In order to improve your organic reach on YouTube you should know how the YouTube algorithm works. YouTube algorithm’s goals are two – to find the right video for each viewer, and to make viewers keep watching. Therefore, the algorithm is watching user’s behavior as closely as it watches video performance.

The two most important places YouTube algorithm impacts are search results and recommendation streams. Search results are based on factors like your video’s metadata (title, description, keywords) and how well those match the user’s query, and your video’s engagement (likes, comments, watch time).

The recommendation stream is a two-fold process – first, it ranks videos by assigning them a score based on performance analytics data, and second – it matches videos to people based on their watch history, and what similar people have watched. So, the idea is not to identify “good” videos, but to match a viewer with videos that he wants to watch. The main goal is that viewers spend as much time as possible on the platform.

Here are some advices on how to improve your organic reach on YouTube:

– Optimize your video description text as it helps the algorithm surface your video when users are searching for your topic. So make sure to load the first sentence with a clear, keyword-focused description of your video.

– If something works, rinse and repeat – pay attention to what your audience wants. That means paying attention to your analytics. YouTube algorithm wants to give people more of what they’ve liked in the past, so experiment skillfully and take feedback from your audience.

– Publish often as the quantity of videos and frequency of upload is an important factor for the algorithm. If you are able to increase quantity without losing quality, go for it. The more videos you publish, the better chance you’ll have to improve your organic reach.

– Make your videos public when your followers are watching – take a look at your YouTube analytics in order to pick the optimal time of day or week to drop your newest content.

– Keep viewers engaged throughout the whole video – view duration is another key performance metric for the algorithm. You have probably listened to advices for making your videos shorter or longer, but really – just make them as interesting to watch as you possibly can.

– Engage with your community – reply to the comments and talk to people. Do not forget that the algorithm “knows” if you’re having meaningful conversations or just paying lip service to bump up your vanity metrics.

– Turn your viewers into subscribers as the subscribers provide a bunch of important initial signals that help dictate the success of your video. In other words, these fans are the testing ground — if they love it, YouTube algorithm is more likely to show your video to new viewers.