9 amazing watch-time tips to rank higher in search results

[GameTime]

Wait wait, before I even introduce myself I want you to read all of the tips I gave, why? Because I can assure you that if you'll implement all those tips regularly, you'll rank higher in search results, get more viewers and more active subs and mainly - lead to awesome community based on your channel.

Hey guys, you might recognize me from the "introduce myself" post, if not - let me give you just a bit background:
My name is Ishay (I didn't tell that at first) and I am from Israel. I have a channel in Hebrew for the israeli audiance which is all about "how-to" and tech (Mainly things like how to edit videos, how to live stream etc.)
My Hebrew channel is called HowToEvery, and has above 7,000 subs and I learn a lot of things during the period of time I'm familliar with being a youtuber.
So what am I doing here with this "lame" channel with only 50 subs?
Well, this is a new channel I created that is in English for the world wide audience and I want to be recognized by that channel, because it won't be interesting for you to watch a channel in Hebrew
One last thing: my native language is not English, so if you find any grammar issues, I would love to hear feedback, learn and fix it

Ok, so I talked way too much about myself - now let me explain you how live streaming will rank you higher in search results.
First of all, you should be familiar with Watch Time. So let's say you have 10,000 views on a video, yeah that's cool, but if most of the views leave your video on the first 5 seconds or so, that means your video isn't worth it. YouTube doesn't take views as measure of success, neither do subs - but watch time.
If a person watches your whole video, or just a big portion of it (or maybe it's 1 hour video but the viewer watches for 20 minutes - that's still a lot.) youtube knows it's a quality video - and rank it higher in search results, because they want viewers to see quality content.

Now when you know how watch time is a big factor for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you probably want to know how to get more watch time.
Here are some (let me call them amazing) tips that will help you gain more watch time:
Why are they amazing?

1. Don't make videos too short, by that I mean about 10 seconds, I mean, it's not so bad if the viewer will watch your entire 10 sec video, and if it's a viral video it will be a great eye catcher for new subscribers, but don't place your energy for videos like this, since they won't help you that much with watch time.
2. Don't make your videos too long - If it's an interesting video, you might wanna seperate it to parts - not like every 10 minutes video, but whenever you change a sub-title, for example - I once did a complete video for how to edit with Adobe Premiere, a 30 minute video that provides the basics. But people see that 30 minutes and run away, so I created a series of Premiere editing lessons, each lesson teaches one thing - my viewers usually stay to learn all of that part, and go to the next video with joy that with every video they learn 1 more thing.
3. Playlists. Playlists are so important you can't even imagine. First of all, when a viewer goes into your channel and see a bunch of playlists - he knows what content to expect. Also, when a viewer got into one of your playlist, he will probably continue to watch the playlist, which will give you a lot more watch time than just 1 lonely video.
4. Intros and Outros - Forget about intro. this is one of the worst branding tricks if you do it wrong. Intro can help branding and let the viewers you got a quality channel, but that is not the case if your intro is like 30 seconds, in that case the viewer will skip it or leave the video, and if that happens, what's the point of that intro? Also, template intros are so over used, whenever I see a gaming channel with a dubstep bouncing text intro, I know it will be just like all others. Outro is actually more important, Your viewers can see where to find you on social media, and go to other videos of yours, but they might leave even before they see that intro, so a great tip is while you keep talking, just before you say the closing words, start the outro. For example *Outro starts* "and all you have to do is press this button and you're done, so that's it, leave thumbs up bla bla". The audience can still see you in a small window but also skip what you're saying and go to another video of yours that shows up, or maybe even a playlist
5. Hook the viewer attention in the first 5 seconds - That might be hard, but there might be a few things you're doing now that are really harmful for that. For exapmle, an intro on the first seconds of the video - your viewer might leave before it even ends, even if it's a 5 sec intro. The first 5 seconds are important - try to use them to tell the audience what will be in the video as quick and as interesting as possible - then you can shove in that intro. I told you it might be hard, I tricked you.
6. Don't be boring - Yes, I know it sounds obvious, but really try to think about it in your next video - don't speak too slow or with a lot of 'umm's , once the viewer got your attention, just don't lose it. Get straight to the point and be "spicy" (my word for enthusiest") - but also, don't give the audience what they want right ahead - for example, your video title is "Agar.io - I'm the queen's cleaner", I used that title for one of my videos, and I didn't straight ahead show them the part when I troll a cell (player in Agar.io) with the queen's skin, but place it in the beginning of the last third of the video or so.
7. Tell the viewers to stay - I encounterd so many times where people comment on my video and asks how do they do "x" in that software editing - even though I put a lot of effort and taught that in the video, that drove me crazy, so I just tell my viewers to watch the entire video without skipping before they ask any questions, and if they still ask a question, just tell them again that you said it in the video and to watch it all. But please, don't be annoying with that, if you are boring I wouldn't be able to even stay, so again, always try to be "spicy"
8. Don't tell them to leave - Yeah, it sounds obvious, but there are many youtubers directing the viewer to their website which will usually interrupt the user's watch session, make him stop watching your videos and even leave youtube. Youtube's goal is that you will make the viewer stay on youtube for longer, if you make them leave youtube, they don't consider it as a good thing and might cause you rank lower.
9. Live streaming - I saved the best for the end. this is the best tip because usually youtubers don't notice or think about it, but it's a huge watch-time increaser (if that's a word). Live streams usually last longer than regular videos, sometimes even 1 or 2 hours, but guess what, the viewer will also stay for much longer than a regular 3-5 minutes video, because it's so interactive. Live streaming will let you connect and respond to your viewers in real time, makes them feel unique - they'll want to keep watching and speak to you so they'll stay, also there is something about live streams, a feeling that you want to see it while it's live so you won't miss it, even if the whole live video will go to your videos after that. Also don't forget that when you're live, you already rank higher and have a very eye-catching "Live now" badge.

