16 Jul HOW YOUTUBE SEARCH WORKS
How YouTube Search Works: Explained by Google
- Google explained how YouTube search works through a publication resource.
- They created an entire website- How YouTube Work to explain how the search function works.
- The site offers valuable insights about working of YouTube, which includes how YouTube is committed to making a safe and more secure platform factor into the search results.
YouTube Searches
- YouTube is the World’s second-largest search engine. The platform sieves through over 500 hours of content to deliver the most relevant results.
- There are three primary elements for ranking search results on YouTube; Relevance, Engagement, and Quality.
Relevance
- The goal of YouTube search is to connect the user with useful content.
- YouTube search algorithm looks at several factors to determine the relevance of content.
- These factors can take many forms, including title, tags, video description, and the content itself.
Engagement
- Since YouTube can track content consumption by each user, they have policies around what appears in search results.
- Engagement is determined using aggregate engagement signals. These signals include watch time for a particular video and query.
- YouTube also uses engagement signals to determine the relevance of content.
Quality
- YouTube determines the quality of content using several signals.
- The algorithm looks at Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, commonly referred to as EAT.
- Google emphasis the importance of these signals in search results.
Other Factors
- Besides relevance, engagement, and quality, YouTube tries to deliver search results based on the actions of the user.
- That includes the user’s watch and search history.
- Search results may vary from one user to the next.
- For example, for a user who watches a lot of sports content and searches for cricket, YouTube will recommend sports cricket rather than the creature.
- When a user clears their search history, YouTube will not consider such signals.
Building Authoritative Sources
- The search algorithm prioritizes content from authoritative sources, especially for content categories like politics, science, news, and medical content.
- Credibility is key to ranking high in these areas.
- For content such as music and entertainment, YouTube looks to relevance, view count, and upload date.
YouTube Recommendations
- The recommendation section on YouTube is another way content can be discovered.
- YouTube considers a lot of signals to determine what to include in the ‘up next section.’
- The user’s behavior and details such as watch and search history, subscriptions, and location play a role.
- Other key factors include the level of engagement the videos received, feedback from random surveys, and time of day. The user’s input is also taken into account.
- The ‘not interested’ feature allows YouTube to determine not to recommend that kind of content.
Bottom line
- The YouTube search algorithm overturns conventional SEO wisdom.
- YouTube rewards content producers for relevant, quality, and engaging content on the platform.
- The value of Meta tags cannot be understated. Typical SEO efforts are still as relevant on YouTube as they are on Google search.
- User activity is important in ranking and YouTube recommendations.
