How to Get More Views on Your YouTube Videos

Co-authored by Beth Cormack

Last Updated: September 7, 2021 Approved

Many people have become well-known, or even famous, because of their YouTube videos. Check out this wikiHow to learn how to get more views on your YouTube videos.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Appropriate Descriptions

1
Name your video file accurately. This is a good place to use specific keywords, or terms that people may type into YouTube search. If you want people to find your video under the search term "funny things to do with your lizard" then that should be the name of your video. This will also help your video be found under the word "lizard" and term "things to do with your lizard". Make sure you include all of your keywords in the video file.
2
Give your video an appealing title. It should be short, engaging, and to the point. If your video is about your kid spilling macaroni and cheese everywhere, just call it "Mac and Cheese Disaster." It should pique your viewers' interests without giving too much away.
- A very effective technique to boost views is to write a title that makes people want to click on it, this is called ClickBait. For example "What this lizard does next will surprise you" or "You wont believe the weird thing this lizard can do".
- Consider using your keywords in the videos title. This is one of the main bits of information that YouTube and Google use to decide what your video is about.
- If your video is about another YouTuber then use their username in the title, this may help your video show up more in their related videos section.
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3
Describe your video thoroughly. Most people ignore this step, but you should take it seriously to increase your views. Describe your video as accurately as possible in the space you are given, taking 2-3 paragraphs to write an interesting and precise description of what people can expect when they see the video. This is another great opportunity to include your keywords and search terms for a higher chance of your video being found.
4
Use the best tags. Use all of the keywords from your title and description in the "tags" section to get more viewers interested. The more relevant tags you use, the more often your video will pop up when people search it. For example, if you're posting a video of your cute sleepy dog, you could use words like "Sleepy," "Dog," "Hilarious," and "Cutest." Make sure you don't include extra tags in the description, as those are not included when people search for them.
- You can use tags that describe your video as well as other relevant popular videos to make sure that as many people as possible see your video when they are searching YouTube.

=== Sharing Wisely ===!

1
Share your video as soon as you post it. The earlier you share it, the more likely it will be to be a YouTube sensation. If you wait a week to share it while it barely gets any views, it'll be much more likely to be forgotten by the YouTube community. Remember, timing is everything. Think of when your audience is likely to watch your video and release right before then (evenings and weekends are a good suggestion).
2
Email your video to your friends, family, and coworkers. Create an email list consisting of the people who know you well enough to be actually intrigued by your new YouTube video, and send them the link and encourage them to watch it. You can even add, "I can't wait to hear what you think!" to show that you really expect them to watch your video. If you don't care about potentially annoying people, just send it out to as many people as you can.
- If you have an intriguing subject and a persuasive email, there's a good chance anyone will look at the video without even knowing you very well.
3
Share your video through social media. Post your video on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, and any other social networking sites that you've joined. Ask your friends to like, comment on, and share your post. This will help gain some traction on your video post and it may even go viral.
- Connect your Google Plus and Twitter accounts to your YouTube. Then YouTube will be able to automatically share each new video you upload. You can also use online automation sites like ifttt.com to post new videos across all your social media accounts automatically.
4
Use a blog or a website to promote your videos. If you have a blog or a website, you can use it to market your videos. If you don't have a blog or website of your own but know friends with websites or blogs that are popular, ask your friends if they can help you out by sharing your video with their fans. Embedding your video on websites can help your video rank higher in both YouTube and Google.
- If your video is something news-worthy then consider submitting your video to a news website like Mashable, if its accepted and posted on a news site then you will be guaranteed to have many more views.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Editing

1
Take out white space. Create your video, then go into an editor and remove the long pauses, and other distractions in the video. If the video paces faster, people will continue to watch.
- Try to have the same lighting while recording your video and keep the same distance from the camera to make the video cuts blend together better.
2
Add music to your Video. A good audio track can spruce up the video and disguise any audio problems you may have had. YouTube just released an audio library you can choose from at ^{[1]
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- If you want to monetize your videos then avoid using copyrighted music and stick to public domain music or the YouTube library.
3
Include text information. This includes an email address, website, twitter handle and more. Some people may not be watching this video on YouTube. You want them to know who you are in those cases. Text can also keep or direct attention on-screen. Use it to your advantage.
- Including a link to your channel and other videos in the description can help you get more views.
- If you want to include links that look a bit too long you can use a link shortener like goo.gl which will make them much easier to read.
4
Create credits and bloopers. Put something at the end of your videos to point where they can find you. Add some bloopers or extra footage. People love to see the extras at the end and your watch time might increase. Alternatively you could have a second separate video that contains the bloopers. You can mention and link that video at the end, this way if someone watched it then you will have 2 separate video views from the same viewer. People who watch more of your videos are also more likely to subscribe to your channel.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Increasing Organic Views