One last thing - did you see how I hooked you up to this post in my first words and also told you to read the whole thing before I got you bored with my life? these are implemantations of tips 5,7 - if it worked on you, it will work on your viewers.

So I hope you learned a lot, now go ahead and start rework your channel, right after you leave a warm comment for my effort in putting all this together

 

[Redford1900]

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

 

[GameTime]

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

Glad to help

 

[Detline]

Nice tips! I am going to try them !thanksssss

 

[Brandon Nankivell]

Thanks for the taking the time to share your insights. Makes me realize my intros are too long!

 

[GameTime]

You're welcome guys! Glad it lead you to good insights

 

[Brainbean]

Good read, Thankfully I already do these things but I still like to read guides like this in hopes of finding something to help improve my channel. Thanks for taking the time to write it all out. I know it will help quite a few people out.

 

[MagikMike]

Great tips! I guess now that watch time has been the #1 SEO factor for the next little while, the 'totally irrelevant to the video hot girl in thumbnail' technique has been rendered near useless

Also, I've heard that if u put a split second frame of a picture that it'll cause people to rewind and improve audience retention time, but I haven't tried it.

 

[GameTime]

Great tips! I guess now that watch time has been the #1 SEO factor for the next little while, the 'totally irrelevant to the video hot girl in thumbnail' technique has been rendered near useless

Also, I've heard that if u put a split second frame of a picture that it'll cause people to rewind and improve audience retention time, but I haven't tried it.

Yeah I do that a lot in my second channel, it's usually funny and yes, most of the time people will rewind so they'll be able to see what was written there, I never actually thought about it as a technique haha

 

[MagikMike]

Yeah I do that a lot in my second channel, it's usually funny and yes, most of the time people will rewind so they'll be able to see what was written there, I never actually thought about it as a technique haha

Enhancing watch time without even realizing it, I like it!