Sean Cannell (0:00)

If you've been trying to grow your YouTube channel on your own, you might be frustrated because it's kind of like trying to get in shape without a coach. Slow, frustrating, and full of trial and error. That's why we created the Think Media one on one coaching program where you will get a dedicated expert to walk you through your next steps, to hold you accountable and to teach you advanced growth strategies. Plus, you get connected with the right expert in specific areas from our Think Media team for whatever challenge you're facing. But here's the deal. The annual fee is going up soon, so if you've been on the fence, now's the time to lock in your spot. Just go to YTCoaching.com to apply before the price increases. So you may have noticed that the YouTube algorithm is changing. A lot of creators are reporting that their channel growth has slowed down and that they are struggling to to get views. Meanwhile, other creators are growing like crazy. And there's a reason for that. It's because they understand the 10 ranking factors that matter most for the YouTube algorithm this year. And in today's episode of the Think Media podcast, we're going to be covering all 10 of those factors so that you can use them to your advantage. You know, personally, I've been doing YouTube a long time. I've grown four channels, three that have gotten a silver play button, one that has a gold play button. And, and so I've seen a lot of the changes over the years to trends on YouTube, to what's happening with the algorithm. And there's some need to know information that we're going to be covering in this episode as we get into these 10 factors. But before we get there, let's talk about the two primary ways to get views on YouTube. There is search based traffic and there is algorithm based traffic. And traffic is another word for views. Where do the views come from? Search based is solving specific problems that people are acting, actively seeking answers for. They are either typing a specific question into the YouTube search bar or a specific topic, or they are showing YouTube they're interested in a particular topic by just clicking on and watching those types of videos. If you get into a hobby, like maybe you're looking for show recaps of your favorite TV show, you're watching Silo or Severance on Apple tv, you start watching a few show recaps and maybe theories and predictions. Well, what happens with the YouTube algorithm? It starts recommending you more videos based off the intent that you have expressed by the search terms you've been Typing in and by your viewing behavior. Now, algorithm based traffic is triggering curiosity and recommendations through compelling promises. So in this case, you might find that YouTube recommends you something that you actually weren't actively searching for, but it triggers your curiosity, it stops the scroll, it gets you to click. There's a compelling promise of education or entertainment or something interesting. And so the reason these 10 ranking factors are so important is because understanding them and adapting your content to them is going to help you benefit from getting views from both sources. Search based traffic, your videos will rank better. And algorithm based traffic, you'll be able to go viral, even if that just means viral for you. Normally you get a hundred views, you might get a thousand or ten thousand using the strategies that we're going to dive into right now. So here is the updated YouTube ranking algorithm, the 10 factors that actually matter on YouTube right now. Number one, viewer satisfaction. YouTube increasingly focuses on how satisfied viewers are with a video measured through direct feedback, like user surveys. Now, if you watch the YouTube version of the Think Media podcast, let me know in the comments. Have you ever seen one of these surveys? I have, maybe less than 10 times in my life, but I've certainly got them. And after I watch a video, even if I've watched the entire video giving viewer signals like I probably liked it. What YouTube is looking for with these surveys is do you feel like you wasted your time now that you watched that entire video? Was it a good, good and satisfying experience or were you actually disappointed? This is actually a big shift because this shift emphasizes content quality and relevance over just click through rate and watch time. Basically, YouTube doesn't want people to be tricked. You trick people with the title and a thumbnail and then you continue to bait them along, holding their attention, getting their watch time minutes only for them to be disappointed at the end. So they are trying to continually tweak the algorithm for viewer satisfaction. And for each of these 10 tips, I'm going to give you an action item. So here is the action item for number one, focus on adding genuine value with clear takeaways and ensure viewers feel never tricked or misled. Make sure your content delivers what was promised so viewers don't feel like their time was wasted or that they were manipulated in any way. The second biggest ranking factor for the YouTube algorithm is watch time, aka audience retention. The total time viewers spend watching a video remains a critical factor. Videos that keep viewers engaged longer signal value to YouTube, boosting their ranking in search and recommendations. The important term to know here is top time on platform. YouTube wants you to spend as much time on YouTube as possible. Therefore, the longer time you spend on the platform and the longer time an individual spends watching your video, the better. So an action item here is to present information in an organized and structured way while trimming unnecessary fluff. Be strategic about recognizing when parts of your video might get boring and use illustrations and stories to re engage viewers at those points. And if you can balance information with story storytelling. If you are editing, use visual examples and think about how you can improve your delivery through video editing and other techniques to maintain interest. And by the way, one of the things that we talk about at Think Media is what's called the