Get MORE VIEWS on YOUTUBE (2022 Strategy)
Have you noticed that there are dozens of strategies for “getting views on YouTube”? But, how do you know which way will work best for you? Which strategies will give you the best AND fastest results?
Now, you can use as many little tactics as you like, but they should all complement your big-picture strategy… of which there are really just two:
The Keyword Research Strategy
The Community Leader Strategy
In this article, we will review what each of these strategies is and how it can help you get views, we’ll go over the pros and cons of each, and I’ll help you determine which strategy is right for you.
What exactly is keyword research, and how can it help you get views on YouTube?
Keyword research is a process of investigating popular search terms people would type into Google, YouTube, or another search engine to find what they are looking for help with. Once you have done the research and uncovered popular words or phrases, you would strategically include them into your content in hopes that it creates SEO (search engine optimization), and the search engine (or the YouTube algorithm) recommends your content to others.
Sometimes keywords are one word and other times they are phrases. Short or long doesn’t matter as much as if someone would type the word or phrase into the search engine.
For example:
1-2 words: DSLR camera
Phrase: What DSLR camera should I get in 2022?
Here are some sample keywords I may use for this article so you can find it when you search for related information:
How to get more views on YouTube
What is keyword research
Pros of keyword research
How to decide which keywords to use
Community leader strategy
How the community leader strategy creates engagement
The community leader strategy is less obvious and less common than the keyword research approach. Have you even heard of it before?
How does it work? You, as the video creator, would position yourself as a leader of the community – your viewers. The good news is that you don’t have to be a leading expert to establish yourself as a community leader.
Rather, your mission is suggesting different ideas or strategies around trending topics. What are your takes, your ideas, your opinions based on these popular subjects? The kicker, though, is that you need to stand out and maybe even take the unpopular approach to the trending topics.
Here are a few community leaders who successfully used this strategy:
Matt D’Avella is a leader in the minimalist community.
Peter McKinnon is a leader in the online videography community .
Jenella Eliana is a leader in the van life community.
Each of these creators grew their channels by hundreds of thousands of subscribers in just a matter of months! If you watch their content, you’ll know why – they bring a different perspective or approach to an already popular and trending topic. They are willing to create riskier content and rally their communities to get behind them!
This approach is a little harder to know how to work it, but done right is a great approach for long-term engagement and growing communities.
What are the pros and cons of the keyword research strategy?
No approach is perfect, so let’s talk about some pros and cons of keyword research.
Cons to the keyword research strategy
This approach doesn’t build community or promote engagement. Though it is possible to create a community feel, if your main strategy is leading with keyword research, you’re always going to have to do extra work to drive the engagement on your channel.
Keyword research doesn’t drive sustainable channel growth.
Don’t get me wrong, you can get a ton of views by ranking for keywords, but subscribers may not be interested in future videos you create because you’re focused on keywords rather than community.
Why is that? When they found your channel initially, it was because it ranked for a specific keyword they were searching for.
You gave them what they needed, but they may not be compelled to stay. They don’t see you as a thought leader yet, so it may be a one and done type of visit.
This strategy won’t naturally position you as a leader in your community or industry. If you’re trying to build a brand online or fuel your business or even start a movement, keyword research will not help you do this. Keyword research drives listicle types of videos – lists or how tos – and in this type of content, people don’t usually care about your opinion.
Pros to the keyword research strategy
The keyword research method creates the most predictable results. If it’s implemented correctly, you will get the views you are looking for and you will be able to convert visitors into subscribers for growth.
This method is also easier to duplicate. You can actually look at what’s working for others and use that to your benefit. You can search for what keywords are popular in your niche, and you can utilize them for your own channel. You can take the important elements that are gaining traction and prepare video content to match.
This strategy is much easier to execute than community leader strategy because you can find an array of research and information about how to make the method work for you, and you also have hundreds of people you can study and take notes from. There’s a real advantage to having the information at your fingertips.
Keyword research has the power to get you traction as easily as possible. With keywords you can harness the power of the YouTube algorithm without too much risk. It’s more of a math game at this point, and you can use it to grow quickly.
What are the pros and cons of the community leader strategy?
So we talked about the pros and cons of the keyword research strategy for getting views on YouTube, but what about the advantages and disadvantages of the community leader approach?
CONS to the community leader strategy
The community leader strategy won’t create very predictable results. Because you’re charting your own course it’s a little harder to know how it will work. You may not know how well your ideas will resonate with viewers, so it’s a bit of a guessing game
It is much more difficult to know how to execute this method. It’s not duplicatable. You can’t just copy someone else’s success because what works for one creator may not work for another. You need to focus on making different content on popular topics, not the same content as other community leaders. You have to find a way to stand out.
PROS to the community leader strategy
This is the strategy that does the best job to build community and promote engagement on your channel. These videos are created in such a way that they encourage viewers clicking the like button or leaving thoughtful comments, and they also drive longer watch time. Watch time matters for long-term growth and for monetization.
The community leader method is more likely to create sustainable channel growth. Viewers are more involved and feel more a part of the community leader’s channel because of the importance placed on community. Because your growth isn’t dependent on specific keywords staying popular, you don’t have to worry about certain videos dying out. You do need to make sure to talk about a topic that will stay popular long term.
With this method you ARE positioning yourself as a leader, and your followers value your opinion. It’s a great way to build your brand or business online. You will become a leader in your industry if your channel takes off.
Which YouTube growth strategy is right for you right now?
Now that we’ve talked about what each strategy is, how they can help you get more views on YouTube, and the pros and cons of each, it’s time to determine which method is best for you at this very moment.
No matter which approach you choose, you ultimately need to make videos of topics people are interested in.
The community leader channels I shared above include interesting and binge-worthy topics – minimalism, online videography, and van life. These subjects are currently trending and popular now, but that doesn’t mean they will stay that way in the future. A new trending topic may come into play down the road.
If you are a new video creator with a small YouTube channel, the keyword research strategy will give you the most predictable growth results. Not only that, but this method is less overwhelming and usually easier to get right because it is a black and white way to approach growth.
Because of this, you can leverage the power of the algorithm to grow your channel in a predictable way. Once you have enough videos published and the algorithm understands who your channel is for, it will start recommending your videos to large numbers of people who are actually interested in your content!
However, if you already have some traction on your channel but want to grow it into something sustainable, the community leader strategy may be right for you. Getting seen initially is quite a bit harder with this method, but it is a great way to build community and position yourself as a leader.
Once established enough, your audience will come back again and again and be excited to binge your videos. Channels THRIVE by building communities.
What do I recommend? Both. Starting with the keyword research strategy will get you noticed by the algorithm and get you predictable results, but moving into the community leader strategy once you have a following is a great way to build community and have sustained growth for the long run.
Neither strategy is perfect, and you will encounter difficulty along the way no matter which you choose to go with. You can do one or the other or you can combine forces and pivot from one to the other.
I started with the keyword research strategy and now I’m moving into the unknown of making new, different content that is potentially not as popular in order to create a valuable community that is super engaged and excited to hear what’s next!
If you want to learn more about how to get more views on YouTube, check out my free workshop: 3 Secrets to Reach 1,000 Subscribers and Get Monetized.
3 Secrets to Reach 1,000 Subscribers and Get Monetized in Just 3 Months
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