I recently started helping to develop a YouTube channel that has been around since 2010. I joined the team that creates content for the channel, and have been sharing some of my ideas to improve our efforts. One of the things we started to do right away was create an editorial calendar with the goal of publishing one video per week.
It’s no secret that publishing regularly will help the performance of a channel. This is one of the first, and most frequently appearing pieces of advice I have encountered while studying up on YouTube. What I did find surprising, however, is that our publishing frequency appears to be helping our overall views in a very specific way.
Video views via YouTube’s suggested video feature have risen dramatically. It almost seems like YouTube is rewarding us for publishing frequently by recommending content from our channel. And it’s not just the fresh content that is getting recommended. Videos that are over a year old, and that have almost never been viewed as a YouTube suggested video before, are suddenly getting tons of views this way.
There are lots of theories on the web about how to optimize your channel for YouTube’s algorithms. I’ve read many of them, but I have yet to see where anyone else attributes publishing frequency to how often your videos get suggested. Based on the dates that this sudden rise of views occurred, I can’t think of anything else that would have caused it.
If you are trying to build views on a YouTube channel, then I’m sure you already know to publish on frequent, regular intervals. But if you’re not doing it yet, make it a priority, and keep an eye on your YouTube Analytics. I’d be willing to bet the traffic from YouTube suggested videos gets a nice bump.
For all kinds of other tips straight from YouTube, download the Creator Playbook at http://www.youtube.com/yt/creators/playbook.html.