How to Get Featured by Youtube and Massively Increase Your Views

Have you ever wondered how to get your videos featured by Youtube? And if you don’t know what I mean by “Featured”, I’m referring to where they place your video in key areas such as your subscribers “Homepage”, “Suggested Videos”, related videos, and other visible places.

Many people wonder the same thing, but WHY? Well, it’s because this extra exposure and visibility can massively increase the number of views you get. More views, equals more subscribers, and MORE actions.

Here’s the thing – Like Google, Facebook and other platforms, most people thing there is some secret, mystical sauce that you need to apply for this to happen. Well, there isn’t. In fact, Youtube actually TELL you exactly what is required in order to get featured by them.

See this message below (inside my Youtube analytics)

As you can see, they state that you can increase your chance of being featured if you “increase your click-through rate and your video watch time”.

Sounds easy, eh? Well, actually it is. So here’s just a few ways to improve those both of those statistics.

Click-Through Rate

When someone enters a keyword query into the Youtube search field, Youtube will display a number of “what they feel are the best” results.

Those results that get the most “clicks” are the ones Youtube deem as being the most relevant to the type of query the “surfer” entered.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the TWO ways in which you increase CTR (click-through rate) is by creating an intriguing, relevant, and to-the-point title for your video.

And, by uploading an eye-catching, interesting and intriguing video thumbnail to your video listing.

It’s BOTH of these attributes that will get MORE people to click through to watch your video, and essentially increase your click-through rate.

Watch Time

Watch time is another ranking factor, and something they 100% look at when deciding WHERE to place you within their platform.

It makes sense that the longer people watch your video for, the more relevant it is to their query, and the more interesting it is.

So, here’s some ways in which you can increase the watch time of your videos.

1. Obviously, here’s the obvious one. Create good content, and an interesting video that people would actually enjoy watching and get some benefit from. If your video is boring, uninformative and off topic – It’s going to tank and people will click away to the next video quickly.
2. Start your video with a “HOOK”. What do I mean by “Hook”? Well, as soon as your video starts, during the first 5-10 seconds TELL them exactly what they are going to learn / discover if they watch your video. It re-enforced the title and the reason they clicked through to watch your video. It gives them “re-assurance” that they have come to the right place. Tell them WHY they should watch until the end – ie – If you watch this video right to the end, you’re going to discover my #1 XXXXX for doing XXXX. Then cut away to a short “intro” clip (great for branding) and then lead straight into your content. Whatever that may be.
3. Mix up your interaction, add “quirky” pattern interrupts and keep them engaged. At this stage you need to keep their interest so be mindful every 20 seconds that you’re delivering valuable content in one way or another (when editing your video). If you’re sharing your screen with them, then cut away every so often and speak to them “face to camera”. Use a little bit of humor as and when appropriate, graphics, animation and anything else you can to keep your video engaging to prevent them from clicking off your video. The more of your video they watch, the higher Youtube will rank it, and the more likely you will get featured within KEY areas of Youtube.

So there you have it. A few actionable tips to help you get FEATURED by Youtube.

Feel free to drop a comment below – I’d LOVE to hear from you 🙂

To your success!

Andy Black