Why Isn't YouTube Recommending My Videos?

Have you ever asked yourself: "Why isn't YouTube recommending my videos?" If so, you aren't alone. Many content creators on YouTube struggle to get YouTube to recommend their videos. But why is this? Why can it be so difficult to get YouTube to recommend your videos to potential viewers?

If YouTube isn't recommending your videos, chances are they have poor metrics, aren't in-demand, or are poorly optimized. YouTube likes to recommend positively-received and relevant videos to viewers. A video that is positively-received and relevant to viewers is a video that has good metrics, is about an in-demand topic, and is properly optimized.

Many large YouTube channels get the majority of their views from having their videos recommended by YouTube. If you want to grow your YouTube audience, it is in your best interest to position your videos to get recommended more often by YouTube. While doing this can be difficult, it isn't impossible to do.

Why Doesn't YouTube Recommend My Videos

A question I'm asked quite regularly is: "Why doesn't YouTube recommend my videos?" Whenever I'm asked this question, I often give the same response. You see, there are a few different reasons why YouTube might not recommend a particular video. These reasons consist of:

• Poor performance
• Poor topic selection
• Poor optimization

Let's discuss each of these reasons in more detail.

Poor Performance

YouTube wants to show good videos to its viewers. This way, viewers are more inclined to stay on their website to watch more videos. To determine whether or not a video is "good", YouTube looks at the metrics of the video. Specifically, the click-through rate, average view duration, and watch time minutes of the video.

If your videos perform poorly, YouTube will be less likely to recommend them to potential viewers. Your video must have a high click-through rate, a high average view duration, and good watch time for it to be considered worthy of being recommended. Check your channel analytics to determine whether or not these metrics need to be improved.

Poor Topic Selection

Certain topics are more popular than others. By creating videos on unpopular topics, you limit your ability to have your videos be recommended by YouTube. You must create videos on topics that have some level of interest present if you want your videos to be recommended more often.

It is important, however, not to only target the most popular topics. Many popular topics are highly competitive, making it difficult for your video to gain traction ahead of videos from large channels. While popular topics do open up the opportunity to get more views, sometimes targeting less popular topics can be a better option for low-authority channels.

Poor Optimization

YouTube scans the metadata of videos to determine what they are about. This way, the videos can be shared with potential viewers who have been proven to enjoy certain types of content. Many people believe that video SEO is only important for ranking videos in the YouTube search engine, but this isn't the case.

Properly optimizing the metadata of your videos will help your videos get recommended more often. Why is this? Well, as I just mentioned, YouTube scans video metadata to determine what videos are about. If YouTube doesn't know what a video is about, how can it share it with people? Don't ignore the importance of video metadata optimization!

How Do You Get YouTube to Recommend Your Videos

At this point, you might be wondering- how do you get YouTube to recommend your videos? Believe it or not, getting YouTube to recommend your videos isn't as difficult as it seems. By doing the correct things and being patient, you can position your videos to get recommended more frequently by YouTube.

Put simply, to get your videos recommended by YouTube, you must create high-quality videos that are about in-demand topics and are properly optimized. Then, you must repeat this process consistently and be patient. Basically, you need to follow YouTube marketing best practices.

Many content creators over-complicate nearly every aspect of YouTube. Achieving success on YouTube comes down to doing the right things consistently and being patient- that's it. You will get your videos recommended by YouTube if you do the right things, but you must be consistent and patient.

It takes time to learn the necessary skills to be able to get your videos recommended more often. Nobody is a pro content creator after making 3 videos. Do not expect your videos to start getting recommended more often instantly. Even if you improve your videos, it will take a while for results to compound.

How Long Will It Take for YouTube to Start Recommending Your Videos

So, you've improved the quality of your videos, you're creating videos on in-demand topics, and you're optimizing your videos better. How long can you expect to wait until YouTube begins recommending your videos more often? Well, as I mentioned above, you must be prepared to wait a while even after making improvements to your videos.

You see, YouTube doesn't trust every channel to provide high-quality content to viewers. Since this is the case, a channel must build up authority before it is trusted by YouTube. Authority is built by getting views, subscribers, and building up metrics such as watch time and average view duration.

Even if you do the right things, it will still take time before your videos are recommended frequently, and this is all due to channel authority. Gaining channel authority takes time, so you must be prepared to invest the time needed if you wish for your videos to be recommended more by YouTube.

The good news is, building channel authority is a simple process- just upload videos. Along with uploading videos, you should ideally follow best practices and properly optimize your videos, use good thumbnails, etc. Over time, your channel will become more authoritative, and your videos will be recommended more often.

Conclusion

Growing a YouTube channel is a long-term process. Getting your videos suggested more frequently, however, can help speed the process up. But how can you get your videos recommended more frequently? Create high-quality videos about in-demand topics that are properly optimized. Do this consistently and be patient, and you'll be amazed at the results.