YouTube Opinion How SEO Affects Your Video/Channel Performance

[Stanley | Team TB]

YouTube uses a lot of different variables when determining who your video needs to be served to. Most of them largely out of our control; the majority of things YouTube uses to determine the appropriate audience for your video are based on viewer habits. However, they do give you the option of providing specific information in the video in order to help clarify the audience. That's the thumbnail, title, description, tags and captions. You want this information to be uniform; if you make a video about penguin feeding habits then the title, description and tags should all contain verbiage about penguin feeding habits. Also, it's understood that you will mention 'penguin feeding habits' in the captions and there will likely be a penguin in the thumbnail.


As a smaller channel you may find it difficult to get any traction on the topic; it has been covered many times before and likely by larger channels. Competing with a list of videos with hundreds of thousands of views apiece is a tall task for a channel that gets far less views. And that is where more refined SEO comes into play. Of all the people in the world who are searching for 'penguin feeding habits' a subset of these viewers are going to type something different... maybe they do a search for 'feeding habits penguins in Chile" or "how do penguins eat in winter." There is less traffic for these search terms because less people type them but as a smaller channel they are perfect terms for you to target in order to begin building authority on this subject. It is an easier way to get your foot in the door.


The TubeBuddy's SEO Score feature looks at the metadata that you have entered to ensure that everything is maximized around this 'core' keyword phrase. If you are going to target a term it needs to be entered in its entirety into the title (preferably the beginning of the title), the first 200 characters of the description and it needs to be entered into the video's tags. YouTube will cross-reference this to get a better understanding of what your video is about and when all three align it gives YouTube a laser-focused direction for whom this needs to be served to.



But What If The Video Is 'Off-Topic" For The Channel?

So what happens if you are making a video about the feeding habits of penguins but the overall theme of your channel is different. You can definitely branch out on topics that cover a wider range of subjects. But YouTube is looking at your previous videos and trying to figure out who your audience is. The more refined and narrow your channel's topic the easier it is for YouTube to find your viewers. Be mindful of the viewer; if they came to your channel because they enjoyed a video about the feeding habits of penguins but your next video is about the industrial revolution what are the odds that this video is not what that viewer will enjoy? Will this cause them to unsubscribe? Someone who subscribes to a penguin channel because they love penguins is far more likely to stay subscribed. They wanted that content, they got it and now this channel is their resource for this. But if they want penguin content and the channel only has one penguin video then they may look elsewhere for their needs. So long as your channel has a "thing" that people will want to return for and it is a laser-focused, identifiable foundation of the channel the viewers are going to be more likely to become subscribers and stay subscribers.

 

[MattCommand1]

But What If The Video Is 'Off-Topic" For The Channel?
So what happens if you are making a video about the feeding habits of penguins but the overall theme of your channel is different. You can definitely branch out on topics that cover a wider range of subjects. But YouTube is looking at your previous videos and trying to figure out who your audience is. The more refined and narrow your channel's topic the easier it is for YouTube to find your viewers. Be mindful of the viewer; if they came to your channel because they enjoyed a video about the feeding habits of penguins but your next video is about the industrial revolution what are the odds that this video is not what that viewer will enjoy? Will this cause them to unsubscribe? Someone who subscribes to a penguin channel because they love penguins is far more likely to stay subscribed. They wanted that content, they got it and now this channel is their resource for this. But if they want penguin content and the channel only has one penguin video then they may look elsewhere for their needs. So long as your channel has a "thing" that people will want to return for and it is a laser-focused, identifiable foundation of the channel the viewers are going to be more likely to become subscribers and stay subscribers.
[/QUOTE]

I am unclear as to what Youtube's official position is. I've heard that each video stands alone, not necessarily taken into consideration your prior videos. From a human viewer perspective, it is natural for them to try to determine what a channel is about. For a period of time, I believed that prior videos in a channel is a basis for recommending future videos.

But somewhere along the line, based on something I heard, read, or viewed, I got the impression that each video is evaluated on its own merits regardless of your prior videos. Was I lead astray? I think it was based on 2 videos I watched on how Search and Discovery works (one by TB and one by YT Creator) and they made no mention of weighing in prior videos.

Anecdotally, I tested a couple of off-topic videos regarding my cruise vacation VLOG and they did surprisingly well (for me). Although admittedly, a big chunk of the traffic came from search, not browse or recommendation. Now, I understand if viewers only care about cruises and not financial or real estate topics, they probably won't subscribe to my channel so my expectations were low. But the views came in and the retention was okay given the fact they were off-topic videos.

 

[MediaMan]

But somewhere along the line, based on something I heard, read, or viewed, I got the impression that each video is evaluated on its own merits regardless of your prior videos. Was I lead astray? I think it was based on 2 videos I watched on how Search and Discovery works (one by TB and one by YT Creator) and they made no mention of weighing in prior videos.

