasted time or endless talking sections, and of course that you have a gripping start to the whole thing to hold attention.
Up the number of videos watched in one viewing
If someone moves from one to another (or more) of your videos YouTube will be impressed and boost your ranking. You can encourage this behaviour by making playlists with related content which is difficult to resist.
Overall then we can see that likes are not the only factor in a decent YouTube search result ranking, so while they require thought and attention so do half a dozen other things too.