How to Get Your Video to Trend on YouTube

As a YouTube content creator, getting your videos into the trending section is like bagging the great white whale, Moby Dick.

Trending videos get more views and attract more subscribers purely from the extra exposure.

But how do you get your videos to trend?

In this post, I’ll show you eight techniques the pros use to get their videos noticed by YouTube so they get into the trending section.

Understand, as we show you these techniques and examples that nothing is guaranteed, but they certainly boost your chances.

What is YouTube trending?

Gone are the blissful days when YouTubers were making content purely for the fun of it.

Today, it has evolved into a full- or part-time job for almost every more or less popular YouTuber.

Having said that, the bottom line for every content creator, among other things, is to get their videos trending as it helps generate hefty amounts of views per video, which, in turn, influences their income.

The good news is, you can leverage YouTube’s inbuilt video Trending section to your advantage if you know what you are doing.

To begin with, YouTube’s Trending section is aimed at surfacing videos that are both sensational and appeals to a wide variety of people within set demography.

In other words, although your language settings might be set to English, you may get videos in French in your Trending section because you are in a French-speaking country.

Also, YouTube’s Trending section promotes happenings on YouTube from around the world as well as a diverse bunch of creative content from different creators.

Now that you understand how YouTube’s Trending section was built to help you succeed, how do you leverage it?

Get your videos to trend on YouTube

In order to get videos to trend, you need to have an understanding of how YouTube’s Trending section works.

Naturally, there are certain factors that need to be taken into account.

These factors are:

• The pace of view generation
• The view count
• The performance of the video in relation to others on the same channel
• The source of the view count, which includes outside sources
• Viewer duration
• The age of the video

With these in mind, how do you get your videos to meet these requirements? How do you go from having a few hundred views to making into YouTube’s Trending section?

Here’s how you do it:

1. Use engaging thumbnails
2. Promote your videos quickly
3. Setup a playlist for autoplay
4. Avoid experimenting with content
5. Make videos longer
6. Optimize MetaData For Search and Visibility
7. Pay for promotion
8. Be consistent

Use engaging thumbnails

In case you don’t know, the thumbnail image of a video refers to the image you see on a video before you click on it.

It’s essential that your thumbnail images, headlines, and the shortcut previews of your video are engaging because they are the first things they will see about it.

If done well, thumbnails have a way of making viewers curious.

However, you should refrain from using thumbnails that, although they convey the message of your headline, aren’t necessarily a part of the video, as it can confuse viewers.

Therefore, choose a high-quality and vivid photo for a thumbnail – this will significantly increase interest and entice people to click on your video.

Promote your videos quickly

Next, promote your video as quickly as possible within the first three days after publishing it.

It’s easier when you have a huge subscription base, as a simple notification hinting at the new release of a video will do the trick.

Even if you don’t have many subscribers, post a link on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to get people to watch your video.

And if you’ve got a blog, write a blog post on the subject of your video and feature it there.

Or better still, have professionals like Adsy write your blog posts so you save time.

The bottom line is, whatever you do, make sure to get as many people as possible to watch your video within the first 72 hours of its being published.

The more viewers you get within this time frame gives it a better chance to trend.

Setup an autoplay playlist

YouTube’s autoplay feature is an excellent tool to increase the viewing sessions of your videos.

So, create a playlist for your videos, especially if they pertain to the same subject.

For instance:

Let’s say you have a channel that is focused on the English teaching niche.

You could break down the topic of verb tenses into multiple, smaller videos rather than making one long one.

Then compile a playlist of all your videos on verb tenses.

Bam! Now you have a play list.

Stay focused on your niche

Going viral involves more than a single video.

It involves your entire YouTube channel.

If you want a  channel that’s got the ability to go viral, then it’s best to refrain from content experimentation or publishing videos about unrelated topics.

Your content should appeal to specific viewers in search of your kind of content but if you keep changing your focus with each video, you run the risk of losing already existing subscribers, i.e. losing the chance to get a boost of viewership within the first few days after its release.

And not only will this approach increase the view count on your videos, but it’ll also garner you more subscribers.

Make your videos longer

According to research conducted by Tubefilter, videos with a duration of at least 8 to 10 minutes in length have a 360% chance of performing better among viewers than videos of 5-minute duration.

So longer videos do better than short videos.

In addition, there is a correlation between session duration, the number of views in a video’s lifetime, and the length of a video.

However, the trick with longer videos is to make them interesting so viewers keep watching. Otherwise, you risk boring your viewers and they will drop off quickly.

Optimize metadata for search and use tags

Remember that your videos do not show up only on YouTube but also on Google search results.

So it’s essential that your videos are can be discovered easily.

Therefore, optimize your meta title, tags, and meta descriptions for easy visibility in Google search.

Oftentimes, content creators make the mistake of placing tags in their meta descriptions.

Don’t do that.

It’s best to use the meta description for its intended purpose: To describe the video succinctly and improve user experience.

For the best tags to use, consult word clouds of tags.

Word clouds give you a sense of common words that YouTubers use to tag their videos.

For example:

If your videos are about beauty and makeup, you’ll want to use keywords like ‘makeup’, ‘beauty’ and ‘beautiful’.

You’ll also want to label them as ‘Howto’ and ‘tutorials’.

Pay for promotion

Although the YouTube algorithm isn’t set up on a pay-to-win basis, purchasing video promotion will certainly put you in the lead amongst your peers.

An even better way to implement a paid promotion for your video is within the first 78 hours after it’s released.

Not only will this approach increase the view count on the video, but it’ll also garner you some subscribers.

Be consistent

Getting a few likes and views is one thing but getting your video to trend is another.

It will take more than just a couple of videos.

Partly, getting people to view and share your video is dependent on your subscriber base.

And let’s face it, it certainly helps to have a large following whether on or off the YouTube platform – and those aren’t built in a day.

Uploading quality content on a consistent schedule helps you build your audience by attracting views and subscribers. People like consistency.

It also improves your image as a budding influencer by demonstrating you can be relied upon to publish high-quality content regularly.

Trending on YouTube is a great benefit to any content creator. Nonetheless, given the number of content creators increasing by the day, it’s safe to say that trending has become a challenge – and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

That being said, with a consistent upload of great content, a growing subscriber base, and putting into practice these tips, you are sure to get more than a few of your videos trending.

Marie Barnes is a writer for gearyoda. She is an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs.