Did you know that the top traffic sources on YouTube are YouTube Search, Suggested Videos and Browse Features, however, Browse Features is the top traffic source for newly published videos. In the video below, I’m going to show you how to rank in Browse Features, so you can get more views and subscribers to your channel and videos.
Browse Features is my top traffic source for newly published videos. Therefore, I’m going to explain what Browse Features are, where to find them and how to rank I Browse Features on YouTube.
According to YouTube, this is the traffic from the homepage/Home screen, the subscription feed and other Browsing Features where the viewers are signed-in or signed-out. Let’s take a look at the Home screen. The Home screen is what viewers first see when they visit youtube.com or open up the YouTube app. It’s where YouTube tries to deliver the most relevant personalized recommendations for you to watch. It’s also the place where your videos will be found by non-subscribers.
When you visit the Home screen, YouTube will recommend videos from your subscriptions, videos watched by similar viewers, new videos and more. It’s also a place where your videos will be found by non-subscribers,  how  YouTube recommends these videos, how well the video has engaged and satisfied some of the viewers plus  your search and watch history, how often you’ve watched videos from another channel or on a particular topic and how many times YouTube has already shown that video to you.
Keep in mind that subscribers watch more videos from the Home screen than they do from the Subscriptions feed.
How do you get your videos to show up on Home?
You got to upload your videos on a consistent schedule, so viewers will know when to expect a new video will be published. Try to keep your viewers engaged throughout your video and encourage them to come back for more. You can achieve this by giving your viewers what they want to watch and offering solutions to their problems. Include cards, transitions and graphics to reset the attention of viewer while watching the video. Keep doing what works.
When you notice that a video has done well by studying YouTube analytics then create more of the same video. This will enable YouTube to serve us more videos of what people have liked. Study how often your channel appears on the Home screen by visiting YouTube analytics and a Traffic Sources Report. Click Browse Features then click on Home.
Homepage
The Home screen and the homepage make up most of the traffic sources for Browse Features. When people visit your channel homepage they should know immediately what your channel is all about. Therefore make sure you correctly optimize your  channel homepage by creating an attractive channel banner, a customized channel trailer and adding sections to the channel home page. Click here to watch my video on how to correctly optimize your channel homepage.
Watch Later
Watch later comes next as far as getting the most traffic. The Watch later tab appears on your channel homepage. Watch later is a special playlist where you can add videos that you don’t have time to watch but you want to get back to them later. You might have noticed the Watch icon when browsing through the recommended videos on your Home screen.
If you click the watch icon the video will  be automatically added to your Watch later playlist.
Watch history
Watch history got the third highest traffic source after Browse features. It refers to the list of videos you’ve previously watched. This enables you to share the videos with a friend or to watch them later. It also helps you to find videos in the future. The Home feed displays videos based upon your watch history. Keep in mind that if you’re not signed in to YouTube channel you won’t be able to see the list of videos that you’ve watched.
YouTube displays videos on your Home screen based on your past browsing behavior. If you watched a lot of cat videos recently, YouTube knows what you’ve watched and will serve more cat videos on your Home screen.
Subscriptions feed
The subscriptions feed attracts the least amount of traffic from Browse Features. Subscribers are viewers that have opted in to receive more of your videos and they can view them from any part of your site. Because they liked the content from your channel they’ll become your biggest fans and provide the initial signals for your newly uploaded videos. Most of the traffic from your newly uploaded videos will come from subscribers.
The Subscriptions tab shows the collection of videos from the channels that you subscribed to. It includes highlighted videos and list of the most recent uploads. Keep in mind that subscribers will see some subscription content on their Home screen and Suggested Videos.
Here are some tips to attract and retain subscribers on your channel…
- Ask viewers to subscribe at the beginning and end of your video and give them a reason to subscribe.
- Encourage them to watch more videos on your channel by redirecting them to related videos via end screens and cards.
- Make your videos public when you think most viewers will be watching. You can figure out what country most of your subscribers are coming from by visiting the demographics in YouTube analytics. Keep in mind that your subscribers are subscribed to many different channels, therefore the number of subscribers will be higher than the number of views that you get on your video.
- Keep in mind that subscribers don’t necessarily watch every video you uploaded. Check which videos are attracting the most subscribers by going into YouTube analytics and click on these subscribers link.
- Identify videos you can make more of to attract more subscribers. Check the traffic sources of your subscribers by going into YouTube analytics, click on Traffic sources then Browse Features then click on Subscribers.
Now you know what Browse features are, where to find them and how to rank in Browse Features. If you implement the lessons in this video you’ll attract more views and subscribers to your channel.
If you want to learn how to grow your audience on YouTube and
generate traffic, leads and sales on autopilot check out my
YouTube Marketing Course at: TubeVideoBootCamp.com
Hi Herman,
These are all great points. I have not seen you mention SEO but I am sure you have covered that in other posts. I can attest to the effectiveness of SEO in the tags and description. I made a video that was sort of a dud at first. All I did was change the tags and add some keywords to the description and the video started appearing in the search and browse features. Just that. I was getting 300 views per day from 2 videos. Not bad, I think, for something that had a big oval zero.
Herman wrote:”Include cards, transitions and graphics to reset the attention of viewer while watching the video.” Now, this is my take home. Attracting viewers is one thing, keeping them hooked another. The boosts the watch time and can be a great way to meet the 4000 watch hours you talked about here http://www.drostdesigns.com/4000-watch-hours/.
People now have short attention spans on the internet and you have to ‘reset’ their attention’ as you put it. This is one area I have to work on.
Cheers!
Thanks for sharing your experience with changing the keywords and tags and description. I sometimes re-optiomize old videos that are not getting any traffic which often gives them a boost
Hi Herman, I’ve been looking at Youtube ranking for a while and this post was pretty helpful, so thanks for coming up with it. Also, interesting to be reading in the comments about Bruce’s experience with SEO, will be researching some of that aswell!
Thanks Virginia…here’s my series of videos on how to rank in YouTube Search, YouTube Suggested and Google Search…https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFz7YaZ-5zVDEhwudfebi6C3qbVNX_9fQ