8 Steps on How to Get More Views on YouTube

Wondering How To Get More Views On YouTube?

In the last 365 days, we’ve generated over 33,000 subscribers and more than 1 million views!

We follow specific steps in all of the videos that have helped us achieve these numbers and continue growing year over year. 

So if you want to know how to get more views on YouTube, as well as subscribers…

…then you need to read to the very end of this post. Let’s get started!

8 Steps On How To Get More Views On YouTube

Step 1: Include your keyword everywhere.
Step 2: Be mindful of the secondary keywords you need to include.
Step 3: Create an engaging thumbnail and video title.
Step 4: Look at your analytics and post videos when the majority of your audience is online.
Step 5: Give people a reason to watch until the end.
Step 6: Edit your video with the intent to keep attention.
Step 7: Keep your intro short.
Step 8: Reference other videos on your channel and link them.

Step 1: Include your keyword everywhere.

If you don’t know what your main keyword is for your video, that’s your first problem. 

You should be making videos around specific keywords that you know your audience searches for on YouTube every month. 

If you’re making videos around topics nobody is searching for, that’s mistake #1 as to why you’re not getting views.

So the first step in how to get more views on YouTube is all about keywords.

If you need help getting started with YouTube keyword research, you can check out our post on it next. 

Now, once you have your keyword nailed down, you need to help make it obvious to YouTube that your video is about that keyword.

And you can do that by including it in:

• your title,
• your description,
• your tags,
• the video itself, and
• the thumbnail. 

If you didn’t know, YouTube can and does read your thumbnails.

This is another thing we talk about in our keyword research post if you’re interested. 

So you’ll need to literally include the keyword as text in your thumbnail, as well as say it in your video because YouTube pays attention to all of this. 

So for instance, let’s say you’re a real estate agent and you’re making a video around the keyword “how to buy your first home.” 

You need to include that keyword in your title, thumbnail, tags, description, and verbally throughout your video as you’re uploading.

This is so that when someone searches “how to buy your first home” on YouTube, your video is the very first one to appear in the search results. 

Step 2: Be mindful of the secondary keywords you need to include.

Running with the real estate example, in addition to ranking for “how to buy your first home”…

…you’d probably want that same video to appear for the keyword “first-time home buyer.”

So, you can optimize for additional keywords like that by including it in your description and tags, as well as saying it verbally in your video.

In our keyword research post, we talk about the plugin called VidIQ that we use every single day for our YouTube videos.

And it makes finding highly-searched secondary keywords like that super easy. 

Just a quick tip for you. 

Step 3: Create an engaging thumbnail and video title.

Your title and thumbnail should accomplish two things: grab your viewer’s attention and tell them what the video is going to be about. 

You don’t want it to be so clickbaity that the purpose of your video gets lost.

Viewers should feel intrigued but also know what knowledge they’re about to gain from watching your video. 

The quickest way to not get views is for the viewer to click into your video expecting one thing and then realize that’s not really what your video is about.

A couple of tricks you can do in your title and thumbnail to increase the CTR (click-through rate) on your videos…

…is to include numerical lists like 3 steps to do xyz, 4 secrets to [insert viewer goal here] because people love lists. 

You can also make your viewers feel a sense of timeliness or urgency to watch the video by including the month or year so that they know it’s supercurrent.

One thing you can do specifically with the thumbnail is included cutouts of people from the video to make it seem a little more exciting.

Or, to help pique the viewer’s curiosity and think, “what’s going on here I need to click that.”

So like this thumbnail we used, for example, includes a couple of those tricks together in one thumbnail and got over 2,000 views.

We have a tutorial here on how to make YouTube thumbnail that you can read next.

Now before we get into step 4 on how to get more views on YouTube, we want to invite you to go and check out our new social media ads training course.

This course is full of valuable tricks and tips on how you can master social media advertising that you wouldn’t just find anywhere. 

Step 4: Look at your analytics and post videos when the majority of your audience is online.

Now, this step doesn’t carry the most weight in obtaining views, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. 

Why not post your videos when all of your target audience is online scrolling as opposed to 3 AM on a Saturday when they’re sleeping? 

To see this, go to your YouTube Studio, click Analytics, then click over to the Audience tab, and scroll down to this chart.

If you ever wondered why we post at 10 AM on weekdays- now you know.

Now, everything we covered so far in this how to get more views on YouTube guide are things you can do in post-production…

…but we do want to touch on a few things you can do in your actual video to increase more views. 

Step 5: Give people a reason to watch until the end.

This is often called an “open loop” intro and if you’ve watched our channel for a while, you’ve definitely seen us do this. 

An open loop is when you say something in your intro like, “And if you stay until the end of the video, I’m going to share the key to accomplishing xyz.” 

It’s something of value that you tell them they’re going to receive at the end of the video…

…but you tell them at the beginning, so it keeps them watching.

You can further allude to this with your thumbnail or title text too like adding verbiage like “the TOP industry secret to achieving xyz.”

Step 6: Edit your video with the intent to keep attention.

It’s no secret that people’s attention spans these days are… not long. So how do you keep it long enough to watch a 10 min video?

The key is to “reset” their attention span every few seconds by changing what they’re looking at on-screen. 

You can do this with jump cuts every time someone finishes a sentence or pauses.

You can do this with graphics, b-roll, screenshares, and more.

Including something different on screen, every few seconds will keep someone’s attention so much longer…

…compared to if it was just one fluid shot of someone talking for 10 min. 

You can take this trick a step further with the use of audio too by adding sound effects or music in with your transitions. 

But make sure you’re using royalty-free music. You don’t want to get flagged for copyright issues. 

Step 7: Keep your intro short.

Get to the point with it. Start providing value as quickly as you can because the longer your intro is, the more people are going to fall off. 

Step 8: Reference other videos on your channel and link them.

Now we’ve come to the last step on how to get more views on YouTube.

Whether you’re mentioning them throughout the video and adding links to them:

• in the description along with cards in the video,

• or doing end screens,

• or both (we would suggest both)…

…you need to bring attention to the other videos on your channel. 

It’s easier to keep existing viewers watching than it is to convert strangers into new viewers. 

You want to maximize any current eyeballs you have captive by getting them to watch more than one video. 

You do this by mentioning other relevant videos related to the current video they’re watching that will further provide value to them.

Another great way to keep people watching your videos is by creating bingeable content.

This is something we teach you how to do in our how to create a YouTube playlist post.

So those are our 8 steps on how to get more views on YouTube!

Were there any things on this list that surprised you?

If you want to check out more tips on how to promote YouTube videos, then read this post next.

Or you can also let the experts help you! Get started by visiting our YouTube promotion services today.

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