What factors does YT use to rank a video?

[Jungle Explorer]

I am curious if anyone knows what factors youtube uses to rank a video? It seems there is no rhyme or reason to which videos show up under a search. Let me give you an example to show you what I mean.

I have done some product reviews for a Chinese fishing equipment company called "Goture". My videos are some the most watch videos for Goture products. I do a lot of SEO research on my videos when I list them. I enter lengthy descriptions that employ many related keyword phrases and use up almost all tag 500 characters, creating high traffic, low competition TAGs that have my video showing up at the top of those searches. But my videos are beat out by other videos, that have no descriptions and way less views then mine. Here is a screenshot to show what I mean.



As you can see in the above image. Under the search term "Goture" four videos show up at the top. My videos are 3rd and 4th. Now, that is not a bad position and I am glad to be there, but my question is, why are the other two videos above mine. If you look closely, the 1st video has only 2.5K views. The 2nd video has 3.5K views. My two videos have 11K and 18K views. Also, the 1st and second videos do not have a single word in their description. Here are screenshots.

Goture Search result 1



Goture search result 3




Now here is my SEO for my video that shows up 3rd.



So what I don't understand is this. Why are those videos ranked higher then mine? Those videos have way less views then mine. I have three times more subs then those channels. Those videos have no description, where as mine has 4834 characters of description and 492 characters of high quality top ranking tags.

I could understand if those videos had more views, better SEO, and were from a much bigger channel with more subs then me; but they don't have any of that! They are not even close to me in any respect.

This is why I am asking about what factors YT uses to rank videos. It sure does not seem to have anything to do with, Views, SEO and Subs. Can anyone help me understand what ranks on YT? Thanks.

 

[Gaijillionaire]

There are several hundred thousand points of data used by YouTube. First keep in mind a search you do is custom made for you based on many things, especially location and watch/search history. Other videos have more “authority” as they say based on watchbtime and interaction of the video. Even pros who devote 24/7 to deciphering youtube can’t fully explain it all because 1 it’s too big to explain 2 it always changes 3 youtube won’t spill secrets so it can’t be rigged.

Just make videos and you’ll rise. Everyone does

 

[Jungle Explorer]

There are several hundred thousand points of data used by YouTube. First keep in mind a search you do is custom made for you based on many things, especially location and watch/search history. Other videos have more “authority” as they say based on watchbtime and interaction of the video. Even pros who devote 24/7 to deciphering youtube can’t fully explain it all because 1 it’s too big to explain 2 it always changes 3 youtube won’t spill secrets so it can’t be rigged.

Just make videos and you’ll rise. Everyone does

I know all this and agree, but we can make guesses as to the cause. I guess you did not notice that I was using an Incognito Windows to do the search. This eliminates all of the "Tracking and Personalization" factors you mentioned. What did you mean by, "More authority based on watch time and interaction"? My videos beat both of those top two videos in all departments.

My point here is this. What good does it do to do tons of SEO work, if that is not even a factor? I could understand a video beating mine if it had Better SEO work and More Views. But when much smaller channels are beating my videos with less then 1/5th of the views and zero SEO, it just makes me wonder if investing a ton of time into doing keyword research to write lengthy descriptions and tag phrases is worth it.

The way I see things is like this. I am a small channel with only 3K subs. I do not expect my videos to rank as high as video from larger channels with 1 million subs in the same genre or same subject. That makes sense to me and I am okay with that. I do a lot of SEO on videos, in the hope that I can balance things out a bit with larger channels, but I do not think I can beat them. So when I see channels with less then 1K subs beating my videos, it makes me question things.

 

[EVO]

All you can do is make sure that your SEO is on point - After that I believe it is either pure luck or wizardry.

 

[Alexis Claudio Music]

I agree with EVO.

 

[Courtney Candice]

Yeah I’m also going to have to agree with evo!

 

[Gaijillionaire]

What I mean by authority is the channel overall watchtime which is a factor in how videos are suggested. It’s unfair but it means bigger channels get a leg up and go to the front of the line. It’s part of why a channel will snowball as it gets bigger. But every video I’ve ever seen with a YouTube employee always has them saying they are trying to deliver to the viewer what they want. So that’s what I’m focusing on and hoping it happens