How to get featured in similar videos on YouTube? How to get into similar and recommended videos on Youtube

In this article we will talk about how to get into similar videos on YouTube. Many of my subscribers often ask questions: “How to get traffic from similar videos?”, “How does the algorithm for getting into similar videos work?” and “Why don’t my videos appear in similar videos on YouTube?” If a video ends up in similar videos to a popular video by a famous video blogger, the number of views increases to unprecedented levels. This is a well-known fact. But getting into similar videos is a very difficult task for many YouTubers. First of all, this is due to a lot of competition and the inconspicuous design of the video. Read our recommendations and you will understand how to increase your chances of getting featured in related videos on YouTube.

Playlist “Earning money on YouTube from A to Z” with all video lessons

Naturally, in order to get into similar videos, you need to work with metadata correctly. What is video metadata? This is the title, description and tags (the correct SEO promotion of video clips has been discussed; how to choose the right tags for a video, see). These parameters are the main ones. Of course, several components are important here. Just technically getting somewhere in similar videos is not enough to get good traffic. If your video has a low discoverability factor, it will not be noticed or clicked on. Therefore, it is important to attract the attention of potential viewers so that they click on your video and start watching. An unattractive video that ranks even in a good position among similar videos will most likely not collect traffic, this is inevitable.
What do you need to do to get into similar videos? The first step is to use key search queries that are relevant to your video and coincide with the overall trend and other creators you want to target. I draw your attention to the fact that no one will give you a guarantee of getting into similar ones to any specific video. If someone promises you this is nonsense, send it in a certain direction. Algorithms are constantly changing and take into account hundreds of factors when ranking videos and when comparing similar videos, and therefore no one will give you any guarantees.

To increase the likelihood and navigate through a group of videos in a group of channels in which you can get into similar ones, you need to properly optimize the video, as they say, from the point of view of SEO optimization. We focus on high-frequency search queries. As a last resort, for medium-frequency requests. This is better than focusing on low-frequency ones, for which there is not much traffic and in most cases there is no point in fighting for them.

We choose the right search queries for which, in principle, there is interest from the audience and there is traffic for them. We use these key queries in all metadata: title, description and tags. By the way, often you don’t need to use a keyword in the title! This is amazing, but recommendation systems help such a video get into similar videos if the title is interesting. And remember that different topics have different thresholds for entering similar videos. Educational videos or promotional videos on YouTube, such as I do, will not appear similar because there are no particularly similar videos in this niche and other content and a different format are popular.

Now I will give examples of the content that is received and how it does it and for what reason and what audience it attracts. That is, you must have a topic that is popular among a large number of potential audiences, your channel must have some initial traffic. Remember that when getting into similar videos, traffic dynamics and audience retention are always taken into account. But the paradox is that audience retention can be low, that is, it can be, say, 20-30 percent of the duration, that’s enough. More important for similar videos is the total time spent watching the video.

That is, for similar videos, it is more important that the number of total views in minutes be large. Traffic dynamics are key. If your video has 10 views per hour, and you want to get into similar videos to a video that has 1000 views, nothing will most likely happen. Because there are a huge number of competitors, other videos that have comparable dynamics and they will end up in a similar video.

So videos usually end up in videos similar to those that are comparable in topic, in terms of viewing dynamics and in target audience. YouTube tries to select similar videos based on viewers' interests. Now the artificial neural networks that YouTube uses are being trained and every day they should rank videos more accurately. Of course, mistakes happen, sometimes the system rolls back, because of this, many people experience traffic disruptions and a huge drop to almost zero.

Cool video icon

It is important to make a cool icon and a cool name! A good icon that matches the theme of your video, bright, contrasting, with large details that are clearly visible in the miniature. With a clear plot, with emotions, reflecting brands (if they naturally appear in your video) and some popular trends. Plus, many disguise icons into a single corporate style. Just remember the theme of super heroes. All the icons there are approximately the same. A yellow or light green unobtrusive background and close-ups of bright super heroes in different scenes.
Or children's theme. Videos about marmalade. They all have a blue background, the authors adapt to each other. Some bright plate and children with emotions. When a video meets audience expectations and is featured in similar videos, it is more likely to be clicked on and have a good discovery rate. The next task is to retain the attention of viewers and gain interaction factors with the video. If you watch the video to the end, that's great. If you participate in surveys using prompts, that's also good. If they share the video and write comments, it’s just great. That is, you need to get good behavioral factors. This way your video will stay in similar ones for as long as possible.

