YouTube is the world’s largest video-sharing platform, with 300 hours of video uploaded to it every minute. With so much content available, it’s important to know how to optimize your channel for the best results. One of the most important metrics is watch time, which is a measure of how long your audience stays on your videos.
YouTube uses watch time as a measurement of the quality and relevance of your content. It’s a better metric than view count because it shows how long a viewer stays with your content as opposed to leaving within a few seconds. It also helps you get better search and recommendation rankings on YouTube.
The key is to make your videos as engaging as possible. This means making your videos as entertaining as possible and using the best and most descriptive titles and thumbnails that you can.
Having a high-quality and unique title and thumbnail sends a positive signal to YouTube about the value of your content. It’s also a good idea to use an appropriate keyword in your title and thumbnail as this will help you get more views.
Another great way to increase your watch time is by creating playlists. By creating playlists, you’ll be able to create an easy-to-watch experience for your viewers that will increase their session time and average view duration, which will result in higher watch times and audience retention on your channel.
Playlists can also be a great tool to drive new viewers to your videos and keep them engaged. You can do this by adding cards to your videos that funnel people to your other content or by having a video playlist that automatically plays all of your videos on the first page.
There are a few things to remember when creating playlists, though. Firstly, it’s important to choose videos that have a strong watch-time history and are relevant to the topic of your playlist.
For example, if you’re creating a playlist on the topic of fitness, then it’s important to ensure that your videos are high-quality and that they’re relevant to the audience you’re targeting. Having high-quality and relevant videos that have a great watch-time history will give your playlist an excellent chance of being discovered by the right people, which will then lead to more audience retention and more Watch Time for each of the videos in your playlist.
You can also increase your Watch Time by having highly-engaged audiences and generating new video ideas from your subscribers. For example, if you’re creating content on the topic of fitness, then you might ask your subscribers what they would like to see from you in the future.
These subscribers will tell you what they want to see, so it’s important that you take note of their suggestions. You can then incorporate these ideas into your next video to give them a try.
In addition, it’s also a good idea to be honest with your viewers from the start. Be upfront about what your channel is all about and be truthful with them as this will make them more likely to continue watching your videos. youtube watch hours