YouTube Channel Authority - The Definitive Guide

Transcription

1 YouTube Channel Authority - The Definitive Guide

2 So what exactly is YouTube channel authority and how does it affect you? To understand how channel authority works, you first need a basic understand of the YouTube ranking algorithm, which is a fancy way of saying this is how YouTube ranks their videos. So here it is on-page SEO video views channel views channel age video age subscribers favorites likes comments viewer retention transcription number of uploaded videos playlist As you can see, there is a ton of factors that ultimately go into determining where you end up on the search rankings. Also, notice that nowhere in this algorithm is backlinks. Backlinks have nothing to do with ranking on YouTube, but they do on Google.

3 So let s dive into this and really dissect what all of this means to you. Let s start off with a simple example. If you and I both make a video optimized perfectly for the same keyword, who is going to rank higher? Right! Whoever has the best channel authority! Now why that may sound obvious, it s essential when doing your keyword research. It s also important to understand especially when you are just starting out on YouTube, and may be the reason your channel hasn t taken off yet There s a reason I can take the same exact video, optimized the same way and put them on two different channels and guess what? There may be a five page difference in the rankings. Why? Yep, channel authority. Understand that no one really knows how much weight each one of these factors hold, although it s obvious some are more important than others. So let s break that algorithm down into two categories. Individual Video Authority Channel Authority Now these two categories go hand in hand when it comes to your overall ranking, but it s easier to look at individually.

4 Individual Video Authority On-Page Optimization This is by far the most important factor. Get this wrong and nothing else will really matter anyway. If you re reading this, you should already know how to do this perfectly. In the long shot that you don t, click here to learn it. On-page optimization is what tells YouTube exactly what your content is about so it will know to pull your video up when someone searches for it. Video Views How many times your video has been viewed is important. YouTube wants to show popular content. Let s think about how YouTube makes money... From ads right? People pay money to advertise on YouTube. So visitors come to this site to try to find the information they are looking for, whether it be a funny video, how to do a certain arm exercise, or how to put a carburetor kit on, ads are shown, and YouTube gets paid. If the videos that YouTube suggests to the visitor suck, they will quit coming to YouTube, and YouTube will go out of business so yeah, YouTube is pretty picky about what content they choose to rank. So if you have a video with little or no views, YouTube has no validation to rank your video. They don t have any statistics to judge if it s any good yet. While this can seem like an oxymoron

5 (how am I supposed to get views if my content doesn t rank) it s going to be your job to drive views to your video as you re building your channel authority. If you already have a strong channel authority, YouTube has a good idea that you are putting out good content, so video views have less weight than they do originally, which is why you see me ranking videos instantly. Favorites This one is simple. How many people have added your video to their favorites list? The more the better, although I wouldn t focus on this too much, but it could give you a little boost if you received a few. Likes Again, pretty obvious. Likes are very important. I ve seen my videos jump several spots just from getting a few likes. Get as many likes as you can, but remember there can be too much of a good thing. I ll talk more about this later. Comments Comments on your video mean people are caring enough to actually take the time and comment. That shows YouTube that people are interacting with the content. Viewer Retention This is increasing in value all the time, and in my estimation will continue to increase in importance. YouTube can measure how long each person is viewing a video. It s the equivalent to a blog s bounce rate. If people are only watching 10 seconds of your video, well, obviously it isn t what

6 they wanted to see. YouTube sees this and reacts accordingly. I would say a good stat on any given video would be to have a viewer retention of 50%, which means on average a person watches half your video. I give some very powerful tips on how to combat and improve this stat in my course. Transcription I would say this is the least important aspect of the algorithm but I do see the big boys doing this. Did you know YouTube automatically tries to decipher what you are saying and transcribes it for the hearing impaired? Yep, they do. It s somewhere in those buttons under the video. Some of the big companies (including Google people and companies) choose to have their transcriptions re-written to perfection instead of just having YouTube guess at what the person in the video is saying. You will notice that the keyword phrase they are attempting to rank for is mentioned in the first sentence they speak, in order for it to be recorded early in the transcription. Playlist This factor is on the same scale as favorites. When someone likes your video and they want to save it, they can add it to their playlist. (similar to re-pinning a picture on Pinterest) Again, this tells YouTube people must be enjoying your content.

7 Channel Authority When we are talking about channel authority, we are talking about the strength of your channel overall, not just one video in particular. These are the factors that fall into the category of channel authority: Channel Views How many views does your channel have as a whole? Channel Age How long has your channel been around? Are you a newbie, or a veteran with long term success? Subscribers How many people have actually enjoyed your content so much, that they voluntarily choose to get more? The amount of subscribers you have plays a heavy role in where your videos end up. Number of Videos Uploaded Simply enough this is the count of how many videos you have uploaded. Are you a consistent provider of content, or are you a 2 video and done type of person? When thinking of channel authority just put yourself in the shoes of YouTube. If you ve had a long, prosperous relationship with someone and they ve brought you thousands of visitors

8 and made you money, are you going to display some new guy s video before theirs? Absolutely not. The Main Factors With all of these ranking factors involved, it hard to concentrate on them all at once. If you are starting a brand new channel, you are going to have a short period of growing pains as you build your channel authority. When first starting your channel, you should concentrate on the three factors I believe are most important : Number of videos uploaded Number of views Number of subscribers If you are putting up good, informative videos, all the rest of the ranking factors will take care of themselves over time. Focus on these three. The Tipping Point I ve started and built about a dozen different channels. There are some magic numbers that I ve noticed and strive to get to as fast as I can. Now this isn t a report on keyword research, but the things I do, and the tools I use allow me know exactly where my video

9 should show up on the rankings barring I have proper channel authority. Channel authority plays such an enormous role.let me illustrate. I can create a video based around a keyword phrase that I know should rank #1. If I upload that video on a brand new channel the video will be on page 3 I can upload the same video on another channel with good authority, and it will rank #1, where I thought it should. So yeah, there is a point where I know where I m going to rank even before I turn on the camera Those numbers are right around 20 videos uploaded, 50 subscribers, and 1,000 channel views. Once you hit those numbers channel authority plays less and less of a role. You can be confident that your videos will rank decently with proper keyword research and optimization. What About Buying Likes, Views, and Subscribers This is a hot topic, and one that s debated on a lot. Sure, people do it. A LOT of people do it. Should you? Here s my opinion It can be very tempting to buy channel authority. It s exactly what you need, and it s cheap, dirt cheap, but should you?

10 Here s the problem with these subscriber, views, and likes services They do TOO much. They send you 10,000 views, 500 subscribers, 1000 s of views in a single day. If that don t throw up a red flag, I don t know what does. I ve actually experimented with this in the past on two videos. Guess what? It worked. My videos were #1 very quickly for a few weeks that is, until YouTube took down that channel for using bots to get likes, views, and subscribers. Thank goodness I did that with an experimental channel that didn t mean anything to me. Do people get away with it? Obviously they do..all the time. So can you try it? Sure at your own risk. If you do, make sure it is on a channel that is not connected with you at all. Make it on a different address and everything why? Well, if you get caught, YouTube cuts off your partnership ability. Which means you can never monetize from YouTube. On top of that, you are paid through Google Adsense, which means your Google Adsense account is gone. Which means you can t ever use them on your blog for monetization or purchase ads on Google or YouTube. Is that something you want to risk?

11 If you still feel you must buy these factors make sure YOU can control the flow of likes, views, and subscribers. Getting 30 views a day, a few likes, and a subscriber here and there is perfectly safe. Still I caution against ever doing anything risky to your main channel. I m all about having several channels, so I feel you can do your marketing and ranking with others channels safely, while you provide value and build an audience naturally on your main channel. NEVER purchase likes on a video you are currently having YouTube show ads on. That is no different than stealing, and well, I don t think I want to mess with Google Lastly, I encourage you to build a small syndication team. 5 or so people should work. Get together and every time you make a video have the other four members like, comment, and share your videos for you. Do the same for them. This will go a long way in both building channel and video authority. I hope this short report goes to educate you about what all it takes to rank your videos on YouTube. I appreciate you taking the time to read it. Ready for your YouTube Breakthrough? Click here to get started

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