Many factors play a vital role but the one very important is user engagement. Ranking your videos on YouTube is a tough job. But, it is extremely important for your channel’s growth at the same time. So, how do you rank your videos at the top of the homepage?
The higher the engagement rate, the higher will be the chance for your videos to rank at the top of YouTube. When you get high engagement, it means that the audience is enjoying your content and wants to watch more from you and when you get low engagement, it gives you a clear indication that you need to change your style of creating videos.
What is YouTube Engagement?
By YouTube engagement, I mean whenever you upload a video, your audience clicks on that video, watches it, or simply takes an action on it. The action may be in the form of comments, likes, dislikes, shares, or subscribers. So let’s each of them in detail:-
Comments:
Comments represent the true sentiments and reactions of the audience. They show the real feelings of the audience after watching the video. If you get good comments, this simply means people like your content and wants to see more.
Likes and dislikes:
Likes and dislikes are an obvious representation of whether people liked your video or not. If they love it, they will show it by hitting the like button otherwise you’ll get a dislike.
Shares:
As the name indicates, this action shows the number of shares on your video. It shows how many people have shared your content on other social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Among all, this action is the most important one because it tells YouTube that your content is unique enough to attract more people to watch it.
Subscribers Gained and Lost:
Last but not the least, this action clearly shows YouTube that your video content is amazing or not and whether people want to get more videos from you or not. Because the more subscribers count you have, the more views and overall engagement you’ll receive. Enroll today in this course to build your youtube channel.
Why User Engagement is Important?
When ranking videos, YouTube gives a lot of importance to user engagement. These are the most important metrics to rank your videos high on YouTube. Without any user engagement, YouTube will consider your channel as a low-quality content channel and would not recommend it on its homepage. Similarly, when you have high user engagement, you are building your chance of ranking your channel content higher and thus growing your channel quickly.
If we talk about Google rankings, then Google uses different metrics like the number of backlinks to rank your content while YouTube doesn’t use it. Instead, it analyzes your channel’s content by looking at your overall engagement metrics that mostly include likes, shares, comments, subscribers and, unsubscribers. By looking at these metrics, it will determine the quality of that video content. For example, a video with more likes, shares, and comments will rank higher on YouTube than a video with few likes, shares, and, comments.
The same is the case with subscribers. If your channel has more subscribers count then YouTube will get an idea that you can create great content. Along with subscribers, comments, shares, likes, and dislikes also play an important part in your YouTube ranking. To know more about Youtube engagement, check this post here.
How to increase YouTube engagement?
Now, let’s discuss 4 Simple and Efficient Ways that can Increase your YouTube Engagement:-
1. React to trends
The first one is to react strategically to trends. You might have seen the trending tab option on YouTube. It not only uplifts more popular and engaging videos at the top but is also a great way to increase brand awareness. Once your video is displayed on the trending tab, more people can get to know about your content and brand. Hence, you’ll get more and more traffic on your way.
2. Use the right tools
As you’re familiar with the saying:- Work smarter and not harder.
So, apply it in your videos and work smarter by using Tools like Hootsuite. In Hootsuite, you can publish your content and check its performance with the help of its amazing features like planning, scheduling, and managing your videos using the analytics dashboard. Using Hootsuite for your youtube channel will not only optimize your videos but also saves your time in managing all minor things related to videos. Comment moderation is another great feature of Hootsuite which allows you to block, report and filter unnecessary comments from your videos.
3. Nail the thumbnail
The first thing that decides whether people watch your video or not, is your video thumbnail. People can easily filter out a video from its thumbnail. If they find the thumbnail and title impressive, they’ll definitely click to watch more. So, it’s always recommended to use an amazing and eye-catching thumbnail that attracts more people to your video. Just make sure that you choose a clear and strong custom image as your video thumbnail that best describes your content.
4. Encourage User Engagement
Engagement is the ultimate factor for your video success. In this era of science and technology, social media plays an important role in our lives. Every person wants to share their suggestions and opinions on their social platforms. So, why not allow them to share it through: shares, likes, and comments? Saying your viewers to like and comment shows them that you value their suggestions and opinions and wants to hear more from them.
Adding related questions in your video is also an amazing way to get more comments. When you add questions in your video related to your audience’s interest, it alternatively increases your Youtube engagement. Sharing your videos on other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. can even build more video engagement.
In the end, YouTube engagement is all about making good titles, uploading eye-catching custom thumbnails, and creating videos according to your audience’s interest.