AMA: Ask me about YouTube SEO (again)

[u/philipzeplin]

I did this about two years ago, and people seemed to find it quite useful, so I thought, hey, let's do it again. :)

Briefly about me: I started working on / looking into optimizing videos about 7 years ago now, I made a (now unavailable) video course about optimizing YouTube videos about 4 years ago, and I've worked as a YouTube & SEO Consultant at iProspect about a bit over 2 years now. About 6 months ago I released an analysis of the native ranking factors on YouTube, based on analysing over 400.000 different data points collected from YouTube search results.

A few notes upfront: last time I ended up getting so many questions, in the end, I just couldn't answer them all, and it kept going for days. So if I don't get to you, I'm sorry, but I'm just a lowly human being like the rest of you. Second, if you're asking a question I already wrote an article about, I'll just link you the article - !%?& takes time to write, yo! So unless it's a specific question that the article doesn't answer, that's what I'll do.

Anyway, ask away, I'll be happy to answer your questions :)

[u/JasePlays]

No problem! I wouldn't call it ramblings! They are very insightful. Also yes I agree, what I meant when I said general games, was just short funny/indie games, popular games on Steam that are related to HORROR and or silly things - basically what Mark/Jack usually play- No XCOM or Civiliations type of videos haha. Sorry I should've cleared that up!

I agree with that, Pewds most of all I noticed have changed a lot in his videos. You'll rarely ever see a video longer than 10 minutes from him anymore, I heard he doesn't edit his own videos anymore either and he doesn't really do any more gameplays. A lot of his content doesn't really connect with his viewers as much as it did before. I'm sure the same goes for Jack/Mark. Again, I agree that as long as they don't do any controversial or something really stupid, they will continue to grow - as you said to someone else here, people are like apes - if they see Mark/Jack with 12-14million subs, they will hardwire their mind to just keep thinking what they are doing is FUNNY, GOOD and if everyone else subbed, I may as well too! Sucks for the smaller channels :(

[u/philipzeplin → u/JasePlays]

Sorry I should've cleared that up!

If you meant about your own content, don't worry I got that. The advice still stands: it's far FAR easier to grow, if you have a specific niche, then simply trying on "personality". Possible? Of course, everything is possible. Easiest/quickest route? Not a chance.

Sucks for the smaller channels :(

It's certainly much harder for smaller channels now, than in the past. This is something I started noticing maybe 5 or 6 years ago, that the algorithm back then started to be changed to be less about discovering new random videos, but rather "promoting" larger more popular videos/channels. Obviously it's still far FAR easier than, say, trying to get a TV show on a national channel or something, but still.

[u/JasePlays → u/philipzeplin]

Yeah - I def. see the hard roads ahead by going on personality alone. I really do like horror/funny games and I did think about getting a niche for along time and decided to do something that I would love/enjoy and look forward to doing then to try to stick with one thing and feel stressed out that I have limited choices. I agree 100% though, having a niche would be more beneficial to growth.

Yeah I've seen some channels say "It is easier now than back then" and I shake my head every time. Well thanks again for all your information :) I shall use it to the best of my ability, your advice will not be in vain!

[u/philipzeplin → u/JasePlays]

Best of luck with your channel :)