Perfect Video Recipe. I go into it more in my book YouTube Secrets, which we are actually giving away free. All I ask is that you pay shipping. And so if you want to check that out and have me mail you a free copy of the updated edition of the bestselling book you YouTube secrets, you can go to ytsecrets.com or just click the link in the Show Notes. If you just cover shipping, I will mail you this book. One of the chapters is called the Perfect Video Recipe. And if you grab this special offer, I'll also immediately send you a free video series and downloadable guide on the Perfect Video Recipe. Just go to ytsecrets.com I'll send it to you for free. You just cover shipping and and you can check out a link in the Show Notes if you want to take advantage of that. The big idea is remember that longer retention directly correlates with better rankings. So focus on keeping viewers engaged throughout the entire video. Number three, engagement signals like likes, comments and shares. So user interactions like likes and comments, dislikes and shares are heavily weighted. These actions indicate that viewers find the content compelling, enjoyable or worth discussing, and it influences the video's visibility. The video will spread in the algorithm. The video will rank in search if you can get those engagement signals. And this tracks back to number one. These are an indication of satisfaction. If somebody clicks like you can see, they're satisfied. Now if they click share, it may be because they're like, you gotta see this because I love it. Or it might be like, this is so crazy and weird, you gotta see this. But nevertheless, it these engagement signals, it shows that people are going beyond just watching. But they're, they're clicking, they're commenting. And so an action item is to actively remind viewers to like, comment or share your video, which can help create a notable increase in these engagement metrics. But if you're feeling frustrated because you are getting some views but you feel like you're not getting much engagement. I want to encourage you to tap into the law of reciprocity. And so there's an author named Robert Cialdini and he wrote one of the most popular books of all time on psychology and persuasion and the book is called Influence. Now I will always link up resources like that in the show notes if you want to check out the book. It's kind of academic and thick, so I would recommend watching just a YouTube summary of it and you'll get the big idea. But what it outlines is six principles of influence, with the law of reciprocity being one principle of the principles. Here's the idea. It suggests that people feel naturally obligated to return favors or give back when they receive something first. So in the context of YouTube this means viewers are more likely to engage. Hit the like button, comment or share after you've provided valuable content. Number four Relevance of metadata. This is your title, your description and your tags. When it comes to the factors that influence video ranking and videos that trigger the algorithm, metadata still matters because YouTube needs to know what your video is about. Now tags don't have much weight, maybe less than 1%. Description has a little bit more weight, maybe less than 10%. But it still can be really important to reinforce what your video is about with some keyword phrases and some SEO in your description. But when it comes to title, that carries a ton of weight, especially if there is a search based term that you want to be found for that better be in the title in some way so that it can reinforce that singular topic or that search based topic in the video. It also is going to have a lot to do with creating viewer interest. The viewer knowing that that video is about the thing they're looking for and it's going to influence click through rate. And I would actually add to number four that the transcript of your video, meaning the very wor you say in the video is another piece of metadata. YouTube aka Google, is actually really good at scanning the visual content of your video. It sees faces, it can see if there was a woman in one scene, a man in another scene. It can see words. And so that is part of something that Google can see without you telling it anything. But also the transcript, essentially the words being used in the video. So that is another form of metadata that can reinforce what a user might be searching for AKA Google trying to determine if it should rank or not because it matches the search query of the user. And we can take this fourth One even deeper as to why metadata is so important and why 99% of creators are foolish to ignore it. The truth is in today's world, YouTube is not just a video platform, it's an ecosystem that extends across search now, across AI and across social media. And so there's actually eight core places where YouTube can rank in 2025. So this might sound crazy, but the reason I want so much attention to detail in how I structure and organize and put metadata on my video is because there's eight areas my video can be discovered, probably more, but at least eight. Here they are. Number one is YouTube search. That's the classic way a video ranks. When people search for it, they type a search into the search bar. Your video shows up somewhere on the first page. Awesome. YouTube search number two, YouTube recommended in homepage. This actually is where most views come from. And so if somebody logs into YouTube and your video is on their homepage, that's called recommended traffic source. That's based on user behavior, AI driven suggestions. Then there's also the YouTube Shorts feed which is going to be mostly related to shorts. But then number four is Google search. YouTube videos frequently rank for queries, especially for tutorials, reviews and how to content. So knowing to the degree that you reinforce your video with metadata, the quality of the content, the title, the description, the tags, let me add another one, the chapters which are time codes that may also have some keyword reinforce enforcement that can help you rank on Google search. Number five, Google Discover AI driven content. Recommendations