Its nearly impossible that your video will be trending on YouTube all of a sudden by sheer luck. It takes a proper strategic video content plan and everything needs to be in place. To establish yourself on YouTube and stand out in the sea of creators, you have to make it to the trending list. Or else, you’re not utilizing opportunities to build your brand reputation, audience engagement, or even monetary channels. Creating videos just for the sake of putting it out there, won’t take you places.

YouTube’s algorithm plays a major role in making your videos trend. There’s a lot that comes into play in the algorithm such as:

1. Watch time that includes the number of views, the number of session starts, session duration, etc.

2. Video length as longer videos tend to outdo shorter videos in YouTube’s algorithm because that offers more chances to keep viewers on your video.

3. Channel consistency as viewers check out a channel and stick around if the channel produces good content and on a regular basis.

Now lets have a peek at what makes videos trend on YouTube:

Long form video content

As much as people like consuming short form content, longer videos do better than shorter videos. There is a  correlation between video length, view session duration, and total number of views in a video’s lifetime. A longer video obviously automatically increase the duration of your views. Well of course your video has to be engaging enough for people to watch it till the end.

Quick promotions 

Strike the iron when it is hot. The goal is to make as many people watch the video in the first 48-72 hours of your video’s release. You can promote your YouTube video via your social media platforms, your website or related video ads. The goal is to gather as many views as possible at the very beginning.

Attractive thumbnails

The video thumbnail image, the bit of the video that shows when hovering on your video, and the headline should be really catchy and captivating because these are the factors that build the curiosity of your audience. Your thumbnail has to be that good as to make stop scrolling and click on your video. Don’t put up thumbnails that are not actually a part of your video. Viewers do not appreciate being deceived.

Consistency

It must sound obvious because this is probably told by everyone but there’s a reason why people say it. You cannot stop at just one hit video. Consistency outshines momentary popularity. Take your time to induce your creative juices but stick to your timeline and upload on a regular cadence.

Careful experimentation

Conversely, if you have something that works, don’t experiment. We all want to explore and experiment with the things around us, but you may not want to risk it all just for the sake of experimenting. I would suggest taking feedback from your audience or asking them if they would like to see something new.

If you have some more tips to make videos go trending, do let us know.