Marketing

22 Ways To Get More Views On YouTube

By Salma Madwar
17 Min Read

Learn More about Video Monetization

How to get more views on YouTube

This is the complete guide on how content creators can get more views on YouTube in 2021.

I’m going to show you 22 actionable strategies you can use to:

  • Drive more traffic to your YouTube content.
  • Grow your subscribers.
  • Rank higher for the right keywords.
  • Build a thriving YouTube community.

Sound like the results you’re looking for?

Then let’s dive right into it…

  1. Use These Tips To Make Your Content More Engaging
  2. Niche Down Your Channel’s Topic
  3. Add “Pattern Interrupts” To Keep People Watching For Longer
  4. Conduct Keyword Research For YouTube SEO
  5. Conduct Keyword Research For Google SEO
  6. Create Catchy Keyword-Driven Titles
  7. Get More Clicks With Attention-Grabbing Thumbnails
  8. Find Opportunities To Boost Your CTR
  9. Optimize Your Video Descriptions To Boost SEO And Keep People Watching
  10. Add Timestamps To Connect Viewers With The Information They Need
  11. Tag Your Videos With Keywords To Ensure Complete YouTube SEO
  12. Boost Viewing Metrics With Viewing Loops
  13. Cash In On Your Audience’s Attention By Publishing At Optimal Times
  14. Engage And Excite Your Viewers By Using YouTube’s Community Tab
  15. Build Anticipation For Your Next Video With The Premieres Feature
  16. Create YouTube Shorts To Increase Traffic To Your Channel
  17. Collaborate With Other YouTubers For More Exposure
  18. Take Advantage Of Your YouTube Ads To Reach Laser-Targeted Demographics
  19. Promote Your Videos To Your Existing Followers
  20. Get Active In Relevant Facebook Communities
  21. Pair Your Video Content With Relevant Social Media
  22. Embed Your Videos In Relevant Blogs & Forums To Increase Traffic

1. Use These Tips To Make Your Content More Engaging 

Engaging and quality content is key for any successful YouTube channel.

YouTube viewers have a very short attention span; one Microsoft study suggests that our attention span shortened from 12 seconds to 8 seconds just in 2015! 

And YouTube knows this. So, it relies on user experience data like…

  • Watch time: the total amount of time people have spent watching your video. 
  • Average views per viewer: how many times a viewer watches your videos on average.
  • Audience retention, which includes:
    • Average view duration: average minutes watched per view for a selected video and date range.
    • Average percentage viewed: average percentage of a video your audience watches per view.
  • Click-through rate (CTR): percentage of thumbnail impressions that turned into views.
  • Engagement metrics: likes, dislikes, comments

…to help them decide which content is the most engaging and worth promoting. The better those metrics are, the more engaging (and worth watching!) your content is. 

The YouTube algorithm is designed to keep people using their platform. And research suggests the algorithm will reward channels that help them reach that goal

Simply put: 

YouTube will reward you with better exposure if it knows your videos can keep people engaged and on the platform for longer. 

To do this, you need to give your viewers a reason to keep watching very early on in the video. 

There are a number of ways you can create engaging content, for ease of reference I’ll split them up in two ways: 

  1. Technical: the way you set up your camera.
  2. Verbal: the way you perform on camera.

Let’s go through each of them individually…

Technical 

The quality of your videos matters, it gives the viewer a sense of legitimacy from your content and creates a better user experience.

The technical aspects of video creation can be intimidating, but there are a few simple things you can do to improve the quality of your videos:

  • Improve your sound quality by investing in a professional microphone.
  • Boost your video quality by choosing the right video format.
  • Generate closed captions and subtitles for differently-abled viewers.
  • Adjust your camera angles (eg. zoom in or out).

Verbal 

Once you have your technical specification on point you’ll need to also make sure that the way you present on camera is attention-grabbing and engaging. 