that appear on Google's homepage may include YouTube videos, AI chatbots, ChatGPT, Gemini Copilot AI search is starting to expand. People are going to chat GPT asking questions, processing issues. I have personally seen this. I've been talking the other day I was talking about a niche story in the Bible. And as I was reading through the bible cover to cover, I started to talk to ChatGPT about a particular topic that was actually very obscure. And I got recommended a YouTube video of a specific YouTube creator that actually had less than a thousand views on a YouTube short that happened to be about this hyper specific bible story. So I think that in a 2025 world, a lot of people are underestimating the importance of strategy in terms of the very topics they're choosing to make content about. But also you want AI chatbots to know what your video is about, you want Google to know what your video is about. And these metadata signals are going to help. Number seven, social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit. Now your videos are only going to really gain visibility there when they are shared or embedded on those platforms. But then number eight is smart TV and streaming recommend. So this is a massive wave for YouTube. More people are watching YouTube in their living rooms in the United states than Netflix. YouTube being consumed on TVs continues to rise. So video ranking in smart TV recommendations is a whole nother traffic source kind of different than YouTube 10 years ago. So here's the big idea. In 2025, metadata isn't just communicating with YouTube's algorithm. It's speaking directly to AI systems that increasingly control what content gets discovered. Clear, relevant metadata isn't optional anymore. It's your ticket to visibility not just in a YouTube world, but in a AI driven world. So here's a few action items for this first is continue to prioritize metadata optimization, especially for educational and search specific content. And if you want help with that, one of my favorite tools is Vidiq. Now they've been a sponsor over the years, right now they're an affiliate of ours. And if you go to vidiq.com think you could do a trial of Vidiq for just a dollar. So that's a great deal and you can try it out for 30 days. It has a keyword research tool. It has tools to help you do all of your tags in like less than 60 seconds to come up with highly clickable algorithmic triggering titles that also are reinforced by the keywords that your video needs. It'll do that with AI right when you're posting your video. You may have heard in a previous Think Media podcast episode with Swavy Curly Courtney that she uses Vidiq's title tool and it has helped her grow her channel and quickly write incredible titles just built in. And it's going to help you with all the metadata steps. It's got a whole checklist, it walks you through just making sure you do all the things and you don't forget about anything. So again, just a resource for you. You could do this manually on your own and just pay attention to detail and make sure you get all the back end of YouTube optimized properly. Or use a tool like Vidiq. And after the $1 trial, I think right now the boost plan is like $16 a month or something like that. So super affordable. And if you want to check that out, vidiq.com think or just click the link in the show notes to do a $1 trial of one of the coolest softwares for YouTube optimization called Vidiq. And you can Check that out in the show notes. All right, so we are going through YouTube's ranking algorithm. The 10 factors that actually matter in 2025. Number one, viewer satisfaction. Number two, watch time, audience retention. Number three, engagement signals like likes, comments, shares, your transcript, the words you say in your video time codes, chapters. Number four, the relevance of metadata, title, description, tags. Number five, click through rate. So ctr, AKA click through rate is the percentage of people who click on your video after seeing it in search results or recommendations. And this still matters like crazy eye catching thumbnails. Compelling titles drive click through rate higher and they signal viewer interest. And so imagine this. You're walking down a busy street lined with restaurants. Each one has a sign out front, but some signs are faded, they're cluttered or hard to read, while others are bold, clear, inviting, and they instantly make your mouth water. Which restaurant do you want to walk into? You know, when you think about YouTube, there are a lot of signs out there inviting you to walk through the door into their restaurant, AKA click through and watch their video. And so you want to be thinking about it. Is your thumbnails faded, cluttered, hard to read, or are they clear and inviting and instantly recognizable? Are your titles hard to read and clunky and sort of not well optimized, or are they smooth and easy to read? Really, the combination of your topic, of your title and of your thumbnail, those three things together are going to be the determining factor of your click through rate. And here's the thing, when it comes to YouTube and really building your brand online, if you confuse, you lose. Clarity is power. And you know, if I had to choose between creativity and clarity, I would choose clarity every single time. So when possible, keep your thumbnails simple, bold, visually striking, and ensure that your titles are sharp, easy to read and instantly intriguing. And be doing your research to be picking on topics that people want to click on in your niche. The sixth factor for ranking and triggering the algorithm is session duration. Check this out. YouTube values videos that keep users on the platform longer even after your video ends. So content that leads viewers to watch more videos through playlists or strong end screens improve rankings. So the goal here is not just thinking about how do I get somebody to watch one of my videos? The question is, how do I get people to binge my content? So a couple tips is instead of creating a singular video, think about creating a series. And then when the video is over, think about giving a clear and