Transcription
If it feels like YouTube is hiding your videos, the truth is it probably is. And unfortunately, it's completely normal. YouTube won't actually start pushing your videos until you've proved some things first. So, in this video, I'm going to run through the four things that might be stopping YouTube from recommending your content and what you need to do to fix it. Let's get into it.
All right. So, the very first thing that might be stopping YouTube from pushing your content is that your video optimization isn't actually matching your overall channel optimization. And what I mean by this is a lot of creators spend so much time trying to optimize individual videos. Like they'll focus on titles, thumbnails, topic, hook, and all of the things that make the individual video more clickable. Which, yeah, is what all of us gurus tell you to do. But when you actually zoom out a bit and look at your channel as a whole, everything tends to end up a bit messy because most people focus all of their time on each video, but forget that the overall channel needs to be optimized, too. And every video you post should somewhat be related to your channel's optimization as well. But a lot of people tend to overlook this. And by the way, for those of you who don't know what optimization means, I'm basically talking about things like your keywords, your titles, descriptions, tags, playlists, and all of the little bits of metadata that help YouTube and the viewer understand what your content is actually about. And this matters a lot because YouTube isn't just trying to understand one video in isolation. It's also trying to understand your channel as a whole. So, if your video is about one thing, but your overall channel is about something slightly different, then you're giving YouTube mixed signals, and these mixed signals will make it much harder for the algorithm to understand you.
So, the fix here is to make your channel and your videos feel like they actually belong together. Your channel description should clearly explain what your channel is about, who your content is for, and what people will get from watching you. Your channel tags, which are these things here, should support the overall topic and niche of your channel, not just a bunch of random keywords. Then your playlists, if you have them, should organize your content in a way that makes sense for the viewer. And then for each video, all of the keywords, your descriptions, and your optimization should of course relate to the individual video you're posting, but they should also match the overall niche of your channel, too. like they need to be closely related to how you've optimized your channel. So, your video tags should kind of relate to your channel tags and so forth. That way, each video matches your channel optimization and over time, the algorithm will be able to clearly identify your overall content strategy and it's going to make things much easier for you.
Then, the second thing that might be holding you back is that you don't fully understand your target viewer yet. And what I mean by target viewer is literally just the person you are trying to get to watch your videos. Like for me, my target viewers are you guys. Typically, they're creators looking to grow their small channels and eventually take content creation full-time. But what I see all the time is that small YouTubers spend way too long trying to figure out how the algorithm works. Now, for some reason, people are so obsessed with trying to figure out the latest algorithm hacks and learning how that super secretive bit of code actually works. But the thing you have to remember is that the algorithm doesn't really exist in the way that most people think it does. It is simply just a mirror of viewer satisfaction. So, what this means is the better you understand your target viewer, the better you'll understand what YouTube is actually looking for.
Now, what took me a long time to figure out was that knowing your niche is not the same as knowing your viewer. You might know that your channel is about fitness, gaming, travel, or whatever else, but that doesn't automatically mean you understand the actual person watching it. Because two different people can watch the same type of content for completely different reasons. One person might watch a travel video because they're planning their own trip. Another person might watch it because they like the lifestyle. or another person might watch that same video because they just enjoy escaping into places they'd never been. There can be so many different reasons one person would watch one of your videos.
So, the fix here is to stop building your content around just one topic and actually start building it around the type of viewer you want to attract. And the easiest way to do this is to ask yourself three things. Firstly, why does this viewer watch this type of content? Are they trying to learn something? Are they trying to be entertained? Do they want to stay updated? Do they want to feel inspired, relax, all that kind of stuff? Or do they just like actually follow a creator they relate to? Secondly, what do they actually care about? Because if you know what your viewers care about, you'll have a much better idea of what angles, titles, and hooks will actually get their attention. And then thirdly, what would make them choose your video over someone else's? Maybe it might be your personality, maybe it's your humor, your experience, or the way you explain things, or any specific style of content you create. You just need to ask yourself those three questions. And once you understand those three things, your content will become way more intentional because you won't just be making videos for a really broad niche anymore. You'll be making videos for a very specific type of person with a very specific reason to watch. And this alone will give YouTube a much clearer signal and much more confidence to work with when it decides whether or not to push your content out.
