You want YouTube to open up new possibilities for you — lots of viewers, subscribers, and views. Who doesn’t? Not only will it help you solidify your presence on the web, but it will also be a great way to advertise your business or product. With that in mind, follow this guide to increase your YouTube views!
So, you want to give your videos a boost and increase youtube views? Fortunately, there are tons of ways you can do this. Increasing your youtube views is one of the easiest ways to get more exposure for your channel. You should always do everything you can to improve your ranking and the only way to do that is with increased viewership and visits to your channel.
Table of Contents
Niche Down Your Channel’s Topic
There’s an old marketing saying: “The riches are in the niches”.
If you want to get more views on YouTube and attract a more targeted audience (ie: people who will watch your videos and subscribe to your channel) you need a clear content niche.
If you’re currently trying to create videos for everybody, they’re going to end up reaching nobody. Audiences don’t want a generalist, they want a specialist!
You need to get clear on the common theme that ties all of your videos together. This sets an expectation of what the videos you upload will be about for your target audience.
For example:
- Do you help people solve a specific problem?
- Do you create entertaining videos around a particular topic?
- Do your videos appeal to a specific group of people?
The more niche you can make your topic, the more interested people that want or need your content you’ll find, as there’s less competition in that space!
For example, if we drill down the topic “baking”, you might get:
- Baking (a huge topic)
- Vegan baking (a slightly smaller topic, but still lots of competition)
- Gluten-free vegan baking (a more targeted niche)
- Gluten-free vegan baking for health and fitness (a really targeted niche)
There will be fewer people at each stage of the drill-down, but the needs of that audience become much clearer.
Conduct Keyword Research For YouTube SEO
YouTube is the world’s largest video search engine. It’s basically Google for video content!
If you want to get more views on YouTube, you need to make sure your videos are optimized to show up for the specific terms people are searching for.
How do you do this?
By conducting keyword research.
Keywords are words or phrases that users are searching for. You know, things like:
- How to tie a tie
- Espresso machine reviews
- Fluffy pancake recipes
You need to target the most relevant keywords for your content when you tag, describe, and title your videos. This tells YouTube’s search algorithm what your videos are about!
The first step in conducting keyword research is understanding the problem that your video is solving. You need to get into the mind of your potential viewer.
There are several tools you can use to see what keywords your potential viewer is going to search. The first one is YouTube itself.
Let’s say you’re looking to create a video on the topic: how to make pancakes. You can type that into the search bar and see what keywords YouTube suggests.
Pro-tip:
You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to replace any word in your search query to see the most popular variation of the keyword search.
For this search, I replaced the main verb with an asterisk to see what searchers use. In this case, they use ‘make pancakes’ not ‘cook pancakes.’
For this search, I replaced the main verb with an asterisk to see what searchers use. In this case, they use ‘make pancakes’ not ‘cook pancakes.’
But, you can also use the asterisk to suggest different variations of your keyword, like here:
Once you’ve searched for different variations of the keyword – in my case, ‘pancakes’ – you can compile a list of the most common or popular searches.
For me, the most popular searches seem to be:
- How to make pancakes.
- How to make fluffy pancakes.
- And, how to make banana pancakes.
From this search you’ve learned 3 things: people want pancakes, they want them fluffy, and they want them healthy. (Where do I sign up?)
If you want more specific insights, you can also use other free and premium tools like Keywords Everywhere and TubeBuddy to help you.
These tools provide metrics like search volume and competitiveness to help you decide which keywords to use.
Below, you can see I’ve used TubeBuddy to verify which keywords have a moderate to high search volume and low competition:
If you’re a smaller channel, I recommend you start with long-tail keywords – ones with more words and specific statements – as they tend to have lower competition from other channels.
That will make it easier for you to rank right now. And, as your channel grows, you can begin to target more competitive keywords.
Create Catchy Keyword-Driven Video Titles
Now you’ve got your keywords, it’s time to use them!
Titles are the first text your audience sees when they come across your videos.
That’s why you need to ensure your headlines…
- are relevant to what your target audience is searching
- accurately describe what’s in the video
- contain the keyword you’re trying to rank for
- are short and sweet
- don’t contain clickbait
…to give them the best chance of ranking.
In fact, research shows longer titles can underperform when it comes to ranking on YouTube, it’s best to keep your titles under 50 characters.
Going back to our favorite pancake example, you can see the impressive use of specific and broad keywords in this title.
Recipes by Carina has 607K subscribers, a medium-sized channel when compared to the largest channels which have over 50M subscribers.
This specific video got 14 million views, well above the number of subscribers for the channel! The video also ranks on the first page of YouTube’s SERP and appears on Google’s video carousel.
Find Opportunities To Boost Your CTR
On the subject of click-through rates:
You can use TubeBuddy’s premium ‘Click Magnet’ tool that helps you get even more out of our thumbnails and titles.
It’ll suggest changes you can make, so you can tweak your titles and thumbnails in a way that will help you attract more attention and get a higher CTR.
Check out TubeBuddy’s video so you can learn more about the tool and how to use it:
Add Timestamps To Connect Viewers With The Information They Need
If one thing is true about people on the internet, it’s this:
They want answers, and they want them fast.
Videos can make it hard to get quick answers because you have to watch it until the presenter gets to the point you want to know about. (Unlike a blog post where you can jump about.)
This can wreak havoc with those important watch-time metrics if people keep clicking away before they get to the meat of the video!
But there is a way to capture more attention and boost those important metrics. All you have to do is add timestamps to your videos!
There are clickable links in your video description that let users jump to a specific section or piece of information. Here’s how they look over on our Uscreen YouTube channel:
You can make the titles for each section as specific as you like (bonus point for keywords!) so viewers can skip right ahead to the information they want.
To create a timestamp, you need to type out the time in your description in this format: hh:mm:ss, which will automatically create a timestamp link.
For example:
- 00:00:10
- 00:10:13
- 01:20:25
You can then add a description between each timestamp to name the ‘chapters’ within your video.
To trigger the chapters feature, you need to include a 0:00 timestamp in your description and chapters need to be at least 10 seconds in length.
Another added benefit to using timestamps is that it increases your likelihood of appearing on Google’s key moments feature.
Google identifies key anchor points on a video and includes them as links on the Google search page.
Boost Viewing Metrics With Viewing Loops
Viewing metrics like watch times and average views per viewer are really important for the YouTube algorithm.
YouTube uses these metrics to see how well your channel can keep people on the platform.
Since 2012 YT has prioritized watch time as its main performance metric. It’s their favorite way to see how long someone has spent on the platform!
As YouTube says:
“Your content benefits when it leads viewers to spend more time watching videos – not just on your channel, but anywhere on YouTube.
Watch time is measured in cumulative minutes watched, and each video uploaded – as well as every channel on YouTube – is “ranked” by watch time. Channels and videos with higher watch times are likely to show up higher in search results and recommendations.”
You’re probably thinking: how you can boost your viewing metrics?
The answer: Create viewing loops.
A viewing loop works by prompting people to watch more interesting or relevant content you’ve created, creating a ‘loop’ where people stay on your channel.
There are three ways you can create viewing loops:
- Add end screens: video thumbnails/links you can add towards the end of your video.
- Add cards: suggested videos that appear as a banner at the top of and at any point in your video.
- Create playlists for your videos: This lets you organize your content and encourages the viewer to binge your content and spend more time on Youtube.
One easy way to boost your session time and watch time simultaneously through your viewing loop is by using the card bridge technique.
You can do this by looking at the audience retention report for one of your videos.
Then, where retention drops, insert a card at that time that will send people to another related video on your channel, therefore reducing the churn rate of when they would click away.
The card bridge technique will help:
- Keep people on your channel.
- Increase watch time for your other videos.
- Increase session time for users which the YouTube algorithm will reward.
Engage And Excite Your Viewers By Using YouTube’s Community Tab
YouTube puts a lot of emphasis on community.
They want creators and their audiences to feel like they have a space to share and interact with the content they love. One of the ways they measure this is through engagement metrics such as:
- Likes.
- Dislikes,
- Comments.
- And ‘ringing the bell’
If your community is active and using these features YouTube is more likely to recommend your videos, so people will come and join your community.
You can boost these metrics by creating calls to action at the end of your videos, where you ask people to like, comment, and hit the bell.
But there’s more…
If you have more than 1000 subscribers, you can use YouTube’s new community tab feature,
Here members of your community can interact by pinning, hearting, and engaging with comments. And you can make it even more engaging by:
- Polling the audience to find other topic ideas.
- Hosting Q&As
- Creating community posts
- Sharing relevant videos and live streams.
Create Youtube Shorts To Increase Traffic To Your Channel
Make no mistake:
Even on YouTube people like to interact with super-short-form content, like what you might see in an Instagram Story or on TikTok.
