How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work in 2021? The Complete Guide

People around the world watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day—everything from cat videos to videos for cats. The YouTube algorithm is the recommendation system that decides which videos YouTube suggests to those 2 billion-plus human users (and untold numbers of feline users).

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Evolve by experimenting

This begs an important question for marketers, influencers, and creators alike: how do you get the YouTube algorithm to recommend your videos and help you earn more likes?

In this blog post we’ll cover what the algorithm is (and isn’t), go over the most recent changes for 2021, and show you how the pros work with YouTube’s search and discovery systems to get videos in front of eyeballs.

Alas, this led to a proliferation of misleading titles and thumbnails—in other words, clickbait. User experience plummeted as videos left people feeling tricked, unsatisfied, or plain old annoyed.

2012: Optimizing for watch time

In 2012, YouTube adjusted its recommendation system to support time spent watching each video, as well as time spent on the platform overall. When people find videos valuable and interesting (or so the theory goes) they watch them for longer, perhaps even to the end.

This led some creators to try to make their videos shorter in order to make it more likely viewers would watch to completion, whereas others made their videos longer in order to increase watch time overall. YouTube didn’t endorse either of these tactics, and maintained the party line: make videos your audience wants to watch, and the algorithm will reward you.

That said, as anyone who has ever spent any time on the internet knows, time spent is not necessarily equivalent to quality time spent. YouTube changed tack again.

2015-2016: Optimizing for satisfaction

In 2015, YouTube began measuring viewer satisfaction directly with user surveys as well as prioritizing direct response metrics like Shares, Likes and Dislikes (and, of course, the especially brutal “not interested” button.)

In 2016, YouTube released a whitepaper describing some of the inner workings of its AI: Deep Neural Networks for YouTube Recommendations.

In short, the algorithm had gotten way more personal. The goal was to find the video each particular viewer wants to watch, not just the video that lots of other people have perhaps watched in the past.

As a result, in 2018, YouTube’s Chief product officer mentioned on a panel that 70% of watch time on YouTube is spent watching videos the algorithm recommends.

2016-present: Dangerous content, demonetization, and brand safety

Over the years, YouTube’s size and popularity has resulted in an increasing number of content moderation issues, and what the algorithm recommends has become a serious topic not just for creators and advertisers, but in the news and government.

YouTube has said it is serious about its responsibility to support a diverse range of opinions while reducing the spread of harmful misinformation. Algorithm changes enacted in early 2019, for example, have reduced consumption of borderline content by 70%. (YouTube defines borderline content as content that doesn’t quite violate community guidelines but is harmful or misleading. Violative content, on the other hand, is immediately removed.)

This issue affects creators, who fear accidentally running afoul of ever-changing community guidelines and being punished with strikes, demonetization, or worse. (And in fact, according to CEO Susan Wojcicki, one of YouTube’s priorities for 2021 is increasing transparency for community guidelines for creators). It also affects brands and advertisers, who don’t want their name and logo running alongside white supremacists.

Meanwhile, American politicians are increasingly concerned with the societal role of social media algorithms like YouTube’s. YouTube (and other platforms) have been summoned to account for their algorithms at Senate hearings, and in early 2021 Democrats introduced a ”Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act.”

Next, let’s talk about what we know about how this dangerous beast works.

How does the YouTube algorithm work in 2021?

The YouTube algorithm selects videos for viewers with two goals in mind: finding the right video for each viewer, and enticing them to keep watching.

When we talk about “the algorithm,” we’re talking about three related but slightly different selection or discovery systems:

• one that selects videos for the YouTube homepage;
• one that ranks results for any given search; and
• one that selects suggested videos for viewers to watch next.

YouTube says that in 2021, homepage and suggested videos are usually the top sources of traffic for most channels. Except for explainer or instructional videos (i.e., “how to tune up a bicycle”), which often see the most traffic from search, instead.

How YouTube determines the algorithm

Which ranking signals does YouTube use to decide which videos to show to people?

Each traffic source is slightly different. But ultimately, what affects your video’s view count is a mix of:

• personalization (the viewer’s history and preferences)
• performance (the video’s success)
• external factors (the overall audience or market)

How YouTube determines its homepage algorithm

Every time a person opens their YouTube app or types in youtube.com, the YouTube algorithm offers up a diverse array of videos that it thinks that person might like to watch.