You can do this by: 

  • Quickly explaining the point of the video
  • Creating a video “hook”
  • Alluding to upcoming points (“In just a few minutes we’ll talk about [X], but first…”)
  • Using rhetorical devices to keep people interested (“But wait, there’s more!)
  • Adding cutaways to relevant content (nobody wants to watch a talking head).

In this video you can see that all of these verbal and technical pointers are used: 

2. Niche Down Your Channel’s Topic 

There’s an old marketing saying: “The riches are in the niches”.

If you want to get more views on YouTube and attract a more targeted audience (ie: people who will watch your videos and subscribe to your channel) you need a clear content niche.

If you’re currently trying to create videos for everybody, they’re going to end up reaching nobody. Audiences don’t want a generalist, they want a specialist! 

You need to get clear on the common theme that ties all of your videos together. This sets an expectation of what the videos you upload will be about for your target audience.

For example:

  • Do you help people solve a specific problem?
  • Do you create entertaining videos around a particular topic?
  • Do your videos appeal to a specific group of people?

The more niche you can make your topic, the more interested people that want or need your content you’ll find, as there’s less competition in that space! 

For example, if we drill down the topic “baking”, you might get:

  • Baking (a huge topic)
  • Vegan baking (a slightly smaller topic, but still lots of competition)
  • Gluten-free vegan baking (a more targeted niche)
  • Gluten-free vegan baking for health and fitness (a really targeted niche)

There will be fewer people at each stage of the drill-down, but the needs of that audience become much clearer.

How to find your content niche is a little beyond the scope of this article. But, we do have an entire guide to help you drill down and find the right niche for you! Click below to find out more.

Niche content
Uscreen logo

Is Your Video Content Niche Enough?

3. Add “Pattern Interrupts” To Keep People Watching For Longer 

YouTube loves it when people watch your videos right to the end. As you’ll learn in tactic 12, they put a high priority on “audience retention”.

If you can keep a high percentage of people watching your content, they’re going to prioritize your videos over others, and send more traffic your way.

Better still:

You don’t need everybody to watch all of your videos to get results. You just need to aim for around 50% of your viewers watching at least 50% of your video!

Research suggests that, if you can do this, YouTube’s algorithm will favor your content and suggest it for more search results or on a subscriber’s “Home” feed.

One of the best ways to increase the percentage of your videos your audience watches is by using what YouTubers call Pattern Interrupts.

Pattern interrupts are small and unexpected breaks or changes in your video, that cause the viewer to have to re-engage with it. 

The best way to explain this is to show an example.

Take a look at this video from Mr.Beast. You can see how he uses pattern interrupts – such as changing the camera angle or zooming in – to break up the standard talking-head video structure. 

  • Pattern interrupts can take on many forms, like: 
  • Strategically placed B-roll
  • Gifs 
  • Graphics
  • Audio snippets

Anything that is relevant to your video’s subject and will keep audiences engaged! 

If you want to learn more about how you can make better YouTube videos, check out our full guide on how to make a killer YouTube video.

4. Conduct Keyword Research For YouTube SEO 

YouTube is the world’s largest video search engine. It’s basically Google for video content!

If you want to get more views on YouTube, you need to make sure your videos are optimized to show up for the specific terms people are searching for.

How do you do this?

By conducting keyword research. 

Keywords are words or phrases that users are searching for. You know, things like:

  • How to tie a tie
  • Espresso machine reviews
  • Fluffy pancake recipes

You need to target the most relevant keywords for your content when you tag, describe, and title your videos. This tells YouTube’s search algorithm what your videos are about!

The first step in conducting keyword research is understanding the problem that your video is solving. You need to get into the mind of your potential viewer. 

There are several tools you can use to see what keywords your potential viewer is going to search. The first one is YouTube itself.

Let’s say you’re looking to create a video on the topic: how to make pancakes. You can type that into the search bar and see what keywords YouTube suggests.

