How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work?

YouTube?is the second most visited search engine after?Google. YouTube is not just a search engine but also a social media platform as well as an online sharing platform by Google. Originally, YouTube was established by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim on February 14, 2005, and bought by Google in October 2006.

YouTube has grown drastically after being acquired by just a mobile application, network TV, and a feature of connecting to other platforms. The development took place from the technology part to the revenue generation. Has started offering paid content, which includes a paid subscription for viewers under YouTube Premium and the program for creators.

How to set up a YouTube channel?

YouTube is a free social media platform that allows you to showcase your abilities and talents to the world. For this, you need to create an account on YouTube and follow these steps:

1. Sign up or register on YouTube using your Google account.

2. You can use your YouTube account, which you use to make videos, and simply sign in.

3. Click on the profile picture at the top right corner and then click "Create a Channel."

4. Choose a name for your channel and click on Create by checking the policy button.

Now you can go for the customization of your channel, such as uploading your profile picture and YouTube banner adding a description and links to other channels.

How does the YouTube Algorithm work?

Five hundred hours of content per minute is being uploaded on YouTube, according to a study in May 2019. Now, imagine how you will find the result you are looking for.

YouTube provides you with the best relevant results based on your search queries. YouTube works on the three main elements: 1. relevance, 2. engagement and 3. quality.

1. Relevance:?When we talk about relevance, elements, including the title, tags, description, and video content, are the base of the Algorithm that will match the users' search queries.

2. Engagement:?Engagement is the next step in defining the relevance exactly at the same time. YouTube considers the watch time of a particular content based on users' searches and promotes that particular content.

3. Quality:?YouTube has set a standard to categorize the quality content based on expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on a particular subject or topic.

Apart from these three main elements, YouTube shows the results based on the search history of individual viewers. YouTube is trying to prioritize the content and information coming from trusted sources to maintain credibility and trustworthiness.

YouTube works on the search history of the users or viewers; on the other hand, YouTube gives you complete control of your search results by clearing the search data. YouTube does not save or record the old search histories you delete.

How does YouTube determine the Algorithm?

Are you wondering how YouTube's search ranking is defining the Algorithm and which videos should be shown to people and which not?

§ Personalization (the viewer's watch history and choice)

§ Performance (the video's overall success)

§ Additional elements (the overall audience or market)

A Brief History of the YouTube Algorithm

Let's have an eye over the YouTube Algorithms as of now:

1.? ?2005 – 2011 Update:?Based on the most viewed videos, clickbait was the most common technique to get views.

2. 2012 Update:?YouTube started focusing on watching time on each video, which led creators to shorten their content to get more viewers.

3. 2015-2016 Update:?Based on metrics like Shares, Likes, Dislikes, and "Not interested" buttons, click videos.

4. 2016-present:?Algorithm based on dangerous content, demonetization, and brand safety, keeping in mind everyone, including creators, advertisers, news, and the government.

What type of content does YouTube not allow?

YouTube doesn't allow Fake engagement, impersonation, external links, spam, deceptive practices and scams, playlists, harassment and, or dangerous content, hate speech, violent criminal organizations, violent or graphic content, firearms, sale of illegal or regulated or and any sort of misinformation in any form of videos, comments, links, and thumbnails, in any case, no matter who the creator is or what background they possess.

In conclusion, YouTube can be classified into 6 sections: Search, Homepage, Suggested Videos, Trending, and Notifications.

1. Search:?Videos' ranking is affected by keyword relevance and engagement metrics.

2. Homepage:?This includes search histories, subscriptions, and best-performed videos shown on the homepage of YouTube.

3. Suggested Videos:?This section covers the most relevant and personalized recommendations based on the video engagements of users with the content and particular YouTube channel's videos or other videos related to the same sort of content.

4. Trending:?Based on the popular videos in a specific country featured on the Trending page of YouTube heading on the sidebar.

5. Subscriptions:?A YouTube page that shows users the latest uploaded videos of the channels subscribed by the users. You may know a few of the most subscribed YouTube channels, including?T-Series?with 25.3?Crore Subscribers,?Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes?with 16.7?crore Subscribers,?SET India?with 16.5?crore Subscribers,?PewDiePie?with 11.1 crore Subscribers, and more.

6. Notifications:?YouTube shows you customized videos through Notifications. Notifications are completely chosen by the users, whether they want to receive them or not. This could be optimized by asking the audience to go to the channel.