How do I increase my YouTube recommendations?

Make Your Content SEO Friendly

The key to getting your video recommended on YouTube isn’t solely based on writing a catchy title and adding a fun thumbnail. You have to make your content SEO-friendly so that your video reaches the right people.

Start by researching a keyword or keywords related to your video—for example, if your video is about traveling, then look for the most popular keywords people use when looking for travel videos. Add these keywords in your title, your description, and your tags. Try to only use the keywords that are the most relevant to your content to increase your results.

Increase Engagement

The best strategy for getting recommended on YouTube is to create videos you can be proud of that will engage people. This will ensure that your content is viewed and shared with others, which YouTube will pick up on and recommend to other users. Think about your video and how you can make it as engaging as possible. Think about how you can make your video unique, and how you can promote it to other bloggers and social media users.

It’s also worth considering how to monetize your videos and how to get paid for them. Before you start a video-sharing site, think about what kinds of videos you want to show, who they are aimed at and what you can do to get them noticed and shared.

Call to Action

YouTube, like many other social media platforms, counts with an algorithm. This algorithm will recommend videos to others when there’s a high engagement rate on the video. Engagement can be anything from comments, likes, and even dislikes. 

A good way to get engagement on your videos is by including a call to action or an engagement action. You could prompt your viewers to like and comment on your video if they like the content.

You could also give them prompts so they can answer in the comments, for example, asking them what their favorite part of the video was or if they had any questions. Keep in mind that you would also need to reply to these comments in order for YouTube to promote your videos.

Pay Attention to the Trends in Your Niche

Ranking fast in the YouTube algorithm is never from a single factor but rather an amalgam of circumstances. Things like a catchy thumbnail, intelligent use of keywords, a good description, and doing research on the trending topics within your video’s niche all play a vital role in getting your video recommended on YouTube. At the end of the day, content is king and your ultimate success will come down to the quality of your content. But by paying attention to these rules, you can get the algorithm to work with you instead of against you.

Utilize YouTube Shorts

YouTube has for the most part been known exclusively for its long-form video content, however, in the wake of TikTok’s dominance and Instagram’s Reels, they introduced what is known as “Shorts” to the platform. Shorts are under 60 seconds long and are traditionally vertical viral content. From what I have found, when mixed in with longer videos the algorithm is particularly generous, which helps level the playing field for the smaller creator.

When posting a video on YouTube as a Short, use a catchy title that leverages keywords and tags, and let your following across platforms know about it. Also, if you are taking the same content you have already used for TikTok, never post the video with a watermark! Don’t be discouraged if they only get one or two views either, as it may take several dozen videos or more to pick up speed and get promoted.

Focus On the Content

When it comes to YouTube, recommendations are everything. If you can get your channel recommended by YouTube, you’ll see a significant boost in views and subscribers. So, how do you go about getting recommended? The most important thing is to produce high-quality content that is interesting and engaging. YouTube’s algorithm looks for videos that users are likely to watch all the way through, so make sure your videos are well-crafted and hold viewers’ attention.

In addition, try to be consistent in your posting schedule and post new videos on a regular basis. Regular uploads help to keep your channel active and promote viewer retention.

Finally, don’t be afraid to promote your channel on YouTube. Share your videos on social media and encourage your friends and followers to check them out. With a little effort, you can start seeing those all-important recommendations roll in.

Follow YouTube’s Guidelines

One strategy for getting recommended on YouTube is to make sure your video title and description are good. Make sure you have a compelling description and include keywords that people might search for when they’re looking for videos related to yours. If you don’t know what words people are searching for, look at the top results for your topic and try to figure out what they all have in common.

You can also encourage viewers to leave comments on your video by asking them questions or giving them something they can respond to. And if people leave positive feedback on your video, be sure to thank them!

Stay on Topic

YouTube, like any social platform, wants you to STAY on their platform. Suggested videos are YouTube’s way of doing that—drawing you into the “YouTube rabbit hole” as it may be known. The goal is to keep the viewer’s interest in the next thing that may draw attention, based on the content they’ve already been watching. Watch history, topic, and video title all influence YouTube’s algorithm to display similar content to a viewer. This means that the more content a viewer watches about a topic, and how popular and related your video may be to that topic, the more likely you are to be suggested.

The final piece of that is to create thumbnails that stand out so that when you’re in the suggested videos panel on the side, viewers are drawn to yours and click through to watch—which is another positive signal!

Create YouTube Playlists

Playlists are a total no-brainer when it comes to getting YouTube to recommend your videos. Showing your viewers a particular series of videos that are connected to each other increases the chances to get them to watch one video after another. The longer their viewing sessions, the more likely you are to be recommended on YouTube. Last but not least—don’t forget to add creative, visually appealing, and contrasting thumbnails to the videos on your playlist.

Increase Action

The trick to appear in the recommended videos section of YouTube is simple: increase engagement action around your videos. What I mean is, drive your audience to action; ask them to like your video, share your video, or comment on your video. The algorithm picks such videos and places them in the suggested videos column.

Why? Simply because YouTube wants to deliver the best experience to its users—resultantly, it will bring business to YouTube itself. Do this by adding calls to action in the intro and outro. Ask mini-quizzes to drive them to comment. Or, set challenges like ‘if this video gets X amount of comments, I’ll do this.”