Pro-tip:

You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to replace any word in your search query to see the most popular variation of the keyword search. 

keyword research youtube pancake example

For this search, I replaced the main verb with an asterisk to see what searchers use. In this case, they use ‘make pancakes’ not ‘cook pancakes.’

But, you can also use the asterisk to suggest different variations of your keyword, like here:

pancakes keyword research youtube

Once you’ve searched for different variations of the keyword – in my case, ‘pancakes’ –  you can compile a list of the most common or popular searches. 

For me, the most popular searches seem to be:

  • How to make pancakes.
  • How to make fluffy pancakes.
  • And, how to make banana pancakes.

From this search you’ve learned 3 things: people want pancakes, they want them fluffy, and they want them healthy. (Where do I sign up?)

If you want more specific insights, you can also use other free and premium tools like Keywords Everywhere and TubeBuddy to help you.

These tools provide metrics like search volume and competitiveness to help you decide which keywords to use. 

Below, you can see I’ve used TubeBuddy to verify which keywords have a moderate to high search volume and low competition: 

how to make pancakes keyword search tubebuddy
pancake recipe keyword search tubebuddy
how to make fluffy pancakes keyword search tubebuddy

If you’re a smaller channel, I recommend you start with long-tail keywords – ones with more words and specific statements – as they tend to have lower competition from other channels.

That will make it easier for you to rank right now. And, as your channel grows, you can begin to target more competitive keywords. 

5. Conduct Keyword Research For Google SEO

Another way to gain more views on YouTube is to optimize for Google. Yeah, you read that right! 

 According to searchmetrics Google’s video carousel appears for 67% of searches on desktops and 54% on mobile. Of those searches, Youtube dominates the video search market share by over 90%! 

how to make pancakes google video carousel

That means there’s a lot of people looking for videos like yours, and Google is actively trying to send them your way! 

Better still…

You can increase your chances of ranking without putting in too much extra effort.

Like in the Keyword Search For YouTube SEO section, you can use Google’s search bar and see which suggested keywords will help you to rank.

how to make pancakes google search suggestions

You need to verify that your list of Google keywords overlaps with the YouTube list. 

In this case, “how to make pancakes” and how to make fluffy pancakes’ are popular searches that appear on both YouTube and Google. 

You can then use Google’s nifty oopen-sourcepen source search trends tool to see which variation of keywords has a good amount of interest.

keyword search pancakes google search trends

You can also filter the search trends by YouTube search results:

pancake keyword search youtube filter google search trends

You can see here that the key phrases ‘how to make pancakes’ and ‘pancake recipe’ are the most popular searches. But these keywords also have high competition. This means that they are harder to rank for! 

That’s why we recommend that you go for the long-tail keywords with a decent amount of searches but lower competition.

6. Create Catchy Keyword-Driven Video Titles 

Now you’ve got your keywords, it’s time to use them!

Titles are the first text your audience sees when they come across your videos.

That’s why you need to ensure your headlines…

  • are relevant to what your target audience is searching
  • accurately describe what’s in the video
  • contain the keyword you’re trying to rank for
  • are short and sweet
  • don’t contain clickbait

…to give them the best chance of ranking. 

In fact, research shows longer titles can underperform when it comes to ranking on YouTube, it’s best to keep your titles under 50 characters. 

Going back to our favorite pancake example, you can see the impressive use of specific and broad keywords in this title.

how to make pancakes video title youtube

Recipes by Carina has 607K subscribers, a medium-sized channel when compared to the largest channels which have over 50M subscribers. 

This specific video got 14 million views, well above the number of subscribers for the channel! The video also ranks on the first page of YouTube’s SERP and appears on Google’s video carousel. 

7. Get More Clicks With Attention-Grabbing Thumbnails

Custom thumbnails can help you increase your click-through rates (CTR) from search results.

This is important because the more people who click your video, the more relevant YouTube will deem it for the search query.