1
Get subscribers. Getting subscribers is an excellent way of guaranteeing that more viewers will watch your videos. If someone subscribes to you, then they will see all of your newly-uploaded videos on their homepage, and they can even select to be notified via email whenever you've posted a new video. If you want to get more subscribers, you can ask people to subscribe at the end of a video, include an annotation that encourages people to subscribe to your video, or even ask people to subscribe to you over email.
- When asking people to subscribe to your video point towards the subscribe button. This will draw focus towards the button and can result in more subscribes.
2
Ask viewers to 'Like' or 'Share' the video. At the end or anytime during the video, ask the viewers to like it or share it by mentioning things like 'it would take 0.12 second to hit that like button'. Its because most of the time, even after people like the video, they don't notice it.
- Say something in your video that many people have an opinion on and then asking people to click like if they agree or to comment if they disagree. For example at the end of a video about your dog you could say "I don't think dogs should be on a leash when in public. Hit like if you agree, or tell us what you think in the comments".
- Simply asking a question in your video can also result in an increase in comments.
3
Create playlists. Playlists are lists of videos that play one after the other, just like a playlist of music. If you create an entire playlist of videos, then viewers will be more likely to view more of your videos. For example, if you create a playlist of different videos that display different gymnastics skills, your viewers can watch your video about cartwheels and then transition right into your video about handstands.
4
Comment a lot. Make sure to be nice. Some people might click on the commenter's channel to check out their videos.

Expert Q&A

Question

How should you choose your content when making YouTube videos?

Beth Cormack
Social Media Manager
Beth Cormack is a Social Media Manager based in Washington, D.C. With five years of experience, she specializes in multi-channel social media marketing and storytelling. She earned her Master of Professional Studies from Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and her BA in Communication from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Beth Cormack

Social Media Manager

Expert Answer

Authenticity is really important on social media. Your audience is going to connect with you more if they feel like you're connected with the content that you're creating. It also makes it a lot more enjoyable and easier for you to create content since you're already connected to that subject matter.
Question

What should you do to become a YouTube star?

Beth Cormack
Social Media Manager
Beth Cormack is a Social Media Manager based in Washington, D.C. With five years of experience, she specializes in multi-channel social media marketing and storytelling. She earned her Master of Professional Studies from Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and her BA in Communication from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Beth Cormack

Social Media Manager

Expert Answer

With social media in general, you definitely want to stay on top of things that are trending, not just in terms of hashtags and sound but also general things that are trending. Make sure you're staying on top of what's relevant and quickly creating content and reacting to that. That's a great way to gain followers on YouTube.
Question

I am new on YouTube, and want to be sensation on it. What can I do?

Lily Smith

Community Answer

Try going back and editing it to make it even better, and work on new videos. A helpful tip is to look at websites about trends, so you know what kind of videos you'll need to appeal to the public. But the most important tip on YouTube is to be patient. Many YouTubers forget that, and they quit YouTube in the first few weeks because they don't have many subscribers or any views. You just have to be patient and make good videos with excellent tags.

Warnings

Avoid recording things that give away your home or work address such as recording a video of the view from your rooftop, or mentioning address related things in your video.

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Avoid spamming people's videos. Some people might look at your work, but most will just be annoyed.

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What you should remember is that if you're only in it for the views, you may not get anywhere. You should be genuinely looking to build an audience, create content and entertain people.

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Your YouTube Channel should be creative, colorful, and represent you in the way you want to be presented. You can make your YouTube channel creative by adding a background photo/cover-photo, you can choose from the pictures YouTube provides, or be even more creative and create your own on photo editing sites like Pixlr. By making your channel interesting and neat you are more likely to get subscribers.

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Practice safety when posting videos; have a parent's permission to post anything if you're under 18, never meet up with strangers alone.

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Don't tell people to like and subscribe before the video starts, and don't promote a giveaway that you need to comment, like, and subscribe to enter. Doing so will get you inactive viewers and those subscriptions and likes will seem like bot subscriptions.

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If you put tags on your videos, make sure the tags have something to do with the video. If you really want to put a popular youtuber in your tags, feature even a few seconds of their videos or do something they would do, saying you are being like them.

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Make sure your videos have no watermark other than your own. Even though someone uses a specific video editor or screen recorder, that doesn't mean the video belongs to that editor or screen recorders' company.

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