How Do Swear Words Affect Visibility?

[Blenderhead]

Being that I'm a ranter who uses a fair (putting it lightly) use of swear words in my videos, I'm not exactly sure if YouTube's algorithm could tell, or takes this into account when it comes to search, related videos, etc.

From a common sense point of view, I could understand if YouTube *knew* there was explicit language in a video, they'd be inclined to feature it less - as someone could easily click on a title/thumbnail and then be blasted with four-letter words they didn't ask to hear.

Although I never plan on censoring the speech in my actual videos, I've made sure not to use any swear words in titles, descriptions, tags, etc. and even use "F*ck" instead of "f**k" in thumbnails. I figure this is the least I could do as so far as not triggering some sort of 'explicit' content filter.

Does anyone know and/or have experience in this regard as for the effect, negative or not, of using swear words on YouTube as a creator?

 

[Thrashbat]

I commend you for your wisdom in not putting swear words in your titles. If it doesn't turn off YouTube, it'll turn off many viewers who will tolerate it when it happens but wouldn't click on a video titled with it.

 

[Wreckless Eating]

Swear words do not affect visibility directly, but it can hurt your views/click thru rate if you are monetized. By not censoring swear words, you are limited to only a few ads, which means there will only be one or two to choose from-which means the same ad will play over and over. That leads to people skipping a lot more ads or just clicking off altogether before your video even starts.

 

[Kath]

I'm not sure if it affects where it is in the featured section. Probably not because well....a lot of the big Youtubers swear all the time. Some people don't mind swearing, some people are offended.
I personally don't mind, if it's not over done and if the video is not directed at a younger audience. I personally believe, that ALL videos with swearing should have an advisory at the beginning. I guess I'm just old school . I've had an experience where an 8 year old said to my 6 year old, "Hi d***!!!" .....and I said "What did you just say???" She got real embarrassed and said "Sorry, I watch too much Smosh" So I've experienced the effects of swearing first hand lol.

 

[TheBatteryChicken]

I'd be interested to find out if YouTube does incorporate this into their search algorithm but I don't think they do. It would require some serious man power to go through every uploaded video looking for each swear word and because of accents etc it would be difficult to automatically pick up on it.

I do have a video with p***y in the title and its my most viewed video so I'm not even sure about them lowering videos In the search rankings with a swear word in the title

I think it would start to become an issue at the higher end of YouTube with content they promote such as the comedy week they did. All the videos that where selected at the top where all family friendly ******** which personally I found boring as f**k but they obviously didnt want to offend people.

 

[Arleth Smith]

unless you use 'shows' go ahead,no one can stop you

 

[Carl Hinton]

I never, ever put swear words even close to my videos in the description, title or tags. There could be kids watching !

But if they make the mistake of clicking on one of my vids, they are mine, I own their souls, and they will have to brace themselves for the torrential avalanche of cursing they are letting themselves in for

 

[UltimateKirbyBoi]

For my own content, swear words don't seem to have that big of a negative impact.
If anything, I think they might have a positive impact for my crazy videos (as in the ones that are crazy and outrageous rantings).

 

[Gabriel]

The only downside to using swear words as far as I am aware is if you put it in your video title, description, thumbnail or tags, you will have monetization being disabled on the video most likely. YT does not serve ads on videos with sensitive or misleading metadata.

 

[Grant Casual]

I have/had no idea youtube used this to track videos. I haven't used one cuss word in any of my videos. I have b*****d in ONE of them but that is like the only one i ever used! Many of the big guys have cuss words in their titles and a little while afterwards because even if you cuss in it, don't do it on the thumbnails or the titles.