Going back to our fluffy pancake example: 

You can see that the thumbnail visually answers the searcher’s query. It’s a stack of fluffy pancakes that looks like what the searcher is probably trying to make:

how to make pancakes video title youtube

We recommend customizing your thumbnails rather than just using a still from your video. That way you can:

  • Include a relevant image that visually shows you’re answering the searcher’s query. Using an object, person, or both is usually a good idea. 
  • Add keywords to explain further what the video is about, or to amplify the message. 
  • Use a consistent color scheme across your channel which will help your audience visually differentiate your videos from other YouTube videos. Color schemes also attract the viewers’ attention. You can use contrasting or complementary colors on the color wheel. This will help make your videos stand out against YouTube’s grey background. 

Take the thumbnails on our Uscreen YouTube channel:

uscreen youtube channel thumbnails example

You can see the consistent use of our brand color, blue, which stands out against YouTube’s grey background and strengthens Uscreen’s branding.  

We’ve also used a mix of graphics, keywords, and faces with clear attention-grabbing expressions. 

If you want to learn more about how to quickly and easily create thumbnails, you can check out this video: 

8. Find Opportunities To Boost Your CTR

On the subject of click-through rates:

You can use TubeBuddy’s premium ‘Click Magnet’ tool that helps you get even more out of our thumbnails and titles.  

It’ll suggest changes you can make, so you can tweak your titles and thumbnails in a way that will help you attract more attention and get a higher CTR.

Check out TubeBuddy’s video so you can learn more about the tool and how to use it:

9. Optimize Your Video Descriptions To Boost SEO And Keep People Watching

Video descriptions are super important.

They’re the perfect place to include the keyword variations you found earlier so you can give some extra juice to your YouTube SEO.

You can also include links and other relevant information that make watching videos more enjoyable and informative while keeping people on your channel.

Keep the description tightly focused on the video’s subject. Research shows that the optimal description length for ranking and view performance for a video ranges 300-400 words:

youtube video description example

You can follow this description template which generally works well: 

  • Add an opening sentence that contains your keyword, along with a CTA to subscribe to your channel.
  • Have the first 50-100 words summarize and describe your video. 
  • Write a passage that does not exceed 400 words to add context to the video 
  • List relevant videos from your channel that you recommend.

You should also check out Youtube’s guide to writing smart and discoverable descriptions for more tips.

10. Add Timestamps To Connect Viewers With The Information They Need 

If one thing is true about people on the internet, it’s this:

They want answers, and they want them fast.

Videos can make it hard to get quick answers because you have to watch it until the presenter gets to the point you want to know about. (Unlike a blog post where you can jump about.)

This can wreak havoc with those important watch-time metrics if people keep clicking away before they get to the meat of the video! 

But there is a way to capture more attention and boost those important metrics. All you have to do is add timestamps to your videos! 

There are clickable links in your video description that let users jump to a specific section or piece of information. Here’s how they look over on our Uscreen YouTube channel:

youtube video timestamps example

You can make the titles for each section as specific as you like (bonus point for keywords!) so viewers can skip right ahead to the information they want. 

To create a timestamp, you need to type out the time in your description in this format: hh:mm:ss, which will automatically create a timestamp link.

For example:

  • 00:00:10
  • 00:10:13
  • 01:20:25

You can then add a description between each timestamp to name the ‘chapters’ within your video. 

To trigger the chapters feature, you need to include a 0:00 timestamp in your description and chapters need to be at least 10 seconds in length. 

Another added benefit to using timestamps is that it increases your likelihood of appearing on Google’s key moments feature.

Google identifies key anchor points on a video and includes them as links on the Google search page.

google key moments example

You can check out a  quick tutorial on how to add timestamps from Youtube’s free Creator Academy:

11. Tag Your Videos With Keywords To Ensure Complete YouTube SEO

YouTube tags can help your videos rank higher through the strategic use of keywords.

