How to Get YouTube to Recommend Your Videos: How the YouTube Algorithm Works & Proven Hacks to Boost Your Channel

In many ways, creating content for YouTube is very simple. All you need is a camera, a subject, and a computer to upload and edit the footage. Making a video that will go viral, however, takes a bit more work.

We’ve covered how to start and grow a YouTube channel in the past, and have gone in-depth on how to edit your YouTube videos for maximum impact, but the real key to building your YouTube audience is in how YouTube recommends content to new viewers.

Let’s dive into the world of YouTube’s powerful, yet complex, system of recommendations and how you can tailor your videos to be in the best position to get more views. 

The basics of how YouTube recommendations work

YouTube mainly provides video recommendations in two main areas within the platform. The first spot is on the YouTube homepage, where users can see recommended videos upon landing on the webpage or logging into the app.

The second placement is an "Up Next" panel which appears on the end screen once a video has been watched. Both of these recommendations work a bit differently based on what the user has watched previously and other algorithmic variables.

Here are some of the ways YouTube’s algorithm provides curated recommendations to viewers.

• Watch History — the first metric is a user’s watch history which is a major factor in deciding which videos YouTube recommends for viewers. YouTube has a complex tagging and sorting system which allows its algorithm to suggest videos for users based on previously watched videos.
• Search History — similar to a user’s watch history, YouTube also tracks what users have searched for and applies the same sorting algorithm to learn what types of content users are interested in.
• Channel Subscriptions — the channels a user subscribes to is also a key factor in what videos Youtube serves as recommendations. Subscribing to a channel is one of the strongest indicators of a user being interested in a type of content, so YouTube will always push new content from subscribed channels in their recommendations.
• User Likes — another metric YouTube uses for its recommendations is tracking what videos a user “likes”, which works similarly to how other social platforms and newsfeeds decide which content is recommended to users based on positive approval.
• User Dislikes — however, unlike several other social platforms, YouTube is a bit more unique in that it also offers a dislike button so that users can let YouTube (and its algorithm) know which content is not preferred, which YouTube takes into consideration for its recommendations as well.
• User Feedback — finally, YouTube gives users the ability to provide feedback on videos, letting YouTube know directly which channels or videos they’re not interested in.

All of these factors are taken into account by YouTube’s sophisticated algorithm which will then make the crucial decisions regarding which videos YouTube recommends (or doesn't) for a user.

How does YouTube’s algorithm work?

YouTube’s algorithm is one of the most perplexing, but ultimately powerful and important, algorithms in the world. YouTube is a huge platform which processes millions of videos and users everyday. And if you can get your content to stand out as being high-quality and worthy of recommendations, Youtube's algorithm will position your videos for success.

If you’re wondering how the YouTube algorithm works, here’s a good primer on how to hack YouTube algorithms and get your videos to rank better. 

• Performance — How well your video has interested and satisfied similar viewers, among other factors.
• Watch and Search History — How often does your audience watch a channel or topic, and how often have we shown each video?

The key variable here that is different from the recommendation metrics is performance. YouTube tracks how long a video is viewed as well as if it receives comments and shares, along with the basic likes, dislikes and feedback.

Why YouTube isn’t suggesting your video more often

Now, if you feel that you’ve tried all of the above and your videos are still not getting the views you desire, there are perhaps a few more reasons for this.

• Your videos are violating YouTube’s community guidelines which make them ineligible for recommendations on YouTube (as well as potentially liable to be demonetized, muted, or even taken down). The number one reason for community guideline issues is music licensing — read more on how to use copyrighted music on YouTube.
• Your videos are not optimized for YouTube’s most up-to-date algorithm. YouTube is constantly updating its algorithm to better serve its users the content they most want to see. Just because you followed some guides or best practices in the past doesn’t guarantee your video’s success today. Here’s a most-recent guide to understanding YouTube’s algorithm.
• You’re not publishing enough content. Sadly, if you want to be truly successful as a YouTube content creator you’ll need to publish a lot of content. YouTube rewards more content over less, and statistically you’re more likely to hit viral gold if you post a lot of tries rather than just a few.

Another reason might be that your content just isn’t connecting with audiences, and the algorithm recognizes it as much. If that’s the case, we’ll give you some tips below on how to get YouTube to recommend your videos.

Best practices for how to get YouTube to recommend your videos

Overall, the best way to get your videos recommended on YouTube is to simply make high-quality content which viewers will watch, share, and engage with. That being said, here are some helpful tips which you can keep in mind as you create your content which should give your videos a better chance of being recommended and finding success overall.

• Find a niche! If you can become a voice within a defined niche, your content will be much more likely to get more views and recommendations.
• Create watchable content that encourages viewers to stay with your videos longer than a few seconds. Always give your viewer a reason to keep watching at every beat.
• Take advantage of titles, descriptions and metadata to help YouTube’s algorithm better define your content so that it can recommend your videos to the best audiences for it.
• Consider creating playlists for your content as a way to turn one video view into multiple video views. YouTube will use this data for its algorithm as well.
• Thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails! Never discount the value of having an eye-catching and impactful thumbnail image for your videos, which can entice viewers to click.

Hopefully, the tips above, along with the insights into how YouTube’s algorithm and recommendations work, will give you some good ideas on how to improve your YouTube content moving forward. Just remember, though, that the best content is always going to be the content you’re the most passionate about and enjoy making, so have fun with it.