compelling reason to click the end card and to keep watching more videos in that series or A natural follow up to watch. Next, think about organizing your videos in playlists and then giving a call to action to those playlists to let people know that the playlist exists and there's multiple videos that they might be interested in. The ultimate goal and really the action item is architecting binge worthy experiences when it comes to your videos and thinking beyond a singular video and thinking about multiple different videos. Number seven Video Length and depth. So longer videos that maintain viewer engagement tend to rank better, especially for informational and how to Content studies consistently show that top ranking videos average around 10 to 15 minutes provided they deliver value throughout. So a couple things here. One, there's a temptation to look for the perfect video length and the answer is there is not one. However, longer is better if it can hold attention. And I did just give you a number and this was from deep study of YouTube Google my experience and analyzing data. Deep research with AI. 10 to 15 minutes is a great target. You also can analyze different creators out there. You notice some of the biggest creators pushing their video length to 24 minutes, about the length of a half an hour TV show. So you start thinking, okay, why are people doing longer content? Well, not just to fluff up their content. If it can hold viewer retention, what does YouTube want? They want you on the platform for as long as possible, so deliver value throughout and stretch your content length if you can keep value packed in the video. You know, I recently spoke at an event in Las Vegas. It was the CEO Summit for Keller Williams Realty and I shared the one strategy I would focus on if I was a real estate agent. But for anybody listening to this podcast, you want to be consistent on YouTube this year, this is the one strategy I'd focus on. And here it is. Create at least one high quality strategically optimized long form horizontal video every single week. And here's my definition. 6 to 15 minutes plus. So create at least one high quality strategically optimized long form 6 to 15 minute plus horizontal video each week. Do that over and over and over and get 1% better with every upload. And I believe you can start building momentum on YouTube and triggering the algorithm. And if we play out this algorithm factor even deeper, there is a time and place for ultra long form content. That's a massive opportunity this year. You know, one of the videos we just uploaded on our Think Media channel is a YouTube business masterclass that is 4 hours and 45 minutes long. It actually just featured four sessions of our event Grow with Video Live that happens in Las Vegas all in one video. But check this out. The RPM of the video is $17 because of the subject matter business, you know, online marketing, et cetera. And at this moment, this is kind of funny, but for a 4 hour and 45 minute video, the average view duration is 14 minutes right now. So you might be like, that's so short compared to the length of video. True, but it's also like really long compared to people's average attention on YouTube. All right, we're going through 10 factors and we have reached number eight, which is channel authority and consistency. Channels with a history of regular uploads, high engagement, and a growing subscriber base are seen as more authoritative. I mentioned this earlier. Channel authority, consistent posting, and a strong subscriber count can indirectly boost individual rankings. Now, I actually have two things to share with you here, and one is, in today's world, there's an argument that subscribers don't matter. It's the content that matters. And brand new channels are having breakout videos. So never make excuses. Know that you could succeed starting from scratch right now. Also know that sometimes a big subscriber count can kind of be a weakness or it can just be meaningless because the subscribers have moved on. Such random content was posted on the channel that the subscribers are inconsistent and not actively clicking on the videos right now. However, if you have an engaged subscriber base, you have an advantage, because when you post a video, it's going to boost the ranking because more people are clicking on it and they're watching it right now. And if you've got a reputation of regular uploads that are high quality, high engagement, meaning they are watched and engaged with and commented on and liked, just think about it. It's like a flywheel of success. More success begets more success. So think about it like this. Imagine you're a woman over 40 looking for fitness advice and you find two channels. One has hundreds of workouts, nutrition tips, strength training videos specifically designed for women in their 40s and 50s and beyond. But then the other channel has a mix of random content. It has some fitness, it has some travel vlogs. It also has some cooking and some generic health tips. Which channel are you more likely to trust for your specific needs? So people always debate, do I need a niche down? Should I post random content? I don't know. I feel like this kind of settles it. Again, you can do that. And if you're building a personal brand and people are subscribing for you and your random life adventures. All right, good luck. But based on those two Channels, even just health itself. It's like, oh, am I just subscribing for random health advice or could I be really dialed in? You're a woman in your 40s. You're looking for fitness advice. You're looking for like, that perfect channel that's gonna align with you. That's how channel authority works. The more focused your content, the more YouTube and your audience recognize you as the go to expert for that content. Instead of just being another fitness channel, you become the channel for fitness over 40, making it easier to rank, get more recommendations, and build a loyal following. Number nine, viewer history and personalization. This is a big one because this ties into the theme and you having a niche and you having clarity about what your channel is