Then the third thing that's holding you back is that your videos don't yet have a strong enough value proposition. And by value proposition, I just mean what someone will get in return for watching your video. Like what will they walk away with once your video is finished? If there's no value for the viewer to gain, your videos will never get pushed. For example, a video like how to travel Bali is a big broad topic, but it doesn't really tell the viewer why they should watch that video instead of any other Bali travel guide saying the same thing. Whereas a video titled something like what I wish I knew before backpacking in Bali has a much clearer reason behind it. It creates curiosity. It feels more personal and it makes the viewer feel like they're going to get something much more useful than just a basic list of places to visit. And that is value proposition. It's not just what the video is about. It's what the viewer actually gets out of watching it.
So the fix here is that your viewers should be able to instantly understand what they're going to get out of your video before they even click on it. Are they going to learn something? Are they going to be entertained? Are they going to see a topic from a new angle? So if YouTube isn't pushing your videos at the moment, it's not because your content is bad. It might just be because your value isn't clear enough. So before you make your next video, ask yourself what the actual payoff is. What will the viewer get by the end of this video? Having this one thing planned out before you make the video will make a huge difference. I promise you.
Then before we get on to the last point, another thing you can do to push your videos is to clip up your best performing long forms into shorts. It's one of the easiest way to create positive signals again. Because if a video already performed well in the past, that means YouTube already has proof that people were interested in that topic. Now, this does entirely depend on what niche you're in. But a tool you could use for this is called Nexus Clips. It's an AI tool built around clipping, and it will automatically clip your long form videos into multiple different shorts by picking out the most engaging or viral moments. And you can also add things like captions, subtitles, and much more. Now, if you want to check them out, I'll leave all the links there down below.
So then the last thing is your relatability. And this is one a lot of creators don't think about enough. Now it's okay to focus on optimizing your ideas, your titles, your thumbnails, and the structure of your videos, but you often forget that your viewer still has to actually connect with the person creating the content. That person being you. Now, you can have a really great topic with incredibly useful content and fantastic editing, but if you're on camera and you feel too stiff, too scripted, or too robotic, you risk becoming much harder to watch like this right now. And this happens all the time. And this is actually me too at the start of my journey. In a lot of my old travel videos, I sounded so robotic and so monotone because I simply just wasn't that confident on camera yet. Now, yeah, at the time I was actually someone who sounded completely normal when talking to one of my friends, but as soon as I started recording, for some reason, as soon as I turned that camera on, I just like changed the way I spoke. Like, I started using words I wouldn't normally use. And I tried to sound like what I thought a YouTuber was supposed to sound like. But trust me when I say viewers can sense that. And when someone feels like they're being spoken at rather than spoken to, they're much less likely to connect with your video.
So the biggest fix here is which is something I practiced for a very long time is something called the coffee shop method. And I will actually do a whole separate video on this soon. But basically the coffee shop method is where if you're talking on camera or if you're even just doing voice over without your face into a microphone. You just need to imagine that when you're talking you're actually just sat in a coffee shop talking to a friend. So, when you look at the camera lens or say just using your microphone, you need to pretend that you're sat in a coffee shop. So, talk to your viewer like you'd talk to your friend. Relax yourself, use your own humor, your own weirdness, and just let things flow naturally. Now, I promise you this will be one of the biggest shifts when it comes to actually improving your relatability.
Now, if you want to take your videos even further, this video popping up on screen right now actually covers a brand new trending category of video dominating YouTube right now. In it, I'll teach you what this new category is and how you can use it to take advantage of the massive new view spike. You'll love it. I promise. Other.