Eric Siu explains why YouTube search isn't worth optimizing for. Viewers from the recommendation feed watch longer and boost watch time more than search traffic, which only catches people with specific intent.
A lot of people think about YouTube as a search engine. Optimize for search, optimize for search. I did this for a really long time until I actually realized that search isn't always king. When I look at my analytics, search is really great to get clicks because that person is searching for a very specific problem and they're looking for a specific solution. But if you actually look into the analytics, and I've asked other channels about this as well, is those people who come through suggested, they actually watch your videos for longer, which increases the amount of watch time that you ultimately get. And so not only do you want to optimize for search, which is great, it's a low-hanging fruit opportunity, but I want to also share some strategies on how you can get recommended more in suggested that I honestly wish I knew sooner to grow faster.
