YouTube Responds to 5 Frequently Asked Questions About Its Recommendation Algorithms

By answering some popular concerns about its search and discovery systems, YouTube has aimed to provide additional insight into how its algorithms pick which clips to feature to each user, which could provide further direction for your platform strategy.

YouTube's Rachel Alves answers five questions from YouTube creators about the use of tags, recommendations, algorithm improvements, and more in a new video on the Creator Insider channel.

The value of these insights will vary depending on your channel, but in general:

Should you publish your videos outside of YouTube, considering that YouTube may not be able to attribute all off-platform interaction metrics?

Creators should 'definitely' post their videos outside of YouTube, according to Alves, because this will only boost their chances of being discovered based on audience activity, regardless of direct attribution.

“If your videos are getting more traffic from external sources, like social media, it’s likely increasing your potential to be discovered by more viewers. Another benefit is that those viewers now have that video in their watch history, so there’s a higher likelihood that they may be recommended one of your other videos in the future.”

Why do people get recommendations for videos that were posted ten or twelve years ago?

YouTube's system, according to Alves, is designed to match users with videos they're likely to appreciate, regardless of when the video was uploaded. That means that even older videos with high engagement will continue to be recommended to viewers based on their preferences.

YouTube requires a new method of promoting new creators.

Many people are asking for this, according to Alves, who points out that YouTube recently launched the 'New to You' tab to spotlight more channels from outside each viewer's normal viewing experience.

Should you focus on specific tags or more broad matching subjects when adding video tags to maximize discovery?

YouTube's video tags give creators yet another way to correlate their material with certain searches, while YouTube explicitly states that tags aren't a key factor in their algorithm.

“Tags are descriptive keywords you can add to your video to help viewers find your content. Your video’s title, thumbnail, and description are more important pieces of metadata for your video’s discovery. These main pieces of information help viewers decide which videos to watch.”

Alves emphasizes this point, recommending creators to concentrate on the components that viewers consider while deciding what to watch, such as the title, thumbnail image, and description. Instead of optimizing tags, Alves suggests that creators should concentrate on what works for other, comparable videos on their topic.

Has YouTube's algorithm changed recently?

YouTube is continually changing its algorithms, as said by Alves, but they get a lot of questions about probable algorithm changes around this time of year.

This is due to large-scale adjustments in viewer behavior prompted by the return to school across the United States. When students return to school, channels generally experience a shift in their metrics, with fewer views on weekdays but more activity on weekends.

This can give the impression that the algorithm has changed, when in reality, the shift is due to changes in viewer behavior brought on by external lifestyle changes.

This new overview doesn't contain any game-changing information, but it does provide some further context for how YouTube's systems work and how material is displayed to each user in the app.

That may assist you in better comprehending some elements and incorporating them into your planning.