3 ways to retain YouTube users and increase exposure

Previously, Ueeshop introduced YouTube channel expansion methods and video advertising types (expanding YouTube video channels and increasing business growth). But it still takes skills to retain viewers and increase the retention time of YouTube users. Today, Ueeshop will teach you three simple ways to increase the time users spend watching videos on YouTube and improve exposure.

Why is YouTube watch time important?

YouTube is one of the most powerful marketing platforms. How do you gain visibility for your content and generate views and interactions? Due to the sheer volume of content published on YouTube every minute, it can be difficult to not only generate organic YouTube visibility, but also to figure out the algorithm.

This was very easy when YouTube visibility was dependent on video views. Today, YouTube judges video quality based on the number of minutes watched, such as whether people engage deeply with the video and how long they keep watching.

This makes sense: if more people close the video or move on to another one after watching it, then the video must not be very interesting. Ueeshop points out that users' viewing time is difficult to manipulate or fake because YouTube knows clearly when the same person watches a video in its entirety over and over again.

So why should video creators care about the watch time metric? If a lot of people are watching your videos on YouTube, that’s the strongest signal of high-quality content. You’ll also notice an increase in views driven by YouTube (mostly from recommendations and related videos).

Beyond YouTube rankings, having users watch your videos in their entirety means more people will hear your main points, follow your verbal calls to action, and remember your brand. With the above in mind, it’s clear that watch time is by far the most important user engagement metric for YouTube. The following are three ways that Ueeshop teaches you to improve user retention rate.

1. Create a clickable directory for YouTube

YouTube lets you create clickable timestamps in your video descriptions and comments. When a viewer clicks on a timestamp, it takes them to that exact part of the video. Using this strategy, you can create a great outline for your video content, take people deeper into it and keep them interested.

Here is a detailed tutorial on creating video timestamps. First find the time in the video that you want to deep link to.

In the Comment box, type the time you see using the format hours:minutes:seconds (no spaces) . After this time, enter a name for this part of the video. Try to make it sound interesting and entice your audience to click.

It will be more attractive to phrase your video clip in the form of a question. Questions often drive clicks because people tend to look for answers immediately. In the end, you’ll have a clear list that describes what your video is about, with clickable timestamps that take viewers to each section.

If you introduce a few concepts or answer a few questions in your YouTube video, adding clickable timestamps will help your audience quickly navigate to the part that interests them most and keep them watching.

2. Sort YouTube videos into playlists

Playlists are YouTube's way of giving you a better idea of ​​what your video is about and how it relates to other videos. You may have noticed that YouTube now has recommended topics that allow you to discover new videos about topics you’ve watched before.

In the mobile app, YouTube's recommended playlists often include new content that you haven't watched before, but that is similar to content you have watched before.

YouTube uses a variety of signals to determine whether your video should be part of a topic or auto-generated playlist, including personal user preferences, text content and hashtags, common audiences, and more.

Ueeshop recommends categorizing your videos and other videos with similar or related topics into playlists, which can put your content in relevant communities and help YouTube categorize it correctly.

Playlists are also great for increasing your “watch time” metric because they’re made to be watched forever. In other words, playlists can increase your content engagement rate by providing viewers with a collection of videos.

You can also collaborate with other YouTube creators and have them add your videos to their playlists. Playlists are content entities that may rank well in YouTube and Google search results, especially for brand names.

Whenever you produce a podcast or series, be sure to create a playlist using the name of the podcast. Here’s an example of a Google Podcasts playlist ranking:

Here are the playlist rankings in YouTube search:

Once viewers find your playlist, YouTube will automatically play all the videos without distracting them by suggesting other videos. Creating and marketing YouTube playlists is important for discovery and increasing your “watch time” metric.

I recommend creating YouTube playlists, and always create branded playlists around your main brand name, your personal brand name, and the name of any projects you’re working on (e.g., podcasts, video series, etc.).

Create general category playlists (e.g., by general topic, content type, etc.), create “Best of,” “Top,” and similar playlists for your videos as well as those of other video creators. This sets important context for YouTube, allowing you to be placed in the most relevant categories. The ideal situation would be to collaborate with other YouTubers and put each other's videos in various public playlists. Link your website to your branded playlist to rank in Google.

3. Build anticipation with YouTube Premiere

Another way to increase engagement with your content (including video content) is through good timing. When it comes to YouTube marketing, we recommend scheduling a YouTube Premiere for your videos and promoting them through your social media channels using seasonal tags.

(1) Find the best time to watch YouTube Premiere

To determine the best date to schedule your Premiere and actually release your video, do some research on your video topic using Google Trends. This tool will help you determine exactly when you need to start preparing and publishing your content in order for it to get noticed.

For example, if your video is related to the topic of graduation, May 25-30 would seem like a good date range to schedule a YouTube premiere and start building anticipation.

April 15th would be a good day to post your video, to catch the peak of user interest before there’s too much content covering your topic.

(2) Set up a YouTube Premiere

First upload your video and on the right side of the upload page, activate the Premiere option. Then choose where you normally choose the privacy of your videos and select the day and time you want it to go live.

Ueeshop reminds everyone that when you schedule a video as a YouTube premiere, you will get a shareable link to invite users to watch and build some leads. Your future video page will give your viewers an option to set a reminder so they are notified when the video goes live.

Attracting audiences from Google to YouTube

When Google users search for the answers they want, they will watch your video in its entirety trying to find them. Unlike social media ads, where user browsing is often interrupted by ads, organic search traffic brings in users with the intent of finding content, so engagement is often higher.

Google seems to favor YouTube, and you might see a video or two (or a whole carousel) on every search you do. It’s easy for videos on YouTube to rank for long-tail searches, in part because there isn’t a lot of competition (also, there aren’t many video creators fighting for Google rankings so there’s still plenty of opportunity).

The key to getting a YouTube video page that ranks in Google is to find a searchable keyword that doesn’t have a lot of competition. Sort the results by search volume, this number represents the number of people searching for it each month over the past year.

Once you’ve chosen your keywords, use them in your video title, description, and hashtags. YouTube allows you to add up to 15 hashtags in your description. In general, the more text content you create around your video, the higher the likelihood that it will show up in Google organic search results and featured snippets.

YouTube viewing time is the most important indicator of the success of your video marketing. To get more people to watch your YouTube video content, you can try the following tips from Ueeshop:

Use descriptions or pinned annotations (or both) to create a clickable table of contents that sends viewers deep into the parts of the video that interest them most.

Categorize your videos into playlists to put your content into relevant context and allow YouTube to categorize them correctly (so that your videos appear in related and recommended videos).

Use YouTube premieres to schedule video content based on seasonal trends. Seasonal content often gets more engagement than any other type of content and can be planned up to a year in advance.

Optimize your videos for organic ranking in Google. Google rankings are generally more predictable than YouTube search rankings.

Author: UEESHOP self-built website platform

Source: UEESHOP self-built website platform