YouTube Question Question about Average View Duration

[ForgottenCovers]

Hello all!

Quick question - When I watch my video when it is private (just doing things like SEO optimization, adding end cards, adding tags, etc) does this watch time get included in Average View Duration? Obviously if a video has thousands of views this wouldn't matter in the slightest, but if my video gets 50 views and 10 of them were me watching for just 3 seconds to check my end cards, does that time count also?


Thanks!

- David

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Hey David!

You are in luck, YouTube has you taken care of. For starters the only views that count are those that occur while the video is made 'Public.' So when it is Private or unlisted those views and that watchtime do not count. In fact it is highly encouraged to upload your video as private or preferably unlisted as these allow you to do your metadata, captions, endscreens etc without affecting the video but also if it is unlisted then it allows YouTube to check you for possible copyright flags and accidental demonitization before it actually gets published. Which is a far easier pill to swallow when you then have the time to fix it as opposed to after it being published.

Another thing to note, YouTube has a pretty firm grasp of what is happening with your views. For starters you will see that your views that occur while adding endscreens come from the 'Creator Studio' source. Meaning that YouTube realizes those views are happening while you are editing endscreens. YouTube offers a breakdown of where your traffic is coming from, and you can easily perform poorly in one and do just fine in another. So poor watchtime from the Creator Studio source shouldn't affect your overall performance.

 

[ForgottenCovers]

That is excellent, thanks so much!