That’s why YouTube created Shorts. They are short, vertical videos that are less than 60 seconds in duration. (You can read YouTube’s official page about them here.)
Shorts can be an easy way to attract attention and nudge people to go and check out your latest video.
You can create a YouTube Short using Youtube’s video creation tools or upload one created elsewhere.
The fun part is, anyone is eligible to create YouTube Shorts, and there are no minimum requirements for creators to start using this feature. All you have to do is:
- Make sure your video is filmed or cropped vertically.
- Make sure your video is 60 seconds or less.
- Include a #Shorts in either the title or description to let YouTube index the video as a Short and add it to the ‘Shorts Shelf’ that appears on the YouTube homepage.
Take Advantage Of YouTube Ads To Reach Laser-Targeted Demographics
If you have the budget for it, YouTube Ads is a tried and tested way to get more views for your videos and you can use Google Ads to make paid ad campaigns.
But, you have to be strategic about it. You need to set out actionable goals you want your paid ad campaign to achieve!
Ask yourself:
- What do you want to promote?
- What message do you want to convey?
- What does success look like? (More sales, leads, etc.)
Make sure the videos you choose have high audience retention, that way you are using a quality video that you know keeps your audience engaged.
Once you’ve decided which type of content you want to promote, you need to identify and target the audience that your paid ad campaign is for.
You have several targeting options for your video ads, these are the most popular:
- Keyword targeting: promote your ads by targeting certain keywords that are inline with the videos you want to promote. These keywords should have a connection with the videos and preferably a healthy search volume.
- Audience demographic targeting: target your identified audience based on their sex, age, etc.
- Audience affinities targeting: target your audience based on Google tracking and recognizing what they’re interested in. This could be what they browse, read, or search for.
- Similar audience targeting: create an email list of your current clients and upload it to Google Ads where they would then create a list of similar people for your ad to target.
Ultimately, your paid ad campaign should reach new audiences, that are similar to your existing clients, that haven’t heard of your brand.
You can also use the paid ad retargeting technique. This means you will target audiences that are already aware of your brand.
To do this you will also upload an email list of people who are aware of your brand on Google Ads.
These could be people who haven’t converted as paying customers or have canceled their subscriptions.
Retargeting helps you reach your most qualified leads and could potentially be cheaper than targeting a whole new audience.
Making impactful paid advertising campaigns is a science in itself.
Get Active In Relevant Facebook Communities
Facebook groups are important for anyone looking to build a niche community. (If you run a YouTube channel, that’s you!)
They are where people who truly care about a topic come together to share news, ideas, and advice. If you want to make a mark on these communities, you need to get active in them!
Start by:
- Finding groups that align with the topics in your videos.
- Joining discussions without sharing links to your content.
- Taking notes of the common pain points people discuss.
Be active and helpful until you feel like you’ve got a standing in the community. Only then should you start sharing links to your video content!
Embed Your Videos In Relevant Blogs & Forums To Increase Traffic
A big part of growing your viewership is video marketing. Promoting your videos on different websites is a great way for you to gain organic traffic for your videos.
You can embed your videos in Q&A forums like Quora or even Reddit to get more traffic and views on your channel.
For Q&A forums, the trick is finding threads that have high traffic volumes from Google then embedding your video content on these sites.
You can use a paid service like Ahrefs Site Explorer to gauge which relevant keywords receive the most traffic.
First, paste a popular forum like Quora, then go to the Top Pages report to see the threads that receive the most traffic.
You can then type your keyword in the ‘Include’ box and narrow down your search results.
Then click on the relevant thread, and click on ‘Overview’ and check the ‘Organic search’ tab to see the page’s organic traffic over time.
You want to pick a page that generates a consistent stream of organic traffic on a monthly basis.
Doing this will increase your likelihood of getting a consistent set of views from answering these questions with your videos.
You can also use Reddit forums, called subreddits to promote your content, they can be a great source of traffic for more video views.
BUT, Reddit users tend to be very protective over the platform. So, promoting your content has to be done organically, similar to how you would approach doing it on a Facebook group.
Another way you can get more views is to embed your videos in relevant blogs.
Make a list of blogs that talk about the topics you do and find out which ones receive guest posts.
Reach out to them to write a guest post and embed your videos within these posts.
Conclusion
If you are just starting out on your YouTube adventure, the truth is that you really don’t need anything fancy to start uploading good looking videos. All it takes is a little know-how and a few accessories that will help you create great content.