Based on everything I've read and learned from my own experiments, you can certainly get views from any video on your channel regardless of topic but if long retained subs is your goal then your videos should be focused on your channel's main focus.

You want views? Go license some women in bikinis and put them in a short, easiest way to get 1000s of views instantly. You'll get some impulsive subs as well, but they all trickle away fairly quickly when your next video is nothing related to that. I encourage everyone to have a channel they can just mess around with. It's fascinating and yet depressing... to witness internet demographics at work.

 

[MattCommand1]

Based on everything I've read and learned from my own experiments, you can certainly get views from any video on your channel regardless of topic but if long retained subs is your goal then your videos should be focused on your channel's main focus.

You want views? Go license some women in bikinis and put them in a short, easiest way to get 1000s of views instantly. You'll get some impulsive subs as well, but they all trickle away fairly quickly when your next video is nothing related to that. I encourage everyone to have a channel they can just mess around with. It's fascinating and yet depressing... to witness internet demographics at work.

I am not doing off-topic videos just for random views. I am doing it to expand a little to see if my core viewers are interested in my personal life, not just my business interest. I am also exploring to see if I have to forever be in my niche on that channel.

Of course, I want subscribers but subscribers are not the end all be all. Setting up another channel stinks for me because I don't want to have to rebuild it to YPP status again. I may ultimately be forced to but not something I am looking to do right now. Hence, the experimentations.

However, Stanley inferred that Youtube algorithm is making recommendations based on prior videos on a channel and I wanted clarification on that. He may be right because he might have access to information or people I don't. Or I might have misunderstood how the algorithm works.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

It is hard to get a bead on what YouTube's actual process is. The series of algorithms that they use are so complex that each piece of the process is managed by a different department. There isn't a human being who understands the collective 'Algorithm' in its entirety.

That aside videos do affect each other... just not in the ways that people think. The poor performance of one video is not going to cause YouTube to give you less impressions on the next video. They simply react to the viewing habits of those who watch your video, but when they are sharing it out they also take into account the direction you give them. If you tell them that your video is about a cruise ship they are going to share it with people looking for cruise ship content. If you tell them that the video is about a cruise ship... but your channel tags are about real estate then you may confuse YouTube and they are going to have a more difficult time finding an audience. Notice I emphasize 'more difficult,' that is not to say impossible. The number one thing they go by is viewer habits. SEO is just the thing that as creators have the most control over when deciding the audience it needs to be served to.

 

[MattCommand1]

It is hard to get a bead on what YouTube's actual process is. The series of algorithms that they use are so complex that each piece of the process is managed by a different department. There isn't a human being who understands the collective 'Algorithm' in its entirety.

That aside videos do affect each other... just not in the ways that people think. The poor performance of one video is not going to cause YouTube to give you less impressions on the next video. They simply react to the viewing habits of those who watch your video, but when they are sharing it out they also take into account the direction you give them. If you tell them that your video is about a cruise ship they are going to share it with people looking for cruise ship content. If you tell them that the video is about a cruise ship... but your channel tags are about real estate then you may confuse YouTube and they are going to have a more difficult time finding an audience. Notice I emphasize 'more difficult,' that is not to say impossible. The number one thing they go by is viewer habits. SEO is just the thing that as creators have the most control over when deciding the audience it needs to be served to.

What you say is fair. I've always wondered how much channel tags mattered. I've heard almost no mention of this by Youtube. I tend to hear comments about video tags but not channel tags. I can only infer if channel tags are there, it is a signal YT uses. But the mainline Search and Discovery is the most discussed as it relates to the algorithm.

But upfront, you did state the SEO piece we can control. I would say that just based on SEO alone, my cruise vacation videos were successfully surfaced because I don't think there is an abundance of the ship I was on. I had an idea what people might search for. Those few videos were one of the biggest departures I've tried. I couched it under a personal VLOG in the spirit my subscribers wouldn't hold it against me and unsubscribe in droves.

The hope, of course, is that people may come in for certain topics but perhaps, over time, they will stick around with me as a Person / "personality" of interest.

 

[MediaMan]

Those few videos were one of the biggest departures I've tried. I couched it under a personal VLOG in the spirit my subscribers wouldn't hold it against me and unsubscribe in droves.

I don't think anything personal you might inject into the channel would be a negative. You're building a brand based around you, your personality, your knowledge, etc. I think a large portion of your subs would enjoy getting to know more about you and your lifestyle.

Setting up another channel stinks for me because I don't want to have to rebuild it to YPP status again. I may ultimately be forced to but not something I am looking to do right now. Hence, the experimentations.

I guess it boils down to how often you want to make those lifestyle videos. If it's only once a month or so, I think it compliments your existing channel well, but anymore than that it might be worth considering a new channel or...if your passion has changed... keep the 1k subs, roll the dice and re-brand the channel.