As part of a larger effort to explain how YouTube works, Google released a new resource to answer frequently asked questions about YouTube search results.
Google created an entirely new website, called How YouTube Works, which provides an in-depth look at all the components of the YouTube platform.
Here are some highlights from different sections related to search and discovery.
YouTube search
YouTube’s search ranking system sorts over 500 hours of uploaded content every minute to find the most relevant results for a query.
YouTube search prioritizes these three main elements when ranking your search results:
- Relevance
- Commitment
- Quality
Here are more details on each of these elements.
Relevance
YouTube’s ranking algorithm analyzes many factors in determining relevance.
Without being too specific, YouTube points out factors such as the video’s title, tags, description, and content.
Commitment
YouTube’s search algorithm incorporates aggregate engagement signals from users, such as the playing time of a particular video for a particular query.
The company notes that signs of commitment are also a valuable way to determine relevance.
Quality
To determine quality, YouTube uses signals that should be very familiar to search marketers.
“Finally, for quality, our systems are designed to identify signals that can help determine which channels demonstrate experience, authority, and reliability on a given topic.”
Experience, authority, and reliability are also known among search marketers as EAT.
It must be familiar because Google also emphasizes the importance of these signals for your search results.
See: Amazing facts about EAT
Another factor: customization
In addition to the above three main factors, YouTube also tries to determine the relevance of each user taking into account a user’s search and viewing history.
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It is not uncommon for search results to differ from user to user for the same query.
“For example, if you watch a lot of sports videos and search for” cricket, “we might recommend videos with sports cricket instead of nature videos with crickets on them.”
YouTube search and view history can be deleted at any time, in which case YouTube search results will ignore these signals.
Raise authorized sources
YouTube mentions that it prioritizes content from authorized sources when it is appropriate to do so.
This may include content categories such as news, politics, and medical or scientific information.
In those areas, credibility is key.
In other areas, like music or entertainment, YouTube is more likely to see cues like relevance, freshness, or popularity.
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Related: How YouTube generates and classifies suggested videos
YouTube recommendations
Another opportunity for content creators to be discovered on YouTube is through recommendations.
YouTube shares recommendations on its home page and in the “Next” section as a suggestion for what to see next.
Many signals are considered when determining which videos to recommend, such as:
- View and search history
- Channels subscribed to
- Location
- Time of the day
- How many people watched a video until complete
- Direct user feedback through random surveys
Users can adjust their recommendations by clicking the “not interested” button, which will instruct YouTube not to recommend similar videos in the future.
For more information on the inner workings of YouTube, visit the new How YouTube Works site here.
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