This selection is often broad because the algorithm hasn’t yet figured out what the viewer wants: acoustic covers of pop songs? Inspirational anti-procrastination speeches? To catch up with their favorite possum vlogger?

Videos get selected for the homepage based on two types of ranking signal:

• Performance: YouTube measures performance with metrics like click-through rate, average view duration, average percentage viewed, likes, dislikes, and viewer surveys. Essentially, after you upload a video the algorithm shows it to a few users on the homepage, and if it appeals to, engages, and satisfies those viewers (i.e., they click on it, watch it all the way through, like it, share it, etc.) then it gets offered to more and more viewers on their homepages.
• Personalization: However, YouTube is not a trending tab. Personalization means that YouTube offers videos to people that it thinks are relevant to their interests based on their past behaviour, a.k.a. watch history. If a user likes certain topics or watches a lot of a particular channel, more of the same will be offered up. This factor is also sensitive to changes in behaviour over time as a person’s interests and affinities rise and fade.

How YouTube determines its suggested video algorithm

When suggesting videos for people to watch next, YouTube employs slightly different considerations. After a person has watched a few videos during a visit, the algorithm has more of an idea about what a person is interested in today, so it offers up some options on the right side of the screen:

Here, in addition to performance and personalization, the algorithm is most likely to recommend:

• Videos that are often watched together
• Topically related videos
• Videos the user has watched in the past

Pro Tip: For creators, using YouTube Analytics to check out what other videos your audience has watched can help you zero in on what broader or related topics and interests your audience cares about.

Pro Tip #2: Making a sequel to your most successful video is a tried-and-true technique. Ryan Higa went viral with a video about singing technique—he didn’t drop the sequel until three years later, but timing is up to you, really.

How YouTube determines its search algorithm

YouTube is as much a search engine as it is a video platform, meaning that a little bit of SEO know-how is important.

Sure, sometimes people go to YouTube to hunt down a specific video to watch (hello again, peanut butter baby). But even then, the algorithm decides how to rank the search results when you type in “peanut butter baby”.

How do you get your video to rank near the top of search?

• Keywords: Youtube’s search algorithm relies on the keywords you use in your video’s metadata to decide what your video is about. So if you want your video to show up when people search for videos about laparoscopic surgery, you probably want to include those two words. (We have plenty more keyword advice below, so keep reading.)
• Performance: After the algorithm has decided what your video is, it will test that hypothesis by showing it to people in search results. That’s when performance (click-through rate, watch time, likes, survey feedback, etc.) becomes important. If your video appeals to and satisfies people looking for your keywords, it will be shown to even more people, and climb up the SERPs.

7 tips to improve your organic reach on YouTube

All that said, when it comes to working with the YouTube algorithm, remember that the algorithm follows the audience. If you already have a YouTube marketing plan in place, these tips will help you grow your channel’s impact with your viewers.

Do your keyword research

There’s no human being sitting at YouTube headquarters watching your video and ranking it.

Instead, the algorithm looks at your metadata as it decides what the video is about, which videos or categories it’s related to, and who might want to watch it. When it comes to describing your video for the algorithm, you want to use accurate, concise language that people are already using when they search.

Because YouTube is a search engine as much as a video platform, you can conduct your keyword research in the same way you would for a blog post or web copy: using free tools like Google Adwords or SEMrush.

Once you’ve identified your primary keywords, you’ll want to use them in four places:

• In the video’s file name (i.e., laparoscopic-appendectomy.mov)
• In the video’s title (using catchy natural language like “Real life step by step laparoscopic appendectomy”)
• In the YouTube video description (especially within the first two lines, above the fold)
• In the video’s script (and therefore in the video’s subtitles and closed captions—which means uploading an SRT file).

But there’s one place you don’t need to put your keywords:

• In the video’s tags. According to Youtube, tags “play a minimal role in video discovery” and are most helpful if your keyword or channel name is often misspelled. (i.e., laporoscopic, lapparascopic, appendictomy, apendectomy, etc.)

Article source: https://article-realm.com/article/Finance/13238-How-Does-the-YouTube-Algorithm-Work-in-2021-The-Complete-Guide.html