An essential part of optimizing a YouTube video channel is maintaining a good rating. A YouTube channel rating is a measure of the popularity of the channel, which is determined by the number of views each video gets, comments and other factors.
More, Better Content is Better
Some people think having more videos makes a channel seem better. This isn’t true.
Think of it this way: a channel comprised of many videos with few total views shows that the content overall is uninteresting. Why would YouTube or Google want boring videos from an uninteresting channel showing up in search results? They don’t.
Comments Come From Compelling Content
More videos equal fewer comments on individual videos. Comments are an indication of engagement level. If an audience feels strongly enough to leave a comment, then it shows that the content of the video literally compelled the viewer to take action. Lots of content with no comments means your content is boring. Why would YouTube or Google want un-compelling videos from an uninteresting channel showing up in search results? They don’t.
Solution: Remove Poorly Performing Videos from the Channel to Get a Better Rating
In order to determine which videos are performing well and which that aren’t, you must compare apples to apples. That is, figure out the number of views each videos gets per day. Do this by calculating the Video Visibility Index.
Calculate the Video Visibility Index for all of the videos on your YouTube channel. To do this, first you need to collect the following metrics for each video in a spreadsheet: upload date, views, today’s date.
Once you fill the spreadsheet with these metrics, it is time to calculate the number of days a video has been on YouTube. To do this simply subtract the post date from today’s date.
Now you can calculate the Video Visibility Index. Divide the number of views by the number of days on YouTube. For example, “My Video” has 300 views and has been on YouTube for 365 days. Divid 300/365 to get .82. This means that “My Video” received just under one view per day.
Next, review the data and set a cut off point. The cut off point is the lowest visibility index for the channel. You determine this by looking at the overall performance of the video content. It takes a sense of the market and competition to decipher the cut off point.
After generating a list of videos that fall below the cut off point, go through and watch each video. Ask yourself why people didn’t view and share the video. Is it poor quality? Are their sound issues? Is the video uninteresting?
Remove any videos with technical problems. Sound issues, bumpy camera work and fuzzy picture are all distractions that turn people away instantly.
If you find a video that you think is compelling and doesn’t have technical issues, the lack of views can be attributed to lack of promotion. Keep the video, but commit to a promotion schedule that gets the video in front of an engaged audience. Set a campaign duration. If the visibility index doesn’t improve in the campaign duration, eliminate it from the channel.
The visibility index effectively sums up the quality of content on a YouTube channel. This allows the visibility team to judge the content of the channel, eliminating poorly performing videos and learning from well performing videos.
Read more about optimizing videos for YouTubes internal search algorithm.
