All About YouTube Watch Time and 6 Tips to Improve Yours NOW: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 66
Welcome to another episode of the Beauty and the Vlog podcast! I get a lot of questions from peeps asking about the elusive YouTube Watch Time and what it means. In this episode I dive deep into watch time, what it means, how it can help your channel and the best reports to use to track your watch time and determine how and what to change in your videos. Listen to the episode by clicking on the pink bar above or download on iTunes or Stitcher. (If you like the podcast, please make sure to like and subscribe!)
What you will learn in this podcast episode:
1.) The MOST important component of the YouTube algorithm.
2.) A SUPER EASY trick to generate more watch time on your channel even if you don’t have a lot of content.
3.) The specific things YOU can do today to increase your video watch times.
4.) How to use YouTube analytics to improve your watch time.
5.) Super secret button you are probably not taking advantage of in your settings that can help your videos come up in related videos.
Keep reading for the show notes, but for more detailed information listen to the podcast where I go in depth on this topic.
All About YouTube Watch Time: Show Notes
So, what exactly is watch time? According to YouTube, watch time is, “The amount of time in aggregate that your viewers are watching your videos…” And, according to the YouTube playbook, “YouTube optimizes search and discovery for videos that increase watch time on the site”.
Ok, lets get into this. Watch time is derived of two components, the first is the amount of time someone spends watching each individual video you upload onto YouTube. The second component is session watch time. Both session watch time and video watch time work together to determine how YouTube will optimize the search and discovery of your videos.
What is Session Watch Time?
Session watch time is the entire time someone spends on YouTube as result of one of your videos. For example, if someone clicks on a link from outside YouTube to watch one of your videos, that begins a session. OR, if someone searches for something in Google or YouTube and clicks and watches your video first, that begins a session watch time. If that person only watches one of your videos but ends up spending two hours on YouTube watching a bunch of other videos, that entire “session” counts towards your channel. The more something like this happens and the longer people stay on YouTube either watching your videos or as a result of one of your videos bringing that person onto YouTube, YouTube sees that as favorable. As a result, YouTube will view you as an “authority” and further promote your videos. Keep in mind, if someone clicks on your video via search but searches for something else after watching your video, that ends your session watch time. Or, if someone links outside of YouTube from a link in your description after watching your video, that ends a session.The point is to keep people on YouTube as long as possible, whether or not they are watching your videos. Ideally you would want people to stay on your channel, but there is still benefit to attracting people to your channel and making sure they stay there even if they are not watching your videos! Below are six tips that will keep people watching your videos and staying on YouTube.
Tip #1: Get to know the Audience Retention Report in YouTube Analytics.
Tip #2: Be Concise and Don’t Ramble
Tip #3: Add B-Roll, Jump Cuts and Edits.
Tip #4: Use Playlists!
Tip #5 Have a strong hook at the start of your video
Tip #6: Use YouTube Tags
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Author: Erika Vieira
Marketing and sales expert Erika Vieira is the host and producer of the #1 influencer strategy podcast, The YouTube Power Hour. The podcast, with over 100 episodes and hundreds of thousands of downloads is dedicated to content creators who are looking to start, improve and grow their unique influence online. Erika works with influencers on personal branding, content improvement and defining a niche via customized strategy sessions, channel critiques and business support. She also loves makeup, beauty and her family and believes anyone who has the drive and passion can find success online. Feel free to send her a message here.