Content marketers aim to increase their YouTube viewership as part of the overall goals for content marketing, whether their goal is monetization, brand recognition, or increasing traffic to a website. More views mean a higher chance that videos will achieve these objectives.

But what will it take to increase views? Here are a few tried-and-tested strategies using things on-and-off the platform itself.

Keywords

Keywords play an important part in YouTube search results and driving traffic to your channel. By targeting relevant keywords that reflect the topic of your video, more viewers may come across and increase its viewership – using free tools like Google Trends or YouTube autosuggest can help identify relevant ones to focus on.

YouTube videos can add value for viewers by providing useful information or entertainment, brand building and even increasing search results ranking. Keyword-rich descriptions and transcripts can also help your videos stand out against their competition in search results; however, the quality of your content remains key in increasing viewership numbers on YouTube.

Producing engaging content will be key to increasing views in 2023. Create videos that address common queries or solve issues and viewers will likely share them with their friends and family, leading them to recommend your video as being high engagement – increasing its visibility in search results.

Not only should your content be of high quality, but keywords play a critical role in SEO as well. Keywords used in video titles, meta descriptions, transcripts, and related searches help YouTube identify and display videos related to them in related searches. Long-tail keywords offer greater specificity which may help improve your ranking in search results.

Another aspect of SEO is understanding your audience and their search intent. Doing this will enable you to determine which keywords will benefit your content the most – for instance, when someone types “how to make a smoothie”, that indicates they want an instructional video.

There are various tools for researching keywords, such as Moz Keyword Explorer and YouTube autosuggest feature. But the ultimate tool for YouTube keyword research is SEMrush; with its huge database of keywords, platforms like this provide precise details regarding competition, estimated monthly searches, and SERP placement information as well as keywords with video-rich results on Google that provide great opportunities for YouTube content.

Subscriptions

Subscriber counts on YouTube are an important measure of its success; yet they are notoriously difficult to accurately track due to their ever-evolving nature and numerous variables that influence it, including who views your content and for how long.

Utilizing YouTube’s built-in analytics tools can be helpful in tracking subscriber numbers. Doing this will allow you to identify patterns and trends in viewership like these as well as real-time tracking of subscriber growth – giving you more insight into both who is watching your content as well as which content resonates most with subscribers.

Make high-quality content if you want to increase YouTube viewership. No one enjoys watching content with poor audio and video quality; creating quality videos will attract more subscribers while building up your professional status. Consider recording in an uncluttered setting using studio lights; upload them as HD versions as soon as possible!

Encourage viewers to subscribe by asking them directly. You can ask for subscriptions either at the start or end of your video; some YouTubers choose early while others wait until after viewing to do so – the optimal time will depend on both factors.

Collaborations with other content creators can also help your channel increase subscribers. You can even work with a YouTube growth partner or even host a live stream with them or feature their videos within your videos to increase viewership. Not only that, but you can also start by creating a multi-part series to encourage new subscribers to subscribe to your channel.

Video discovery ads on YouTube resemble regular videos but are marked with a yellow “Ad” tag to identify them as an advertisement. They appear before, during, or after videos in search results or mobile homepages. Cost-per-impression pricing means you only pay when someone watches your ad.

YouTube’s in-stream video ads are its most popular ad format, playing before, during, and/or after videos – and can be skipped if desired. These ads can be seen on desktop computers, smartphones and tablets but cannot be monetized for game consoles or televisions.

Analytics

YouTube Analytics is an invaluable tool that gives you an all-encompassing view of the performance of your videos on YouTube. You can track metrics at a channel, content, and audience level; with its advanced mode providing even greater insights. These tools can help improve videos and attract more viewers but learning how to use these tools properly requires some practice and patience.

To maximize YouTube analytics, it is important to first review its general reports – specifically the overview and watch time reports (https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/youtube-analytics). The former gives an overall picture of your video performance during the past 28 days by showing total views and average watch duration; the latter gives insight into how long viewers are spending watching each of your videos; this metric should also be tracked as YouTube rewards channels with longer watch times in search and recommendation algorithms.

Consider reviewing your video engagement report, which displays how many likes and dislikes your videos receive, to gauge their quality. A high number of dislikes could mean you are failing to connect with viewers due to unoriginal or offensive language used, for instance. Consider looking at the total net change of likes and dislikes; this metric will reveal any positive changes made without including dislikes from trolls and competitors as negative factors.

Another metric worth looking at is the traffic source report, which offers detailed insight into how viewers find your videos. You will learn whether most views come from organic (searches on YouTube), recommended \, or external sources – not only that, but it will also show which videos attract the most organic traffic allowing you to target promotions more effectively.

Retention metrics provide insight into how long viewers remain interested in your videos. A decline in retention within 30 seconds could be an indicator that viewers were expecting something else; should this occur, try changing up your title and thumbnail, as well as including a call-to-action card before the end of your video to try to increase retention rates.