How to Increase Watch Hours on YouTube? (12 Tips)

In today’s digital world, YouTube has become a huge platform used by tens of millions of people around the world. As such, many content creators have started a race to prove themselves on YouTube. However, you need comprehensive strategies to increase the viewing hours of the videos you publish on YouTube, which is a very competitive platform. In this article, we will give you important tips to help you stand out among your competitors. If you read our article completely, you will be able to increase the viewing hours of your videos without needing any extra information. Come on, hurry up now and increase YouTube watch hours.

Discover Engaging Video Content Ideas

YouTube continues to be one of the world’s largest video-sharing platforms. As such, one of the most effective keys to being successful on this platform is to have impressive video content ideas. Below, we will be talking about the most demanded video types and we have presented them to you in items. Now let’s take a closer look at these content ideas:

1. Educational Content is Important: People have a great desire to access educational content for free via the Internet. Regardless of the content of the training videos, you can get a high number of viewing hours by informing and educating other people. However, we find it useful to point out that university and high school students are more inclined to this type of video content these days.
2. It is Important to Follow Trends: The types of videos popular on YouTube may change from time to time. Therefore, by frequently following these trending videos, you can produce content similar to these videos.
3. Entertaining Videos Often Receive Attention: Nowadays, people are in great demand for entertaining videos to detox and reduce their stress levels.
4. Social Experiment Content: Many YouTube viewers are curious about other people’s reactions. One of the most watched video types is the type of videos containing social experiments.
5. Daily Vlogs are Popular: You can create emotional bonds between you and your audience by sharing your daily life or interesting events in vlog format.
6. Game Videos Are Watched Frequently: Playing games and sharing them is also a very logical idea. YouTube viewers are very curious about seeing other people playing games and the reactions of people playing games.

These are the most logical and most demanded content types that we can recommend to you to increase your watch hours on YouTube, so you can increase YouTube watch hours by applying these strategies.

Upload the Video Content Consistently

One of the strategies you need to implement to be successful on YouTube and have your videos watched for long hours is to upload consistent videos. It is also very important that you regularly upload YouTube videos at regular intervals. You should first prepare the YouTube videos you plan to publish by analyzing your target audience. To grow your audience and increase your viewing hours, you must adapt to YouTube’s algorithm and publish content regularly. In this way, you can increase your interaction rates and get more watch hours on YouTube.

Use a Relevant and Attractive Thumbnail

To be successful on YouTube, you need to attract other users. If you want YouTube users to click on your video content and increase the viewing time of your videos, you need to use attractive and relevant thumbnails to your video content. A significant portion of YouTube users always look at the video’s cover image, that is, its thumbnail, before deciding to watch a video. In this case, applying this strategy is a very logical thing to stand out from your competitors. Hurry up now and improve yourself in producing original and high-quality thumbnails so you can increase YouTube watch hours easily.

Create Playlists of Your Videos

To be successful on YouTube, you have to make it easy for your viewers. While your viewers watch your videos, they will also want to watch similar content. Therefore, if you prepare a playlist by categorizing videos of similar types, viewers will watch your videos for longer periods and increase your viewing hours. Now hurry up and create playlists consisting of a sufficient number of videos for your audience, and not only make your audience struggle to find similar content but also get more viewing time.

Optimize Your Video Content for YouTube SEO

If you want to be successful on YouTube and stand out from your competitors and be watched for longer periods, you need to optimize your video content in the best possible way. Before uploading the YouTube videos you have shot in high resolution to the platform, you must do your best to montage the videos. Analyze your target audience and edit your videos in a way that your target audience will like. Also, think carefully about the content of your videos, that is, the things you do and will do in the video, and try to make your viewers happy. In addition, you should enter the title of your video and the hashtags and descriptions you use most reasonably so that you appear at the top of YouTube SEO. By using these strategies, you can increase your YouTube watch hours by taking advantage of YouTube SEO, that is, YouTube’s algorithm.

Display YouTube Videos on Your WordPress Websites

Don’t limit your YouTube channel and video content to just YouTube. You can promote the content you publish on your personal websites or different blog sites. In this way, other people can discover the existence of your videos. It is a very logical idea to open a website related to the video content you produce. You can design and publish a website in a short time using CMS tools such as WordPress. As another option, you can embed the videos you have published on a website that has been previously opened and visited by many users, on the relevant site and make them available for discovery by other users. Following these strategies will increase your YouTube watch time.

Host Live Streams

If you want to be successful on YouTube and stand out among your competitors, you should also use the live broadcast feature that YouTube offers. You can create an emotional bond between you and your audience by broadcasting live broadcasts. By determining the right time, open live broadcasts on certain days and hours and listen to your audience’s demands, requests, and recommendations. In this way, you can strengthen the bond between you and your viewers and shape your YouTube strategies with the feedback from your viewers. You can increase your YouTube watch hours by using this strategy.

Add Teasers at the Beginning

Add teasers to the beginning of your video content to stand out from your competitors on the YouTube platform and make your YouTube channel a unique brand. In this way, your viewers will know that the relevant video belongs to you and your YouTube channel, both from the intro sounds and intro visuals. In addition, this way you can gain a place in the minds of your audience and be engraved in their memories. You can change the teasers you add to the beginning of your videos according to the feedback from your viewers and make your teasers the most professional. Remember that the beginning parts of your videos are very important. You should also provide a summary of the entire video in teasers to your audience. In this way, you can increase your watch hours by producing videos that look better to your audience.

Use End Screens to Build YouTube Watch Time

YouTube offers a variety of tools that enable creators to engage with their audience and increase watch time. One of these tools is “Recent Screens”. End Screens is a very useful feature that shows viewers other videos or the subscribe option at the end of the video. To increase your viewing hours on YouTube, you can add your other videos to the last seconds of your video and invite users who have not yet subscribed to your channel to subscribe to your channel. Using this strategy will increase your viewing times.

Collaboration With Additional Brands Or Creators

Collaborating with different brands and other content creators puts you one step ahead and increases your viewing hours. Many YouTube users are not aware of the existence of your channel, and it is quite normal because tens of millions of people follow the YouTube platform. By collaborating with other content producers, you can easily increase your number of followers and introduce your channel to viewers who have not yet discovered you. Being successful on the YouTube platform is not something that asocial people can do because this platform is based on socializing and discovering different content. So don’t be a shy person and meet and collaborate with other content creators. In addition, contacting popular brands to collaborate will not only help you financially but also allow your videos to be watched for long hours.

Interact With Your YouTube Community

To develop emotional bonds between you and your audience who follow you on YouTube, be sure to respond and talk to them. Create a bridge between yourself, both with the comments you make and the questions from your audience. Additionally, by communicating with your viewers, you can ensure that your channel grows and your videos are watched for long hours because you will receive feedback from them. Thanks to the feedback you receive, you can learn what your audience wants and implement your YouTube strategies accordingly. Come on, hurry up now and contact the users who follow you, listen to them, and give answers.

Use YouTube Analytics

Using YouTube analytics helps you develop strategies to get your videos watched for longer periods. Learning the demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, and location) of the users who follow you and watch your videos gives you important clues about what you need to do. Additionally, by using YouTube analytics, you can access very important information such as your most requested content types and how many minutes these videos are watched, and change your YouTube strategies accordingly. For a content creator, YouTube analytics is vital and by using these statistics you can increase YouTube watch hours.

This article may interest you: How to Get More Subscribers on YouTube? (15 Strategies)

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