YouTube Browse Features versus Suggested Videos, what’s the
difference and which one generates the most traffic?
The top three traffic sources of a newly uploaded video within the first
48 hours are notifications, browse features and suggested videos.
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Here’s how YouTube explains what browse features are…
Speaker 2: One of those things is what we know about the viewer and their history of what types of videos they watched before, what channels do they watch. Do they watch long videos?
Do they watch short videos? All sorts of things like that. We want to know who is this viewer and what do they like? Then the other thing that can really influence the recommendations of on a home page is the performance of the video. When we do show this video on the home page, do people that are like this viewer click on it?
Do they watch it? How long do they watch and how is it performing on average relative to other videos that we might also be showing to similar viewers? It’s a combination of personalization for the viewer and then also performance.
Traffic from browse features mostly comes from the home, watch history, subscriptions and watch later. On the home screen, YouTube shows videos from your subscriptions, videos watched by similar viewers, new videos and more. It delivers the most personalized recommendations for each viewer. These are typically viewers that haven’t subscribed to your channel yet. You can see all the channels you’re subscribed to by clicking on the subscriptions tab in the left-hand column.
You’ll see the videos from today, yesterday and this week. Some of these may appear on the home screen.
What determines your video to appear on the home screen
It depends on the watch history of a viewer and how well the video has engaged the viewer. If I watched videos from your channel before, it’s more likely that they’ll be recommended on the home screen of the viewer.
Here’s what YouTube says…
Speaker 3: Home is also called browse. Browse is a verb, it really means somebody looking through either a set of information or in this case a set of videos without a specific intent about what they want. That’s actually very similar to how viewers behave on Home when they arrive at that destination.
Maybe they come there and they’re casual viewers, they’re not quite sure with what they want to watch and I think that matches our recommendations on that surface too where we have a really diverse set of options. It’s videos from your past watch history, it’s videos from channels you subscribe to, it’s videos from new viewers and videos that were popular with similar audiences.
Suggested videos appear on the right side of the watch page below the video they’re watching on the YouTube app and the next video to autoplay.
Here’s how YouTube explains suggestive videos.
Speaker 2: Another main way that videos get discovered is through what you might see in the product as up next. We sometimes call watch next but in analytics, it’s called suggested videos. Really that feature on the watch page is really around trying to help the viewer find another video to watch next after the one they’re currently watching.
Viewers often click on these suggested videos after they finish watching the video they’ve just watched. That’s why YouTube recommends these videos on the right side of the watch page as you’re watching the video.
Click here to learn more about how to get discovered in suggested videos.
Speaker 2: It’s a little bit different from the home page because we already have some sense of context for that viewer that they’ve started to watch this video. Unlike the home page, we’ll probably be bringing in a lot more videos that are related topically or from the same channel to try to help serve those viewers who want to continue watching the same thing. We also like the home page, we’ll look at personalization too and try to recommend videos that may not be the same topic.
How can you get more of your videos to be recommended on the home screen on other people’s channels.?
- Keep viewers engaged for longer and encourage them to come back for more.
First, you’re going to choose a topic that your viewers want to watch.
Secondly, you’ve got to create a clickable thumbnail so they click on it to watch the video.
Click here to watch my video on how to create awesome custom thumbnails.
Third, you got to create a captivating title that satisfies the search engines as well as your viewers.
Click here to get my secret formula for writing great titles for your future videos.
Fourth, you want to create great hook at the beginning your video so it captures the attention of viewers within the first few seconds. If you can keep 50% of your viewers engaged throughout the video, there’s more likely that YouTube will recommend your video to other people’s channels.
When people binge watch your videos one after another, then YouTube will recommend your videos in the search engines.
Another thing you do is link to related videos in a playlist using cards and in screens. When viewers binge-watch your videos one after another, this will extend a viewing session. The more time people spend watching your videos on the YouTube platform, the higher probability your videos will be recommended by YouTube. - Keep doing what’s working.
When you create a video that’s working for your audience, create more of those types of videos. YouTube will service more videos from your channel that viewers like.
Here’s how you can see if most of your traffic is coming from browse features.
– Log to YouTube channel,
– click on YouTube studio, click analytics,
– click see more, now you’ll be able to see the top traffic sources of a YouTube channel.
– Click on browse features, now you can see how much traffic is coming from a home watch history, subscriptions and watch later. You can see the number of views, the watch time, the average view duration, impressions and the impressions click-through rate.
If you want to see where the traffic’s coming from for suggested videos, click on suggested videos. You will see the titles for the videos that are suggesting views to your channel. These suggested views can be videos from your own channel or from other people’s channels.
Once you identify these top traffic sources, create more of those types of videos.
Another huge source of traffic is YouTube search. These are videos that are discovered based upon the keywords that people are typing into the YouTube search box.
Watch my next video to learn how to get your videos discovered on YouTube search.
Get The One Blueprint That Gives You Step-By-Step Instructions On How To Grow A Profitable YouTube Channel. Click here for more info
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