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Do Upload Time and Keywords Matter for Suggested Video Traffic?

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Creators
November 27, 2023

Hi there! YouTube is slowly rolling out its Thumbnail Test & Compare (A/B Testing) feature, which will soon expand from 10K to 50K accounts. For creators, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on! This new feature will allow you to make more data-driven decisions about your thumbnails by testing the performance of three different options, so you can select the one that performs the best. While the rollout continues, it doesn’t look like the feature will be available to all creators until next year. If you’ve been included in the initial test and have had a chance to try it out, let us know what you think! 

—The Spotter Community Team

Behind the Numbers: Video Upload Timing, Keywords/Themes, and Suggested Traffic

​​We’ve all spent time watching YouTube’s suggested videos, perhaps discovering new creators along the way. As a creator, you might have wondered how you get your videos to show up as suggestions for others. 

Last month, we shared data showing how most of the suggested videos for your uploads come from videos of similar length. But, what role does the date of the upload play in video suggestions? And what about keywords and themes in the videos? We took a closer look at the data (from 1,500+ channels) to find out: 

Key Insight:

  • Most of the suggested videos for your uploads come from content uploaded around the same time.

    • We found that over 50% of referring videos were uploaded three months or less from when their receiving videos were uploaded. 

Key Insight:

  • The majority of suggested traffic comes from videos with similar keywords and themes.

    • Translation: Tapping into recent topics and themes that resonate with both your audience and your peer channel’s audience can help the performance of your new videos. 

    • In fact, we found that 55% of suggested videos had titles that were semantically similar (with a similarity score over 0.7 in our chart below). 

  • Takeaway: When you’re thinking of repackaging your video, look to incorporate keywords and phrases in video titles that have been successful for recent videos with similar themes.

Bottom Line: 

Suggestions from referring videos to your content can go a long way toward boosting traffic. When it comes to how the suggestion system works, factors like timing, themes, and keywords matter. Keep in mind that most of the suggested videos for your uploads will come from content uploaded around the same time (especially within three months). And you can boost the performance of your new videos by incorporating topics and themes that have been successful in recent videos for other creators. Specifically, look at keywords and phrases in video titles. 

As always: Questions? Reply to reach out to the Creator Community team.

Spotter

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“Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought."

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