Video lesson “How to make a beautiful icon for YouTube videos”

And remember that you should not strive to get into some top channels that are similar at once. Especially if your channel is not comparable to the traffic dynamics of the top channel. This is her best idea, you will only waste time. We need to systematically work on the channel and increase the subscriber base. To do this, we are making more and more interesting icons, working on names, making them so as to attract the attention of the target audience. One video that you optimized may well not get anywhere

But when you have 50 quality videos that overlap with brands, are trending, and are highly optimized for similar videos, the likelihood of getting into similar videos increases significantly. Moreover, when one of your videos gets into similar ones and gets good traffic, it can pull your other videos on the channel through similar and recommended videos and then through the main page. The main thing is that these videos should be in some kind of serial context, that is, they were about approximately the same thing, and the algorithms could recommend them to the same people. These are fundamentally important points.

First of all, focus on what is really interesting to you, what you understand and what you are good at. Shoot content where you can understand and read the target audience. This is the tactic that will help promote your channel. It’s impossible to single out something specific; this kind of content is the easiest to shoot, but this kind of content is more difficult. No. It's all individual. For some it will be easier to film some life hacks, for others it will be easier to film home renovations or something like that. There are many options, to each his own. Choose what you like, but only if it is some more or less popular and in demand topic.

Now let's summarize everything that was written above and highlight the main points, following which you will increase the possibility of getting into similar videos.

• We produce high-quality, interesting content;
• the content should be serial, that is, a lot of videos on similar topics;
• select the right search queries and compose them into a title, description and tags for the video;
• making a colorful video icon.

As you can see, getting into similar videos is quite a difficult task. But if your videos are really high quality and you optimize them correctly, you will succeed. And if you do everything correctly, over time you will notice how other video bloggers will strive to get into similar videos to your videos.

Reading time 5 minutes

It's no secret that most YouTube viewers go to recommended videos in the right column of the watch page. For channel Frederator Networks traffic from them accounts for 40 percent or more of the entire viewing audience. In this article, a representative of the company, Matt Gielen, shares his experience, offering 7 ways to get into recommended videos on YouTube.

YouTube's coveted right column consists of three sets of videos:

• Four similar videos from the same author, selected according to a special algorithm
• Other videos YouTube thinks are similar to yours
• Recommendations based on user interests

The YouTube algorithm uses metrics such as watch time (according to YouTube, this is the time users collectively spend watching your video), relevance, viewer viewing history, engagement, and more. There are many ways to influence these metrics, and therefore influence probability of appearing in the recommended videos column. We will look at the seven main ones in this article.

1. Create engaging content

For example, the 107 Facts video series was created by Frederator Networks specifically to generate long view times. Example video:

There are plenty of resources to help you figure out what will be most appealing to your audience. Be sure to check your YouTube analytics to see what content is performing and what isn't.

2. Encourage interaction

Additionally, when a viewer has an emotional reaction, it will most often result in a longer viewing session. On YouTube it might look like this:

• You watch a video and your brain releases tons of chemicals (endorphins, etc.).
• You hit the like button and comment on how cool it was.
• The effect of these substances wears off when the video ends, and you want to return to that state again.
• You click on the next video.
• And here you are still watching YouTube... an hour later.

There is another, less theoretical, reason to encourage discussion under the video. YouTube said it uses comments as metadata for videos. Frederator Networks adds them by not only answering many commenters, but also by posting their own questions under each video. This serves two purposes. Firstly, it generates more comments. Secondly, it helps to start the process of keywords appearing. For example, under video 107 SpongeBob SquarePants Facts, you could ask the question, “Who is your favorite SpongeBob character?” People will respond with the names of the cartoon characters, telling YouTube that the video has a lot in common with it.