about. YouTube tailors results based on viewers watch and search history. So videos that align with a user's past behavior are more more likely to rank higher for that individual, making relevance to the audience interests a massive key. So think about what's on your YouTube homepage when you open the app. If you're watching the YouTube version of the podcast, let me know, like, what are the top things and types of videos that are recommended to you? And think about this. The videos recommended to you are not random. They're based on what you've watched before, what you've engaged with, and what YouTube thinks you will enjoy. There isn't just one YouTube homepage that everyone in the world sees. There's actually billions of homepages. This is what personalization means. So now put yourself in the shoes of your ideal viewer. What's on their homepage? Hopefully your videos. What videos are they clicking on? What creators are they already watching? This gives you the opportunity to think about researching competitors in your niche, thinking about associating your content with other content in your niche. Because you're understanding the algorithm, you're understanding how YouTube works. So understanding this helps you create content that naturally fits into other people's recommended feeds. And if your video aligns with what they're already watching, YouTube is far more likely to push it to them, leading to more clicks, higher watch time, and better rankings. At Think Media, we say the creator who understands the viewer best wins. Because when you understand the viewer and the target audience you want to reach, you're making topics that align with their problems and their ambitions, their pain points, the things they want to click on. Even if you're not great at writing titles or designing thumbnails, you still can get great results if you're good at identifying the topics, pain points, concerns, desires of your Target audience, the other stuff they're watching that you want to be associated with. And so to rank on YouTube in 2025, you need to understand two things. You need to understand your target audience and you need to understand how the YouTube algorithm works. And so how do you apply this? Focus on three things. Number one, know your audience. Number two, understand how YouTube recommends content. And then number three, use that knowledge to create video topics and titles that match what your audience is already searching for. Number 10, freshness of content. This is one of the coolest things to know about YouTube, because this is why there's always a chance to break out. You know, there's two types of content. There's evergreen content and there's trending content. Evergreen content can rank for months and even years if it sustains engagement over time. But trending topics, think about time sensitive queries, things like news, they often get a ranking boost. And a lot of times, if you're quick, you can jump on topics before anyone else. And so content that is recently uploaded, about topics that people care about, aka freshness of content, is something that YouTube will rank, even if it's only for a short time. And so let me ask you a question. Don't you always want the latest information? Do you prefer new and fresh content or do you look for old content? I mean, I'm sure there's situations where maybe you are looking for, maybe an old classic book is better than a new book. That's unproven. But when I search for something on YouTube, I sometimes get frustrated if the top result is from three years ago. Especially if I'm looking for updates on a product, on a platform, on an industry trend. I'm wondering what's changed? What's new? Is there a more current video? This is why if you're starting on YouTube, you're starting from scratch. There's always an opportunity to grow. YouTube is wide open because the world is always changing. There's always a desire for fresh content. That's the opportunity. Fresh content always has a chance to rank because people want the latest updates. And here's the kicker. Many creators can't keep up. They move on, they get busy. They don't update their content. Established creators, maybe they, because they're established, they're kind of settled, they're kind of comfortable. Money's come in. They maybe have some old content that's still making some money. Some of their life has changed or transitioned a little bit. This is an opportunity for you. It's a huge advantage for new channels wanting to break through to tap into fresh content. And for a really tactical action item, consider this A specific time can be a huge ranking factor. You know, I mentioned earlier on our main channel Think Media, we talk a lot about cameras. So trying to rank for best camera in 2025 is much easier than trying to rank for best camera in general. And every time the earth circles the sun, we get another shot at a fresh year. And in some industries you even have a chance to maybe target the month. In real estate, you might do monthly market updates, even weekly. And in other niches you can jump on trends seasonally, winter, spring, summer, fall, and combine the season with the year. And so there is always an opportunity on YouTube when it comes to freshness of content. It just means you need to be strategic. You need to be forward thinking, have a fresh mindset of not just seeing the problems and the competition, but seeing the opportunities and the possibilities that are before you. If you are more creative with your content and you tap into these 10 factors, if you enjoy episodes like this, it always means the world. If you like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen to the Think Media podcast. If you want to get a free copy, just cover shipping and I will mail you the updated second edition of YouTube Secrets. Just go to ytsecrets.com or click the link in the Show Notes to order your free copy of YouTube Secrets. Again, just cover shipping and that'll be on the way in the mail to you right away. Until next time, my name is Sean Cannell your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel and I cannot wait to connect with you in a future episode.