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YouTube Help 3 Reasons Why you're NOT getting views from YouTube search.

TubeBuddy

Legendary Poster
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I see a lot of people say statements as follow:

"I'm ranking in search, but I'm not getting views!?!" I wanted to take some time to explain why you may not be getting the views you want/ crave.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5kp4qv5dJM


Number 1: You Don't have Incognito Mode Set and are seeing biased results.

For starters, make sure you have your TubeBuddy set to INCOGNITO MODE!

Incognito Mode.png

You can tell if you have it set down here. This makes sure you see where you're ranking NOT LOGGED IN! YouTube gives biased results when you're logged in, so you want to see how you're ranking as if you've NEVER signed in before.

Number 2: You're ranking in search, but no one is clicking on your thumbnails.

This one is hard. A lot of times we THINK we have great thumbnails, but sadly our audience doesn't respond the way we would like. This is where impressions click through rate REALLY matter.

Impressions are when YouTube shows your Thumbnail in Search, related videos, and on the home page for at least a second. This matters because an impression means a new user saw it, and the CTR means when they saw it, they CLICKED THROUGH at a RATE to watch the videos (CTR).

To see this head to a YouTube Videos YouTube Analytics -> Reach Then click on impressions Click Through Rate, and then see more:

ICTR.png

Once you click on SEE MORE you'll see the video's overall CTR, but we want to see how it's performing in search, so click on "Traffic Sources" here and it will reveal how your video's performing in SEARCH for it's thumbnail and title.

Traffic Source CTR.png

As you can see on my video here it's gotten 56,392 impressions and it has a 9.9% CTR in search so this video is performing well in search. This video is DESIGNED for search in mind, so for me this thumbnail is performing well.

If you're ranking, but not getting views check your impressions click through rate in search, and that can help you know if you need to make a change in the thumbnail. So you might be RANKING, but you're not getting anyone to click, so it doesn't matter if you show up, if no one interested in the video based on the title and thumbnail. NO one will click through, and watch the content stopping you from earning views.

Number 3: The Keyword you're targeting has too high of a view requirement for you to rank in.

Sometimes when doing TubeBuddy keyword research people don't understand how to read our scores. We understand, it can be a lot to take in :) Here's a quick video on how to read the scores:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbA5H-SCXic


Using that video as a reference point, we can see the idea of the minimum views required to reach the top 20 spots.

Keyword Explorer barrier to entry.png

This term needs 101,000 VIEWS. I average 2,420 views. While that is good it's IMPOSSIBLE for me to reach that, so understanding that in the TubeBuddy weighted score... Which does require pro (Hey free trial if you haven't had one before: https://tubebuddy.com/freetrial)
However, it's impossible for me to rank for this term, so it's not possible right now. While there are 640,000 searches a month it's near impossible for me with 2,000+ views a video to rank.

The other side is there might just not be enough search a month to earn views. Some terms have 5,000 searches a month, and if you have a CTR (click through rate) of 10% in search that 500 views is about the max you could earn. A 10% CTR is on the high end of an average CTR which YT says an average CTR is between 2 - 10%.

Understanding all three helps you understand why you might not be getting views in search. People will blame either YouTube, TubeBuddy, but I always say the Data doesn't lie. Be sure to check it, and make sure you're doing all you can!

I hope this post helps shed some light, and I hope this makes it more clear!
 

Beanie Draws

Mythical Poster
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I think the Thumbnail issue is one people don't consider enough. You might have a fantastic topic with top quality tags, but if your thumbnail is junk and not getting a good CTR, no one is going to click it and watch the video. Not many people have a history in design, or even know what good design is, so many channels suffer due to poor messy thumbnails people simply don't want to click.
 

Gary L

Active Member
36
6
As a new/small channel with 200+ subs, my weighted scores are always very low (bad). I guess it's hard to compete when you are small. I have to rely on the unweighted scores instead. Am I missing something here?
 

Dr Pixel Plays

Known Member
TubeBuddy Pro
103
11
As a new/small channel with 200+ subs, my weighted scores are always very low (bad). I guess it's hard to compete when you are small. I have to rely on the unweighted scores instead. Am I missing something here?
Your weighted scores are so small because you are targeting keywords that require more views than you usually get to rank in. Don't use unweighted scores, just try targeting more niche search terms. I know it's not as epic to rank for them and only getting a few views a week from them, but this is better than none, because the other keywords were too competitive.

Read the 3rd reason again, and maybe watch the embedded video. It helped me a lot.



Your channel makes a good first impression. Didn't watch one of your videos, but considering how short they are, you probably edited them. I think what really could help you is to do better SEO for your videos and maybe find places to promote them. There are a lot of cooking and recipe sites, why not share your recipe there and link your video there? Get creative and try to get your content out there!
 

Gary L

Active Member
36
6
Your weighted scores are so small because you are targeting keywords that require more views than you usually get to rank in. Don't use unweighted scores, just try targeting more niche search terms. I know it's not as epic to rank for them and only getting a few views a week from them, but this is better than none, because the other keywords were too competitive.

Read the 3rd reason again, and maybe watch the embedded video. It helped me a lot.



Your channel makes a good first impression. Didn't watch one of your videos, but considering how short they are, you probably edited them. I think what really could help you is to do better SEO for your videos and maybe find places to promote them. There are a lot of cooking and recipe sites, why not share your recipe there and link your video there? Get creative and try to get your content out there!
Thanks for the advice!
 
OP
OP
TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy

Legendary Poster
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www.tubebuddy.com
Subscriber Goal
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Your weighted scores are so small because you are targeting keywords that require more views than you usually get to rank in. Don't use unweighted scores, just try targeting more niche search terms. I know it's not as epic to rank for them and only getting a few views a week from them, but this is better than none, because the other keywords were too competitive.

Read the 3rd reason again, and maybe watch the embedded video. It helped me a lot.



Your channel makes a good first impression. Didn't watch one of your videos, but considering how short they are, you probably edited them. I think what really could help you is to do better SEO for your videos and maybe find places to promote them. There are a lot of cooking and recipe sites, why not share your recipe there and link your video there? Get creative and try to get your content out there!

It may not feel good in the short term, but it's how you establish authority and THAT can lead into long term goals and gains. It's like grinding in an RPG once you get there, the fun begins, but the grind comes before the glory :D
 

Maryprecious

Known Member
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5000000
Very helpful to me and others I must admit but the amazing thing is that, I still can't understand the whole thing. I check on a key word and see that mine is for instance 310 and the the spiral shape has 53... does that mean good or poor?
 

DamoΓÇÖs Paintings

Extremely Well-Known Member
TubeBuddy User
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500000
This is definitely a must read for any newcomer and even for those that have been at it for a while, every bit of learning will help, but another thing that can get us further ahead, in a way, is a good attitude towards tips like this, oh yeah IΓÇÖve come across a few special ones that thought they didnΓÇÖt need this, thought they could breeze on through to their dream without putting in the effort, only to go all over the place begging everyone to hit the big red button, and give them some watch time.

Anyways I wonΓÇÖt ramble on about this, stay safe everyone :blush: