Eric Siu explains why longer videos outperform shorts on YouTube. Long-form content generates more total watch time, which boosts recommendations. YouTube prioritizes watch time over view-through rate, so longer videos win the algorithm.
Longer videos are actually better on YouTube than shorter ones. Longer videos is what's ultimately gonna get you recommended in suggested. For a really long time, I created 10-minute snappy videos on YouTube because I prioritized view duration. I thought, okay, if someone's watching a 5-minute video, they're likely gonna watch all of it, which is a good thing for me. But what I realized is if I actually put my attention to watch time, which is what's the most important metric on YouTube, even if someone finishes 100% of a 5-minute video, that's 5 minutes of watch time. If I put out a 30-minute video and that person only finishes 50% of it, I'm getting 15 minutes of watch time. So what am I going to prioritize, a shorter video or a longer one? I'm likely going to prioritize a longer one in order to get more juice in the algorithm and get my content pushed out more in suggested.
