More and more often it's becoming harder to find what you're actually looking for on You Tube, with sponsored videos and advertisements sometimes tags become a little skewed. A search that should yield the result you're after, suddenly, no longer does... Or finds more than you anticipated.
For content searchers, more and more people are using disassociated tags to get more hits. What does this mean you ask? Well if you're searching for a specific video and you search a specific key phrase, sometimes or more often than sometimes, your search results won't be what you're looking for, or even close.
For content posters, stop using erroneous key words to get more hits, you're not assisting the cause. It's petty hit gathering. (I'll put my soapbox away now).
What can you do to get a better hit/view rate? Here are some simple steps.
TAGS:
Use correct tagging, but also use full sentences and single words.
EG: The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog, Quick, Brown, Fox, Jumps, Over, Lazy, Dog, Quick Fox, Brown Fox, Lazy Dog.
Also remember to include associative or descriptive words.
EG: Animals, Jumps, Jump, Jumping, Jumping Fox, Tired, K-9, K9, Pets Fast, Rapid, Story, Short Story, Alphabet, Foxes.
DON'T use erroneous self serving words!
EG: Viral, Awesome Video, Must Watch, Nude Girls, Boobs, Nudity, Top Video, You Tube, Popular, Best.
This also includes NOT including any Actor names (who don't feature), the title of a movie (which has nothing in common), AND yes this also includes musical artists or bands that also have nothing to do with your video.
CONTENT:
This one is obvious, make sure your content is worth watching, or at least has something of interest to people. There is no need to overly promote yourself, if people are interested, they will stumble upon it, whether it's original or otherwise (EG: Live band, Commercial/Advert, Spoof/skit). The attempt is to try and get the most accurate hits (with TAGGING) to ensure your content is worthy. Don't be discouraged, if one video picks up you will likely get additional hits on other videos by association.
DESCRIPTION:
Ensure the description of your video is accurate. It doesn't have to be a tome, or explain the entire video verbatim, but it does need to entice people to watch. Why is the description important? Because if your video is located via Google search, your description will appear. Also, if your video doesn't auto start people will often scroll down before clicking play.
DURATION:
This one is quite important, unless you've already managed to muster a huge following, most people won't endure a video over 5 minutes, in New Zealand (due to our pathetic broadband speeds) this is reduced to a maximum of 3 minutes. If you check your analytics you'll find that most of your videos won't be watched to their conclusion. Keep your content short, sweet and tight. Editing is key, especially if you are uploading original content.
ANALYTICS:
Actually look at your analytics, they are there for a reason, and they're becoming more and more accurate. It's a good way to see or judge where you may wrong but also where you may be going right.
Check this Beginner Basics Page on The Next Web site, after reading that, it would be wise to search for more information, although it may seem boring, analytics is sometimes the most interesting part of ALL of You Tube.
Another thing to mention would be to take advantage of the Unlisted and Private settings on videos. If you want to temporarily take a video down, without deleting it, just change the setting and still retain the hits.
Private = Only you can watch the video, even a link sent to others will not allow them to view the video.
Unlisted = Video cannot be located by search, but you can share a link and others can video the video.
If you're sitting there think, well yeah! Of course, you'd be amazed at the amount of people who don't actually realise this is possible and that this feature exist.
Remember, it is about having fun, unless you're trying to make a business out of web based content, so by all means enjoy yourself. These are tips and pointers on how to accurately gauge response, and how to appropriately gain an audience without forcing it, faking it, or paying for it. You may not be the next viral sensation, but you'll get quality, and hopefully sticky, views.
There are plenty of resources if you simply search the Google.
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