If you’ve not used them before, tags are descriptive keywords you can add to your video to help viewers find your content. While your videos’ thumbnails, titles, and descriptions are more important to make your videos discoverable, tags are useful if the content of your video is often misspelled. 

The best way to decide on which tags to use is to look at a popular video within your niche and use their keywords in your tags.

You can use tools like TubeBuddy or VidIQ to see which tags videos have. For this example, we’ve used TubeBuddy. 

youtube video tags

This video has a good mix of more specific keyword tags, such as ‘how to cook easy pancakes’ and some broader tags to describe the nature of the video such as ‘cooking.’

 The more descriptive and relevant to the topic of your video, the better. Look to use phrases instead of single words! 

12. Boost Viewing Metrics With Viewing Loops

Viewing metrics like watch times and average views per viewer are really important for the YouTube algorithm. 

YouTube uses these metrics to see how well your channel can keep people on the platform.

Since 2012 YT has prioritized watch time as its main performance metric. It’s their favorite way to see how long someone has spent on the platform! 

As YouTube says:

Your content benefits when it leads viewers to spend more time watching videos – not just on your channel, but anywhere on YouTube.

Watch time is measured in cumulative minutes watched, and each video uploaded – as well as every channel on YouTube – is “ranked” by watch time. Channels and videos with higher watch times are likely to show up higher in search results and recommendations.”

You’re probably thinking: how you can boost your viewing metrics?

The answer: Create viewing loops. 

A viewing loop works by prompting people to watch more interesting or relevant content you’ve created, creating a ‘loop’ where people stay on your channel. 

YouTube Suggested Video

There are three ways you can create viewing loops: 

  1. Add end screens: video thumbnails/links you can add towards the end of your video.
endscreen example uscreen youtube channel
  1. Add cards: suggested videos that appear as a banner at the top of and at any point in your video. 
cards youtube video example uscreen channel
  1. Create playlists for your videos: This lets you organize your content and encourages the viewer to binge your content and spend more time on Youtube.
playlists uscreen youtube channel example

One easy way to boost your session time and watch time simultaneously through your viewing loop is by using the card bridge technique. 

You can do this by looking at the audience retention report for one of your videos.

Then, where retention drops, insert a card at that time that will send people to another related video on your channel, therefore reducing the churn rate of when they would click away.

The card bridge technique will help:

  • Keep people on your channel.
  • Increase watch time for your other videos. 
  • Increase session time for users which the YouTube algorithm will reward. 

13. Cash In On Your Audience’s Attention By Publishing At Optimal Times

Make sure you’re publishing videos at the best time for your viewers. 

But, how do you know when that is? Well, YouTube makes it easy to find. 

You can do this by checking YouTube’s audience report on when your viewers are on YouTube, TubeBuddy also has a feature that tracks your viewers’ watch hours. 

Use YouTube analytics to help you decide the best times when your target audience is watching videos. 

youtube viewers active hours

You should publish your video an hour before the peak rather than on the peak itself which gives viewers enough time to discover more videos on your channel. 

Alternatively, if you don’t have enough views for this report then follow these general guidelines.

14. Engage And Excite Your Viewers By Using YouTube’s Community Tab

YouTube puts a lot of emphasis on community.

They want creators and their audiences to feel like they have a space to share and interact with the content they love. One of the ways they measure this is through engagement metrics such as:

  • Likes.
  • Dislikes,
  • Comments.
  • And ‘ringing the bell’

If your community is active and using these features YouTube is more likely to recommend your videos, so people will come and join your community. 

You can boost these metrics by creating calls to action at the end of your videos, where you ask people to like, comment, and hit the bell. 

But there’s more…

If you have more than 1000 subscribers, you can use YouTube’s new community tab feature, 

Here members of your community can interact by pinning, hearting, and engaging with comments. And you can make it even more engaging by: 

  • Polling the audience to find other topic ideas.
  • Hosting Q&As
  • Creating community posts 
  • Sharing relevant videos and live streams.

