So you want to get more YouTube views, but you don’t know where to start? You’ve got the perfect title, tags and description, your video is hilarious and you’ve been promoting like crazy on your Facebook and Twitter page, but your video is still not getting the recognition you think it deserves? We’ve got you covered with a few little known tips that could help skyrocket your YouTube video views.
Before we get started, it’s important to note that Rome wasn’t built in a day and there is no foolproof method for turning your video into an overnight viral success. It may take time for your videos to start taking off, but these seven tips will definitely get you headed in the right direction and get you more views that you’re getting today.
Annotations across videos
You know those little text bubbles that you see popping up on people’s videos with text that says things like “Thumbs Up!” or “Subscribe!”? Those are called YouTube annotations and they are a fantastic way to increase your video views. Through annotations you can link from one video to another, as well as to playlists of your videos, your channel and more, compelling your viewers to watch more of your videos.
Annotations are a great way to point your viewers in the direction of watching your other videos, in order to drive up your view count across your entire channel.
Playlists
A lot of YouTube users don’t realize that playlists are a great way to increase your video views. A playlist is a list, or group, of videos that will play in order, one video after another after another. The good thing about playlists is that they come up separately in search results. That means, if you’ve got a video about frogs or a playlist about animals that includes the frog video, viewers will have more opportunities when searching to find your video. They may choose to watch your playlist, or they may choose to watch your frog video.
Additionally, because playlists play your videos automatically one after the other, when viewers watch playlists they typically watch more of your videos, which is great for increasing the views across your channel. Playlists can also be embedded, so viewers can watch all your videos together on your blog or website.
Subscribers
Subscribers are, hands down, the best way to get more views on your videos. After all, the people that subscribe to you are your fan base and they are ready and waiting for you to upload new videos so that they can check them out. The more subscribers that you’ve got, the more views you will get within the first few days, or even hours, of uploading your video. When someone subscribes to you, all of your new videos will show up on their home page and they may even subscribe to be notified by email when you upload something new to the video site.
How do you get new subscribers? Aside form uploading great content on a regular basis, ask! A lot of viewers aren’t thinking about subscribing to anyone at all, but if an annotation pops up on the screen reminding them to subscribe or, better yet, if you ask them yourself in your video, they will be more likely to click through to subscribe to your future videos.
Bulletins
As you build up your subscriber base it’s important to communicate with your fans. One of the best ways is through bulletins. Just about a year ago, YouTube introduced bulletins. Bulletins let you easily send out text and videos to all of your subscribers and the bulletins appear on the homepage of your subscribers. Don’t be shy – send out bulletins to let your subscribers know when you upload new videos.
Video Responses
Another way in get more views on your YouTube videos is by posting them as video responses on more popular related videos. It’s easy to do and can get you a substantial number of clicks, if you’re lucky and post to the right video. So how is it done? Head over to the video you’d like to post your video response to. You’ll notice that next to the comment box you can click on “Create a video response”. Click and you’ll be directed to a page that lists all of your videos. Click on the one you’d like to use as your video response. It takes two seconds and can be a great way to get some extra video views.
Community
If you aren’t taking advantage of the YouTube community yet then you’re only hurting yourself. By commenting on videos that you like, subscribing to and following other cool video makers and reaching out to your YouTube “idols” you can do a world of good. Not only does joining the community spread your name around and encourage the people who’s videos you comment on (and others who see your comments) to head over to your channel and check out your videos, but it also helps to broaden your network and open doors for future collaborations.
Collaborating with other YouTubers is great (especially when they have a following of their own) because when you collaborate you introduce one another to your follows, hopefully leading to more subscribers and fans.
Topical Content
Finally, if you want to get a lot of views in a short time then one of your best bets is to create some topic content about something that is big right now. It could be a remix of an already popular video, a cover of a popular song, a review or parody of a movie that just came out, or something related to a big news story. Title your video similarly to that of the original clips, songs, movie trailers, or news stories and not only will your video come up in the same results, but you also might wind up on the sidebar of the popular clips as a recommended video.
BONUS
How video views are counted
YouTube video views reflect how many times a video has been watched and can be an important measure of a video’s overall popularity. We want to make sure that videos are being viewed by actual humans and not computer programs. During the first couple of hours after a video has been published, we’ll only show views that our systems believe to be valid. This might not yet show all legitimate views at that time. After quality views are counted, view count updates more frequently. The process of including all quality views can take some time depending on a video’s popularity and viewership. Afterward, the view count updates more frequently, but keep in mind that we’re constantly validating views, so view count can always be adjusted.
Frozen view count
On some videos, the view count might seem frozen or not show all the views that you expect. Video views are algorithmically validated to maintain fair and positive experiences for content creators, advertisers, and users. To verify that views are real and accurate, YouTube may temporarily slow down, freeze, or adjust the view count, as well as discard low-quality playbacks.
Check views with YouTube Analytics
If you’re looking at a video you uploaded, you can monitor your views more closely using YouTube Analytics. However, keep in mind that the Real time report only shows estimates of potential view activity and might not match the number you see on the watch page.
Do you have any other suggestions for getting more YouTube views? Feel free to share them with us in the comments!
