Whether you’ve just started a YouTube channel or want to hit your first million subscribers, increasing YouTube video views is a top priority. And now podcasters can get in on the fun!
Since YouTube has over 51 million active channels, this can make it tricky to get more than a few hundred views. While at the same time, this gives you all the more reason to find ways to stand out from the competition.
As a matter of fact, cracking the YouTube algorithm isn’t as tough as you might think. Let’s unpack seven of the best tactics you can use to get more viewership on your YouTube videos. Or, ahem, podcasts…
Tried-And-Tested Ways to Grow Your YouTube Video Views
1. Optimize Your Thumbnail
Your video’s thumbnail is one of the main factors that determine whether someone clicks on it or not. If you want to ramp up your YouTube video views, then you need to make sure your thumbnails are as enticing as possible.
One of the best ways to do this is to use these four colors in your thumbnails:
- Blue
- Orange
- Green
- Yellow
This is because YouTube is mostly made up of red, black, and white colors. By using these four contrasting colors, your videos will stand out more to help them attract more clicks at a basic level.
Some other elements to include in your thumbnail are the following:
- Humans and faces – People engage more with other people.
- A simplified version of your video title – Some of the best thumbnails include titles like, “You wouldn’t believe…”, “We actually did it…”, large numbers like “$100 million yacht,” or any short statements that grab attention.
- Action and excitement – This can include a gasping face, an emoji, an explosion in the background, or anything that creates action and stirs emotion.
While there are always exceptions to these guidelines, it you don’t know why people will click, start with what works. Also, don’t forget to design good YouTube Banners.
For podcasters, you can set your podcast show to a square thumbnail which will show up as a Playlist thumbnail.
2. Use Strategic SEO Tactics to Increase YouTube Video Views
YouTube is just an extensive search engine focused on video content. This means that it works similarly to Google search. And for podcasters not already publishing there, it’s a great new way for listeners to find you.
So, if you want more people to discover and watch your YouTube videos, then you should consider strategic SEO tactics.
The first consideration is finding the main target keyword for your videos.
Next, write a lengthy description of the video so that Google and YouTube understand what information the video covers. This will help these platforms recommend the video to more relevant search queries.
If your video title is something along the lines of “I did it” or “My first video,” YouTube won’t be able to understand what your video is about. However, if your video title is “My first surfing video,” then search engines will recommend your video when someone searches for that term.
If your videos are properly optimized for SEO, you give yourself a better chance to get them listed directly in Google search results. This can be an excellent way to increase YouTube video viewership.
3. Optimize Your Video Title
It is important to realize that it doesn’t matter how good your video content is if nobody clicks on your videos to watch them. Among the key factors in getting to increased watch time is getting the click on your video title in the first place.
There are endless possibilities and formulas you can use for YouTube video titles. The general rule is to keep them relatively short, actionable, and possibly open-ended. You want people who read your title to have the urge to find out more.
Regardless of what tactics you use, the best approach is to test out different YouTube video titles and pay attention to which one performs best.
Write down a few title variations and test them out for roughly two weeks at a time. Pay attention to which title generated the most views, and use that title in your video. You can also apply your winning video title formula to future videos.
For podcasters who may have already optimized your titles for listening, this can be difficult. You now have to think about discoverability on a platform where much more search is happening.
4. Create Playlists to Increase YouTube Video Views
Creating playlists is another effective way to increase YouTube video views because viewers will continue watching your content, thanks to the autoplay feature.
When a viewer starts watching a video in a playlist, your next videos will already be lined up for them. This means that the viewer doesn’t have to search for a new video and click play, so there’s a good chance they will watch more of your content.
Did you know? Podcasts on YouTube are actually just special playlists.
Whether you have a podcast or not, playlists are a practical strategy to get more views out of each person who finds your video.
5. Encourage Engagement On Your Videos
The more people engage, like, subscribe, and comment on your YouTube video within the first hour of premiering, the better its chances of ranking well. You can boost comments and engagement by asking questions in your video or finishing your video with a prompt to comment, like, or subscribe.
Of course, when people comment on your videos, make sure you respond to them with the possibility of starting conversations. By encouraging engagement, you can generate more traction for your videos.
When your channel is small, you can enjoy virtually a bot-free comments section and build solid relationships.
And as podcasters, YouTubers, and short-form video creators all start posting to various platforms, the call to action list becomes increasingly long. You probably don’t want to start asking on your podcast to subscribe to your YouTube channel, and visa versa. But what do you think?
6. Consistently Promote Your Content
Constantly promoting your videos is a surefire way to generate more YouTube views. Share your videos on social media, embed them in blog posts, post them in online forums like Reddit, share them via email marketing, and more.
You can also repurpose your content to try and generate more interest in your videos. For example, transcribe your video to text and turn this into a blog post. Or better YouTube descriptions for SEO.
The more channels you use to distribute your videos and the more frequently you share them, the greater the chance you’ll have of generating views.
7. Promote Your Video With Shorts
A clever YouTube content strategy should combine long-form videos with Shorts. While YouTube Shorts may not be the best way to create YouTube content, they can help you reach more people in the fastest way. Thanks to the unique algorithm of Shorts, it’s easier for these videos to go viral.
At Wavve, we can help you create animated waveform videos of your podcast for your YouTube channel, with transcription, and avoid the editing part of creating video for YouTube.
Another helpful tactic is to make Shorts that complement your main video on YouTube. Publish these Shorts, and use them to link to your main YouTube video.
Conclusion
YouTube can seem intimidating. But there are many simple tactics you can use to get more views and grow your channel.
These strategies are all relatively simple to implement and can make a big difference to your YouTube video views.
By consistently optimizing, promoting, and improving your video content strategy, you’ll see your number of views steadily increase.
I’m the CEO of Wavve. I love encouraging creators and entrepreneurs to share their stories and lead with purpose.