3. Optimize your title

The main source of metadata is the video title. He helps:

• Get people to click on videos. The first step in building long-term viewing time is to get that viewing started! Titles (and thumbnails) are the two most important components for this.
• Tell the algorithm that the videos are related to one another. For example, including the show title, episode number, and channel name in the title: 107 SpongeBob SquarePants Facts You Should Know (ToonedUp #37) @ChannelFrederator.
• Ensure a high position for the selected keyword. This is most important for appearing in the recommendation column on other creators' videos.

4. Optimize your metadata

Descriptions, tags, and closed captioning are important aspects of metadata. Many, if not all, SEO principles apply to the recommended video selection algorithm as well.

• The description should be a minimum of 3 sentences and placed at the top of the description section, before anything else.
• Always include 3 – 5 general sentences about the show and/or channel at the bottom of the description section.
• The description should focus on one main keyword.
• Limit tags to 10-12, also focusing on the main keyword. For example, for 107 SpongeBob SquarePants Facts the following keywords were used: SpongeBob, SpongeBob SquarePants, facts about SpongeBob, 107 facts about SpongeBob, top SpongeBob facts, 107 facts about SpongeBob SquarePants, best spongebob facts, nickelodeon, patrick star, sandy cheeks, squidward tentacles.
• Always include the same 4 - 6 show and/or channel “tags”. For the ToonedUp show and Frederator channel these are: Channel Frederator, ToonedUp, 107, Facts, Frederator, Tooned Up, Cartoon.

5. Link videos through annotations and playlists

The fifth method is linking in annotations and playlists, links in descriptions, as well as links to new videos in comments to old ones.

There is no data or evidence that the algorithm for selecting recommended videos is directly dependent on any of these actions. However, there is a lot of data indicating that they lead to longer browsing sessions. Therefore, we can say that these actions have at least an indirect impact on the recommendation algorithm, without taking much time and effort.

6. Set thumbnails

Custom thumbnails are one of the most important elements to attract viewers. The more people watch the video, the more watch time you will get.

But there is a pitfall here - if you make an attractive thumbnail or title that does not coincide in meaning with the content of the video, people will quickly close it, harming the average viewing time, which will lead to the exact opposite result.

Thus, thumbnails should reflect the essence of the video and be bright and attractive. We will look at creating miniatures in more detail in one of the following materials.

7. Start YouTube Watching Sessions

The final key factor, and perhaps the least studied, is how often a video or channel begins a user's YouTube session.

The video hosting site tracks these videos and channels, and the more videos you have that get people to come to YouTube, the more likely they are to be recommended.

To do this, it is important to create touchpoints with audiences outside of YouTube. These are social networks, newsletters, websites, and so on. These points act as catalysts for starting a browsing session.

In addition to this, it is important to communicate the schedule. If viewers know when to come back to see a new video, they will come and find it when they are ready to dedicate time to YouTube.

Important! Also consider whether your videos are an “exit page”—the last page a viewer lands on before leaving the site. In the YouTube ecosystem, if a page with a video ends the session, then that video and potentially all others from the same channel are recommended less often or not recommended at all.

Conclusion

Making YouTube's algorithms work for you- This is not the easiest task, but it is doable. These 7 principles are just part (a very important part) of an overall YouTube strategy, which always starts with creating compelling content and understanding your audience.

Material from the most complete encyclopedia of Internet marketing in RuNet

YouTube analogues

Projects similar to YouTube arose both before and after the advent of YouTube: Vimeo, Dailymotion, Smotri, Corbina.tv, Music.ivi, Ruhd.ru and many others.

Some services copied the YouTube interface (Revver at the beginning of its creation; Clipshack; in Russia - Rutube).

Sites based on video content have similar structures, video hosting and distribution services, etc. Their main difference is in business models (paid/free service, use of advertising), technical details and the predominance of certain content (music videos/movies/TV shows/high-quality videos, etc.).

Foreign video hosting sites

Let's look at the largest and most popular foreign video hosting sites.

Free video hosting for downloading and watching HD videos with social network elements. Opened in California (USA) in 2004.

Vimeo has two types of accounts: paid and free. Free allows you to:

1. Upload videos of any format. For a week, each user is given 500 MB for storing videos. All files are stored on hosting services so that anyone can view or download them at any time.

2. A distinctive feature of hosting is the ability to watch videos in HD quality.

3. On Vimeo, you can share videos (or even entire albums with videos) with any user with one click. In the settings, you can specify the category of users to whom you want to send the video, for example, registered users, friends, etc. It is possible to publish videos on social networks: Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and others. You can also insert the hosting player code into blogs and any other sites.

4. Possibility of communication. You can subscribe to updates from other users, chat with friends, comment on their videos, and join communities of interests.

5. Select videos from a catalog in which videos are divided into categories. The hosting also has channels and groups that any user can subscribe to.

6. Make privacy settings.

Dailymotion is a popular video hosting service in the USA. The average monthly hosting audience in January 2013 was about 116 million users. Provides access to a large collection of videos, including in Russian. There is a Russian-language interface. Supports HD video format. Not all videos are available worldwide - hosting has restrictions for some cities.

There are no restrictions on uploading videos on the hosting: you can upload any number, videos are almost never deleted (except for videos promoting violence, pornography, etc.).

Video hosting has the following features:

• Video,
• channels,
• films and TV,
• communities,
• subscriptions, etc.

Russian-language video hosting sites

Let's look at the largest and most popular video hosting sites on the Runet.

Smotri.com is one of the popular hosting services on the RuNet. The peculiarity is that the site offers the possibility of online broadcasts. These are live broadcasts of users, through which anyone can go online and communicate with other users, show themselves, look at others, comment on everything that happens live. To do this, you need to create your own channel. You can create regular broadcasts like discussions on the topic of the day or simply talk about everything that interests the author of the broadcast.

The site's technology allows for the organization of up to 500 live broadcasts simultaneously, each of which can involve up to 5,000 users.

Users can view, download, and also comment on videos. The database contains both amateur and professional videos.

The hosting has paid services that make it possible to promote your video (promote it in new videos, use the “Video Leader” service, etc.), as well as use the hosting as a storage for the originals of your video files.

Russian-language video hosting, created in 2006. As close as possible in interface and functionality to YouTube. With its help, users can create their own channels and video blogs, conduct live broadcasts, etc.

Advantages: there are no time limits for downloading videos; you can download videos via URL.

The downloaded file is processed from a few seconds to 15 minutes depending on the weight and format. For example, a video in FLV format will appear on the site immediately, without processing.

A video service that allows you to download and watch videos on various topics. The advantages are that on Yandex. Videos do not need to be registered separately for those who have an account in Yandex.

Hosting makes it possible to download videos from a PC, from a webcam, from the Internet (in this case, the video will only be added to the album without the ability to download: when viewing, the player of another hosting will be displayed). The video upload limit is up to 750 MB.

At Yandex. Video" has its own club where users communicate: they discuss video and hosting capabilities, offer ideas for improving it, and also ask questions. Video hosting sites that are focused on watching movies and TV shows include: ivi.ru, Myvi.ru, ZoomBy.Ru and others.

For all the few people I know who are involved in YouTube, most of their traffic (or at least half) comes from similar and recommended videos on Youtube. Often a situation arises that one video ends up in bold videos similar to others, and traffic, money and subscribers begin to pour into your channel.

I say this both from my own experience and from the experience of other people working with YouTube.

True, something in the algorithms is constantly changing, being updated and “breaking”, so the videos that have become the locomotives of your channel fall down overnight. But let's not talk about sad things.

So how do you get into similar videos?

When I first started working, I thought it was some kind of very complex algorithm. I thought that a lot depended on titles, descriptions, tags. In fact, this is all bullshit. If you want to get into similar videos on Youtube, get into the recommendations, then the most important thing you need is for your video to gain approximately 20K stable views per day within 4 days.

