YouTube Algorithm Explained: What YouTube Says It Uses
There is no single YouTube algorithm. Search and recommendations are separate systems, and YouTube has said a fair amount about how both work. Here is what it has actually said, what that means for your videos, and which popular claims it has never confirmed.
Two systems: search and recommendations
"The algorithm" usually means two different things:
- Search ranks videos for something a viewer typed.
- Recommendations pick videos for people who didn't search: the Home feed and the "Up next" list next to the video you're watching.
They use overlapping signals, but they answer different questions. Search asks "which video best answers this query?" Recommendations ask "which video will this person be glad they watched?"
How YouTube search ranks videos
YouTube's help page on search names three main things, and says their weight changes with the kind of search:
- Relevance: how well the title, tags, description and video content match the search.
- Engagement: signals such as how long people watch a video they found for that search.
- Quality: signs that a channel shows expertise, authority and trustworthiness on the topic.
Results can also be personal. If your search and watch history are on, YouTube may use them, which is why two people can see different results for the same words.
How recommendations work
The clearest public account comes from Cristos Goodrow, VP of Engineering at YouTube, in a 2021 post on YouTube's blog. It describes how the signals were added over time, each because the one before wasn't enough:
| Signal | What YouTube said about it |
|---|---|
| Clicks | A click suggests you'll like a video, but clicking doesn't mean you watched it. YouTube learned that in 2011. |
| Watch time | Added in 2012, because time spent watching says more than a click. But not all watch time is equal. |
| Satisfaction surveys | YouTube asks some viewers to rate videos. Only videos rated four or five stars count as "valued watchtime". |
| Likes, shares, dislikes | People tend to be more satisfied by videos they share or like; a dislike suggests they didn't enjoy it. |
| Borderline content | Videos classed as borderline are pushed down in recommendations. |
The same post stresses that the system is personal: how much each signal counts depends on the viewer. YouTube's "How YouTube Works" pages add that it also considers a channel's reputation and quality, uses outside raters to judge how content comes across, and leans on high-quality sources for topics such as news, money and health.
Put simply: a click gets you a chance, watching keeps it going, and a viewer who's glad they watched is what YouTube is trying to predict.
What YouTube says matters less
Tags. YouTube's help page says tags play a minimal role in discovery and are mainly useful when your topic is often misspelled.
Popular claims YouTube hasn't confirmed
You'll read these on many blogs. We couldn't find YouTube saying them, so treat them as guesses:
- "YouTube ranks your video on every word in the captions." The search help page lists "video content" under relevance but doesn't say captions are used for ranking. Captions clearly help people: viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, and anyone watching with the sound off.
- "Posting less often gets you penalised." YouTube hasn't published a posting-frequency rule.
- "Subscriber count doesn't matter." Subscriptions are one of the things YouTube says recommendations look at. How much they count isn't public.
- "A video peaks in search after X weeks." No such timeline is published, and it would vary by topic anyway.
See which system sends you views
You don't have to guess whether search or recommendations matter more for your channel. In YouTube Analytics, open a video, go to the Reach tab and look at traffic sources. The ones that map to the systems above:
| Traffic source | What YouTube counts there | Driven by |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube search | Views from YouTube search results | Search |
| Browse features | Home, subscriptions, Watch Later and other browsing pages | Recommendations (mostly Home) |
| Suggested videos | Suggestions next to or after other videos, and links in video descriptions | Recommendations ("Up next") |
| Shorts | The Shorts vertical viewing experience | The Shorts feed |
| Notifications | Notifications and emails sent to your subscribers | Your subscribers |
| External | Websites and apps that embed or link to your video | Outside YouTube |
If most views come from YouTube search, titles and descriptions that match what people type matter most. If most come from Browse features and Suggested videos, the click and the first minute matter most, because that's where recommendations learn whether viewers were glad they watched. Compare a few videos rather than one: a single video can be an outlier.
What to do with this
- Make the title and thumbnail honest. They earn the click; the video has to keep the promise, or watch time and survey answers drop.
- Start fast. Open YouTube Analytics, look at the audience retention report for your last few videos, and find where viewers leave. Fix that part first.
- Study what works in your niche. Pick the videos that rank for your topic and read how they open: what they promise in the first lines and how quickly they deliver. A transcript with times makes this fast. Paste the link into our YouTube transcript generator and read the first minute instead of rewatching. Learn the structure; don't copy the words.
- Describe the video clearly. Search relevance looks at the title, description and the video itself, so say plainly what the video covers.
- Add correct captions. Whatever their effect on ranking, they make the video easier to follow for more people. If YouTube's automatic captions got names wrong, fix them in YouTube Studio.
- Stay in a lane. Recommendations are personal: they go to people whose viewing suggests they'll like your video. A clear topic makes it easier to find those people again.
FAQ
How does the YouTube algorithm decide what to recommend?
It tries to predict which videos each viewer will be glad they watched. YouTube says it looks at what you click, how long you watch, how you answer its satisfaction surveys, and what you like, dislike, share and subscribe to. It also weighs a channel's reputation and quality, and it pushes down videos it classes as borderline.
What is the 7-second rule on YouTube?
It isn't a YouTube rule. It's creator shorthand for getting to the point in the first few seconds, because many viewers decide quickly whether to keep watching. YouTube doesn't publish a cut-off. To see where your own viewers leave, open the audience retention report for the video in YouTube Analytics.
What is the 30-second rule on YouTube?
Also creator shorthand, not something YouTube has announced. The idea is to keep viewers through the first half minute. Your audience retention report shows how many people are still watching at 30 seconds, which tells you more than any rule of thumb.
How many views do you need to make $1,000 a month on YouTube?
There is no fixed number. YouTube doesn't publish a rate per view; ad earnings vary by topic, country, season and how many viewers see ads. To earn from ads at all you first need to join the YouTube Partner Program: 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.
Is there a trick to get views on YouTube?
Not one YouTube confirms. Its systems reward videos that people choose to click, keep watching and are glad they watched. A title and thumbnail that promise exactly what the video delivers, a fast start, and a video that keeps its promise do that.
Do tags still matter?
Very little. YouTube's own help page says tags play a minimal role in discovery and are mainly useful when your topic is often misspelled. Spend the time on the title, thumbnail and the video itself.
Sources
- YouTube Help: How YouTube search works (support.google.com/youtube/answer/16090438)
- Cristos Goodrow, "On YouTube's recommendation system", YouTube Official Blog, 15 September 2021
- How YouTube Works: Recommendations (youtube.com/howyoutubeworks)
- YouTube Help: Add tags to your video (answer/146402); YouTube Partner Program overview (answer/72851)