YouTube Now Favoring High View-Through Rates
Have you noticed anything different about your YouTube viewing experience? Perhaps not, but due to a new video algorithm that just went into place, every single video on the popular video site will be affected. The new algorithm takes into account the view-through rate of a video as a large determining factor for search position and suggested videos. This shift signals a move toward rewarding viewer engagement with a video and away from keyword and tag-stuffing.
What does this mean for businesses? Let’s say you put in tags and keywords about video marketing but your video is about how to article marketing. Because your tags have nothing to do with what the video is about, people will watch for a short time and then stop. YouTube will remember this lack of relevancy and engagement.
What happens next is that when your video shows up for a related search, it will be lower in the rankings. And as your view-through rate remains low, so does your rankings.
So what can you do to stay at the top? Make sure you use relevant tags and text when you post videos and don’t be afraid to go back to older videos to make sure everything is properly done.
And above all, make sure you have an engaging, message driven video much like a scribe video.