Accordingly, it is impossible to do without having a key in the title. And it would be nice to put it in the description. And thematic tags won't hurt. And the video itself should be interesting and hold the viewer’s attention so that he does not close it after a short time. But all these are truisms that are relevant for any of your videos on YouTube.

The most important thing, as I said, is positive dynamics during the first 4 days. Although, the days may not be the first. Sometimes it happens that old videos, having received an injection of stable, significant traffic (for example, from your new video), begin to creep into similar and recommendations. The time of publication means absolutely nothing here.

Important: 15-20K is relevant for my topic (entertainment), for other topics and audiences there are probably other numbers. But even in my case, sometimes smaller values ​​are enough, and sometimes even these are not enough.

Where to get traffic from? And where does it even come from?

Traffic should be one hundred percent natural. Of course, you can try to cheat it in some way (I have no idea, because I have no such experience), however, do not be surprised that YouTube will ban you for “suspicious activity” or something else. He buys such things very well, so I don’t see the point in pouring bot traffic.

If you are involved in arbitrage, you can probably get a cheap one thematic traffic to your video.

In my case, it happens that during the first few days the video is watched very actively by subscribers, who probably share it. Then it fell into similar ones. If there are no subscribers, then it doesn’t matter. My first video, after which the channel began to grow, was very well received on Reddit. Accordingly, at that time there were very few subscribers on the channel, but the acceleration of natural views through redditors allowed the video to get into the recommended ones.

That, in fact, is the whole secret.

To summarize, in descending order of importance:
The video goes on for 4-5 days stable a high amount of natural traffic, preferably growing. The video has good viewing depth. It is fully optimized. It has a clickable image. They comment on it.

By the way, between similar And recommendations there is a difference. Related videos are those in the column to the right of any video. Recommended ones are those that are shown both on the main Youtube page and in this column on the right, mixed with similar ones. However, recommended videos are targeting a specific user. That is, if you are among those recommended for giant yellow snails with 15-20K views daily, then this video will be recommended exclusively to lovers of snails or mollusks (maximum (of which there are not very many in terms of core)). On the other hand, it is unlikely that you will be able to get into the recommended ones for Minecraft with 15-20K views every day; in this case you need to operate with much larger numbers, since this is a very active and constantly updated market of offers with monster channels that have several million subscribers .

In general, such is the pop, such is the arrival.

I hope I explained everything clearly.

To watch videos from YouTube, the majority of Android users use a standard client. However, there are YouTube analogues that are in no way inferior, and sometimes even superior to the original. NewPipe is the best of them.

The Newpipe application interface is simple and intuitive with a minimum of necessary controls and settings options. The similar color scheme is reminiscent of YouTube, and the search bar will allow you to find the video you need. The results are displayed in the form of a list with a preview; selecting any video opens a window for playback in the program or Internet browser. On the YouTube analogue, the toolbar includes buttons for changing the resolution, downloading videos and music to the device, as well as listening to a song in a third-party player. In addition, music will continue to play in the background even after the screen is locked, which is not supported by the YouTube client.

An analogue of youtube, the NewPipe application does not contain advertising or hidden purchases, takes up 3 MB of disk space, and does not require APIs or Google services to operate. Therefore, it is rational to use the application if the search giant’s software is missing on the device or deleted for personal reasons.

Due to Google's anti-compete policy, NewPipe will not appear on Google Play. Therefore, the application is downloaded from a third-party website. Read more about the resource and installation method in a separate section.

Main advantages:

1. Similar to youtube.
2. Free, no ads.
3. Choice of resolution and quality.
4. Downloading videos and music.
5. Search, ease of use.
6. No API or Google services are required for operation.

Main disadvantages:

1. The program is not and will not be on Google Play.
2. Update only in manual mode.

Conclusion

Previously, in order to download music or videos from YouTube, you had to use third-party services, which caused discomfort and additional traffic consumption. Thanks to the YouTube analogue program NewPipe, music and videos are downloaded to the device, played in player mode or watched in streaming mode. In addition, the program is indispensable if Google services are missing or deleted from the device.

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