15. Build Anticipation For Your Next Video With The Premieres Feature

Another cool feature you can make use of on YouTube is setting videos to Premieres.

This lets creators like yourself promote the video before it’s live, as if it’s a premiere for a movie or TV show!

You can create a Premiere in 5 easy steps:

  1. Click the ‘upload’ button
  2. Navigate to the ‘visibility’ tab
  3. Set the date and time your video should go live
  4. Select the ‘set as premiere’ option
  5. Click the ‘schedule’ button

And voila! You’ve created a video Premiere.

setting video as premiere on youtube

Once you’ve set your video to Premiere, a shareable ‘watch’ page is created where people can view the video once it’s live. Until then, you can use this page to engage with viewers and promote your Premiere.

youtube video premiere chat

If you want to learn more about some of the best online community platforms, how communities help grow your online business and how you can build your very own online community check out these articles. 

16. Create Youtube Shorts To Increase Traffic To Your Channel

Make no mistake:

Even on YouTube people like to interact with super-short-form content, like what you might see in an Instagram Story or on TikTok.

That’s why YouTube created Shorts. They are short, vertical videos that are less than 60 seconds in duration. (You can read YouTube’s official page about them here.)

Shorts can be an easy way to attract attention and nudge people to go and check out your latest video.

The goal here is simple: get seen.

You can create a YouTube Short using Youtube’s video creation tools or upload one created elsewhere. 

The fun part is, anyone is eligible to create YouTube Shorts, and there are no minimum requirements for creators to start using this feature. All you have to do is:

  • Make sure your video is filmed or cropped vertically. 
  • Make sure your video is 60 seconds or less. 
  • Include a #Shorts in either the title or description to let YouTube index the video as a Short and add it to the ‘Shorts Shelf’ that appears on the YouTube homepage. 

For more information, you can watch VidIQ’s in-depth video answering all the questions you may have about YouTube Shorts:

17. Collaborate With Other YouTubers For More Exposure 

YouTubers are a community in and of itself. So, get involved in it! 

Find like-minded creators with audiences that intersect with yours and collaborate with them on unique content. 

This is especially popular with gaming YouTubers, who often collaborate with each other by playing group games like Among Us:

Working together is a win-win situation because both YouTubers get exposed to new audiences. 

This is also a perfect time to use YouTube Live. If you’re a smaller channel looking to gain more subscribers, you can live stream with a bigger channel and get exposed to their subscribers.

If you need help with getting started, check out Nick Nimmins video on how to approach collaborations: 

18. Take Advantage Of YouTube Ads To Reach Laser-Targeted Demographics 

If you have the budget for it, YouTube Ads is a tried and tested way to get more views for your videos and you can use Google Ads to make paid ad campaigns. 

But, you have to be strategic about it. You need to set out actionable goals you want your paid ad campaign to achieve!

Ask yourself:

  • What do you want to promote?
  • What message do you want to convey?
  • What does success look like? (More sales, leads, etc.)

Make sure the videos you choose have high audience retention, that way you are using a quality video that you know keeps your audience engaged.

Once you’ve decided which type of content you want to promote, you need to identify and target the audience that your paid ad campaign is for. 

You have several targeting options for your video ads, these are the most popular: 

  1. Keyword targeting: promote your ads by targeting certain keywords that are inline with the videos you want to promote. These keywords should have a connection with the videos and preferably a healthy search volume.
  2. Audience demographic targeting: target your identified audience based on their sex, age, etc. 
  3. Audience affinities targeting: target your audience based on Google tracking and recognizing what they’re interested in. This could be what they browse, read, or search for.
  4. Similar audience targeting: create an email list of your current clients and upload it to Google Ads where they would then create a list of similar people for your ad to target. 

Ultimately, your paid ad campaign should reach new audiences, that are similar to your existing clients, that haven’t heard of your brand. 

