At the moment, the recommendations of the YouTube Shorts feature work very similarly to long videos, and have to do with previous activities and interactions viewers have had in order for YouTube to consider showing them one content or the other.
For example, if a person shows interest in cat content, then YouTube Shorts will start to show more and more cat-related videos. This happens with any other content that the user sees more frequently.
Now, the question that many of you might be asking is why do YouTube Shorts get to a thousand views and then suddenly stop showing? Surely some of you have experienced different results, and you might have one or another short with more views, but for the most part, you get the same results of a thousand visualizations.
This happens because YouTube Shorts are recommended more or less depending on their retention. The higher the retention, the better results our videos will have.
YouTube Shorts knows if a video has good or bad retention basically with the views it is getting from the audience. But this data is relative, and it needs to have a standard number of views to determine whether this retention is really good or bad.
When a short video of any channel is released, it is sent to a group of people determined by the algorithm. Let's assume that there are about 100 people, and once these 100 people decide to watch or not the video, YouTube Shorts starts collecting data.
If out of these 100 people the retention was good or considerably good, it will send this video to another 100 people and so on until it reaches 1,000 views. Once YouTube gets a thousand views, it will know perfectly well the actual retention of the video. If it is not good compared to the competition, it will stop showing it almost forever. That is why you see a tremendous stop in the visualizations of your YouTube Shorts. YouTube does help us with the dissemination of content, but once our shorts reach a thousand visualizations and the numbers are not very good, it does not show it anymore.
If from a long video of, for example, 10 minutes, the retention rate is very good, above 51%, then for YouTube Shorts, these numbers are totally crazy and absurd at the same time. To give you an idea, a YouTube Short with excellent retention is above 180 percent.
How does a video manage to have a retention rate higher than 100%? This happens due to the length of the YouTube Shorts as short videos. A person who likes that video will most likely repeat it more than once, and this is how retention rates generate higher percentages to 100%.
When these high percentages are achieved, YouTube will recommend hundreds of thousands of times more times this video because it gets out of the usual retention. That is why our shorts need to be very powerful in the whole video. Besides, it is not worth making a 45-second video if it doesn't really get the audience for even half of this time. Remember that we need to make shorts that generate impact and that generate people to watch the content more than once.
Ok, now that we know all this, what can we do to improve the results of our YouTube shorts? Here is a checklist:
For example, if a person shows interest in cat content, then YouTube Shorts will start to show more and more cat-related videos. This happens with any other content that the user sees more frequently.
Now, the question that many of you might be asking is why do YouTube Shorts get to a thousand views and then suddenly stop showing? Surely some of you have experienced different results, and you might have one or another short with more views, but for the most part, you get the same results of a thousand visualizations.
This happens because YouTube Shorts are recommended more or less depending on their retention. The higher the retention, the better results our videos will have.
YouTube Shorts knows if a video has good or bad retention basically with the views it is getting from the audience. But this data is relative, and it needs to have a standard number of views to determine whether this retention is really good or bad.
When a short video of any channel is released, it is sent to a group of people determined by the algorithm. Let's assume that there are about 100 people, and once these 100 people decide to watch or not the video, YouTube Shorts starts collecting data.
If out of these 100 people the retention was good or considerably good, it will send this video to another 100 people and so on until it reaches 1,000 views. Once YouTube gets a thousand views, it will know perfectly well the actual retention of the video. If it is not good compared to the competition, it will stop showing it almost forever. That is why you see a tremendous stop in the visualizations of your YouTube Shorts. YouTube does help us with the dissemination of content, but once our shorts reach a thousand visualizations and the numbers are not very good, it does not show it anymore.
If from a long video of, for example, 10 minutes, the retention rate is very good, above 51%, then for YouTube Shorts, these numbers are totally crazy and absurd at the same time. To give you an idea, a YouTube Short with excellent retention is above 180 percent.
How does a video manage to have a retention rate higher than 100%? This happens due to the length of the YouTube Shorts as short videos. A person who likes that video will most likely repeat it more than once, and this is how retention rates generate higher percentages to 100%.
When these high percentages are achieved, YouTube will recommend hundreds of thousands of times more times this video because it gets out of the usual retention. That is why our shorts need to be very powerful in the whole video. Besides, it is not worth making a 45-second video if it doesn't really get the audience for even half of this time. Remember that we need to make shorts that generate impact and that generate people to watch the content more than once.
Ok, now that we know all this, what can we do to improve the results of our YouTube shorts? Here is a checklist:
- Title: The first element to consider is your video's title. Your title should be explicit and accurately reflect the content of your video. This will help your viewers know what they can expect from your video.
- Hashtags: Adding hashtags to your title is essential, but it's not the only place you should include them. Make sure to add two additional hashtags that relate to the content of your video in the description. For example, if your video is about cats playing, use #catsplaying as one of your hashtags. Using relevant hashtags in your description can help increase your video's visibility.
- Description: While the description is not a fundamental factor, it's still important to add keywords that relate to your video. This will help with the recommendations from YouTube shorts. However, be careful not to exaggerate with the descriptions because it's not the only significant factor for delivery on YouTube shorts. Keep in mind that Metricool now allows you to generate descriptions for your videos.
- Frequency: One of the most crucial factors in addition to the retention of your video is its frequency. If you upload shorts, you need to set up a frequency of uploading the videos and maintain it over time. For example, if you upload one short a week, make sure to upload another one the following week. Consistency is key, and this is what YouTube will reward the most.
- Video length: Finally, make sure to keep your videos short, between 12 to 15 seconds. This will help increase your retention by over 100%. Remember, the shorter your video is, the more likely people will watch it.
