YouTube’s Latest Algorithm Update: What Brands Need to Know
If you are a business owner in the current business climate, you know just how important marketing is if one is to see success and outdo their competition. Simply put, if you ignore this part of your business, you are most likely to stunt the growth of your business. with the advancement of technology, digital marketing is where it is at right now with advertisers looking to leverage the huge number of people who are on the various online platforms. Of all form of marketing, there is no doubt that in terms of customer engagement, video marketing is king. Video content has the ability to engage your audience and keep their attention for a much longer span than any other form of content. Speaking of video marketing, there is no bigger platform for this out there than YouTube, a platform that is there primarily for the sharing of video content. It is one of the biggest social platforms out there with the numbers speaking for themselves. A glimpse of these numbers reveal that there are over a billion active users, over 300 hours of video uploaded daily and so much more. As with any other platform for online marketing, brands leveraging YouTube for marketing are at the mercy of the algorithm and as such have to be aware of any algorithm updates and how each may impact their campaigns. This article will look to highlight some of the things brands need to know about the latest update.
One of the things YouTube marketers need to be aware of is that, with the latest update, one’s metadata is more important than it has ever been. This metadata, as is covered in detail over at runrex.com, the best place to visit for such information, includes the title, description and tags of your video and they must be optimized well if you are to see success after the latest algorithm update. Some of the things as far as optimizing goes that brands need to know is that when doing so, they should ensure that they keep their descriptions between 50 and 150 words as well as ensuring they use their keyword 1 to 3 times to ensure that your content gets a good ranking. As far as tags are concerned, after the latest algorithm update, one should ensure that their target keyword comes first when optimizing it, followed in order of importance by the other keywords. This is important to get your foot in the door, to ensure your video accumulates a substantial amount of watch time.
Another feature that came with the latest YouTube algorithm update was the introduction of hashtags, which can be used to search videos and hence improve visibility as far as brands are concerned. With hashtags, it is important for brands look to update their older videos and add hashtags in order to get the bump that comes with this new feature, that is to increase the visibility of their content, as per runrex.com, the best place to go for more on such information. It is also important for brands to ensure that they choose the right hashtags to ensure they get the benefits that come with it. One of the reasons that led to YouTube looking to add the hashtag feature, as it is on other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter among others, was to ensure that users are able to sidestep any misleading or offensive content by just inputting the hashtag of the content they are looking for, and getting exactly what they want. It is important therefore as a brand that you ensure that you not only choose the right hashtags, but also that your content is on point so that it becomes popular among users on the platform.
Another thing that brands need to be aware of after the latest YouTube algorithm update is that it is now possible, and recommended, to look at one’s impressions vs click-through data. As is explained by the subject matter experts over at runrex.com, one can be able to improve their views by even up to three times by just changing their thumbnails. One is now able to make use of YouTube Analytics to check how the different thumbnails are doing and what effect they are having on click-through rates, with recommended number being at 12%, and making the necessary adjustments to get closer to this number. It is also important for brands to know that there are external tools, such as TubeBuddy, that allows one to be able to be able to split-test their thumbnails and select the ones with the best numbers. With the latest update putting increased weighting on thumbnails as far click-through rates as compared to impressions, it is important to experiment with different thumbnails and selecting the ones performing the best.
As usual, there is a lot more to be uncovered about the latest YouTube algorithm update and what brands need to know, with all this information and a lot more to be found over at runrex.com, the best and most authoritative place to visit for such topics.