You can also use the paid ad retargeting technique. This means you will target audiences that are already aware of your brand. 

To do this you will also upload an email list of people who are aware of your brand on Google Ads. 

These could be people who haven’t converted as paying customers or have canceled their subscriptions.

Retargeting helps you reach your most qualified leads and could potentially be cheaper than targeting a whole new audience. 

Making impactful paid advertising campaigns is a science in itself. You can check out our in-depth guide on how to create paid advertising for your content. 

19. Promote Your Videos To Your Existing Subscribers, Community, And Social Media Followers

Here’s one mistake many YouTubers make when they’re trying to get more views: they get so focused on finding new subscribers that they forget to engage their current ones! 

But, the truth is…

You need to promote your new videos to your current audience through all of the channels you currently have. That means:

  • Sharing in the YouTube community tab.
  • Putting links on social media.
  • Creating Shorts and social media Stories to let people know.
  • Sending an email blast.

You can even combine these with other things you’ve learned from this list, like creating a Premiere and sharing the link a few days in advance. 

Once you’ve done that, you can start looking at more advanced tactics…

20. Get Active In Relevant Facebook Communities

Facebook groups are important for anyone looking to build a niche community. (If you run a YouTube channel, that’s you!)

They are where people who truly care about a topic come together to share news, ideas, and advice. If you want to make a mark on these communities, you need to get active in them! 

Start by:

  1. Finding groups that align with the topics in your videos.
  2. Joining discussions without sharing links to your content.
  3. Taking notes of the common pain points people discuss.

Be active and helpful until you feel like you’ve got a standing in the community. Only then should you start sharing links to your video content! 

21. Pair Your Video Content With Relevant Social Media Influencers

Another tried and tested way to get more views using social media is by using influencers.

Influencers have a big audience that wholeheartedly trusts what they have to say, which means their followers can be converted to viewers for your videos. 

In fact, according to a 2019 Edelman consumer survey, 63% of people trust what influencers have to say on brands over the brands themselves. 

And marketers are paying attention to this, with 92% of marketers believing in the effectiveness of influencer marketing according to Influencer Marketing Hub. 

So, building relationships with influencers and having them market your YouTube channel for you will help you get more views! 

22. Embed Your Videos In Relevant Blogs & Forums To Increase Traffic 

A big part of growing your viewership is video marketing. Promoting your videos on different websites is a great way for you to gain organic traffic for your videos. 

You can embed your videos in Q&A forums like Quora or even Reddit to get more traffic and views on your channel. 

For Q&A forums, the trick is finding threads that have high traffic volumes from Google then embedding your video content on these sites. 

You can use a paid service like Ahrefs Site Explorer to gauge which relevant keywords receive the most traffic. 

First, paste a popular forum like Quora, then go to the Top Pages report to see the threads that receive the most traffic.

top pages tool ahrefs quora

You can then type your keyword in the ‘Include’ box and narrow down your search results.

quora keyword search top pages tool ahref

Then click on the relevant thread, and click on ‘Overview’ and check the ‘Organic search’ tab to see the page’s organic traffic over time. 

You want to pick a page that generates a consistent stream of organic traffic on a monthly basis.

quora organic traffic ahref

Doing this will increase your likelihood of getting a consistent set of views from answering these questions with your videos. 

You can also use Reddit forums, called subreddits to promote your content, they can be a great source of traffic for more video views. 

BUT, Reddit users tend to be very protective over the platform. So, promoting your content has to be done organically, similar to how you would approach doing it on a Facebook group.

Another way you can get more views is to embed your videos in relevant blogs. 

Make a list of blogs that talk about the topics you do and find out which ones receive guest posts. 

Reach out to them to write a guest post and embed your videos within these posts. 

Wrapping this up

And we’ve finally made it to the finish line!

We know this was a long one but we’re proud you made it through to the end. 

To recap, here are the 22 things you can do to get more views on YouTube:

  1. Use These Tips To Make Your Content More Engaging

    Learn how to make your content more engaging with these technical and verbal tips that are easy to implement.

  2. Niche Down Your Channel’s Topic

    If you want to get more views on YouTube and attract a more targeted audience (ie: people who will watch your videos and subscribe to your channel) you need a clear content niche.

  3. Add “Pattern Interrupts” To Keep People Watching For Longer

    Use pattern interrupts to keep a high percentage of people watching your content. That way YouTube is going to prioritize your videos over others, and send more traffic your way.

  4. Conduct Keyword Research For YouTube SEO

    If you want to get more views on YouTube, you need to make sure your videos are optimized to show up for the specific terms people are searching for.

  5. Conduct Keyword Research For Google SEO

    Another way to gain more views on YouTube is to optimize for Google.

  6. Create Catchy Keyword-Driven Titles

    Now you’ve got your keywords, it’s time to use them!
    Titles are the first text your audience sees when they come across your videos.

  7. Get More Clicks With Attention-Grabbing Thumbnails

    Custom thumbnails can help you increase your click-through rates (CTR) from search results. This is important because the more people who click your video, the more relevant YouTube will deem it for the search query.

  8. Find Opportunities To Boost Your CTR

    Use tools to find opportunities where you can boost your CTR.

  9. Optimize Your Video Descriptions To Boost SEO And Keep People Watchin

    Video descriptions are super important. They’re the perfect place to include the keyword variations you found earlier so you can give some extra juice to your YouTube SEO.

  10. Add Timestamps To Connect Viewers With The Information They Need

    Use clickable links in your video description that let users jump to a specific section or piece of information.

  11. Tag Your Videos With Keywords To Ensure Complete YouTube SEO

    YouTube tags can help your videos rank higher through the strategic use of keywords.

  12. Boost Viewing Metrics With Viewing Loops

    Viewing metrics like watch times and average views per viewer are really important for the YouTube algorithm. YouTube uses these metrics to see how well your channel can keep people on the platform.

  13. Cash In On Your Audience’s Attention By Publishing At Optimal Times

    Make sure you’re publishing videos at the best time for your viewers.

  14. Engage And Excite Your Viewers By Using YouTube’s Community Tab

    YouTube puts a lot of emphasis on community. They want creators and their audiences to feel like they have a space to share and interact with the content they love.

  15. Build Anticipation For Your Next Video With The Premieres Feature

    Setting videos to Premieres lets creators like yourself promote the video before it’s live, as if it’s a premiere for a movie or TV show!

  16. Create YouTube Shorts To Increase Traffic To Your Channel

    Shorts can be an easy way to attract attention and nudge people to go and check out your latest video.

  17. Collaborate With Other YouTubers For More Exposure

    YouTubers are a community in and of itself. So, get involved in it! Find like-minded creators with audiences that intersect with yours and collaborate with them on unique content.

  18. Take Advantage Of Your YouTube Ads To Reach Laser-Targeted Demographics

    If you have the budget for it, YouTube Ads is a tried and tested way to get more views for your videos and you can use Google Ads to make paid ad campaigns. 

  19. Promote Your Videos To Your Existing Followers

    Here’s one mistake many YouTubers make when they’re trying to get more views: they get so focused on finding new subscribers that they forget to engage their current ones! 

  20. Get Active In Relevant Facebook Communities

    Facebook groups are important for anyone looking to build a niche community. (If you run a YouTube channel, that’s you!)

  21. Pair Your Video Content With Relevant Social Media

    Another tried and tested way to get more views using social media is by using influencers.

  22. Embed Your Videos In Relevant Blogs & Forums To Increase Traffic

    A big part of growing your viewership is video marketing. Promoting your videos on different websites is a great way for you to gain organic traffic for your videos. 

expert video tips for video content creation
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39 Expert Video Tips for Making Professional-Looking Videos