

That said, as anyone who has ever spent any time on the internet knows, time spent is not necessarily equivalent to quality time spent.

YouTube didn’t comment on either of these tactics and maintained the party line: make videos your audience wants to watch, and the algorithm will reward you. Others made their videos longer in order to increase watch time overall. YouTube’s algorithm change led some creators to try to make their videos shorter in order to make it more likely viewers would watch to completion. Early YouTubers were basically making TikTok videos…but watch time created gaming, beauty vlogging, alt-right podcasts… all these verticals we now associate with YouTube.”Īccounts that were big performers previously (like videos from eHow, or MysteryGuitarMan) dropped off almost immediately. According to Mark Bergan, author of Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination,“ had an immediate impact. This shift to reward watch time was a game changer. When people find videos valuable and interesting, they watch them for longer. It also included time spent on the platform overall. In 2012, YouTube adjusted its recommendation system to support time spent watching each video. User experience plummeted as videos left people feeling tricked, unsatisfied, or plain old annoyed. So it makes sense that YouTube’s algorithm started off by recommending videos that attracted the most views or clicks.Īlas, this led to an increase in misleading titles and thumbnails (a.k.a. the star of Me at the Zoo), YouTube was created in 2005 in order to crowdsource video of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s notorious Superbowl performance. 2005 – 2011: Optimizing for clicks & viewsĪccording to founder Jawed Karim (a.k.a.

What is the YouTube algorithm? To answer that question, let’s do a quick overview of how YouTube’s Algorithm has changed over the years.
#Most viewed youtube shorts pro

Because YouTube’s algorithm for recommendations drives 70% of what people watch on the platform. If you believe in free will, we have terrible news - well, at least when it comes to YouTube. 11 tips to improve your organic reach on YouTube
