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SEO specialist Brean Dean and his team analyzed 1.3 million videos to better understand which factors influence YouTube rankings and what it takes to hit the TOP. In particular, they examined the relationships between ranking factors (views, likes, shares) and YouTube positions.
These data reveal many interesting facts and misconceptions about SEO for YouTube videos. Ultimately, the team reached the following conclusions:
Now let’s dive deeper into each point.
YouTube rewards videos that maximize interactions. Naturally, comments are a strong indicator of viewer engagement.
Here are the data that support this:
As you can see in the chart above, the more comments a video has, the higher it ranks. Given YouTube’s focus on engagement, this is no surprise.
It’s fair to say that videos with lots of comments generally occupy better positions on YouTube.
The data show that longer videos significantly outperform shorter videos in search:
In fact, the average duration of a video on YouTube’s first page is 14 minutes and 50 seconds.
YouTube has publicly confirmed that total watch time is one of the key ranking factors. Simply put, YouTube wants to promote videos that keep viewers on the platform longer. Longer videos do this better; therefore, longer content gets prioritized.
If you scan results yourself, it’s quite hard to find short videos (under 3 minutes) ranking very high.
Google denies that social signals play a role in its algorithm.
However, YouTube’s algorithm operates independently from Google. Thus, there’s a chance YouTube uses social shares from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as a ranking factor.
In reality, the data did not show a strict correlation between share counts and rankings. Still, videos with more shares generally outrank those with fewer.
Views used to be the #1 ranking factor: many views = popularity = quality.
However, YouTube found that views are often a poor indicator of quality.
Therefore, they updated their algorithm to emphasize factors like audience retention and engagement.
It was found that total views still have a significant correlation with ranking:
It seems you need a certain critical mass of views to rank on YouTube. Without views, the platform can’t generate other signals it uses to evaluate quality (e.g., total watch time and comments).
But at some point, views lose their value. That’s why you often see higher-quality clips prioritized even when other videos have far more views.
A low correlation was found between total channel subscribers and ranking position:
Unlike Google, which seems to favor big brands, YouTube often ranks content from the “little guy.”
For example, for a popular keyword, videos from two small channels outranked a video from a channel with over 2 million subscribers.
This result is not uncommon on YouTube. Of course, channels with millions of subscribers have an edge. But the data shows that edge isn’t as large as you might think.
It’s no secret that YouTube prefers videos that engage their audience. For video, a “like” is a strong engagement signal.
The research showed a significant correlation between likes and video rankings:
This suggests YouTube may use likes as a ranking signal. However, correlation doesn’t always mean causation.
Videos with many likes may be high-quality. And high-quality videos generate other ranking signals (e.g., audience retention) that matter to YouTube.
If someone truly enjoys a video, they’ll likely subscribe to the channel to see more.
In other words, a video that generates many new subscribers is a strong quality signal.
The data indeed show a significant correlation between subscriptions and higher video rankings:
By the way, a clear call to action was found to significantly increase subscriptions.
In the early days of online video, platforms like YouTube relied on metadata to understand a video’s topic. For example, YouTube analyzed the title, description, tags—even the file name. Essentially, the more text you could attach, the better.
Today, YouTube can “listen” to every word in a video (without uploading a transcript):
Knowing this, does YouTube still use metadata?
A weak correlation was found between keyword tags and rankings
While tags seem less important than they once were, the data show they still contribute a little. So it makes sense to use them.
(Also, YouTube itself recommends using tags. This indicates they still refer to tags to understand a video’s content and context.)
It was found that an exact-match keyword in a video’s title has only a small potential impact on rankings:
This may mean YouTube reduced the importance of titles. However, that seems unlikely because the platform states: “Titles contain valuable information to help viewers find your video in search results.”
In other words, they may use a less complex version of Google’s semantic search. If so, YouTube doesn’t need to see the exact keyword in the title; synonyms can do the job.
Here’s a visual example of which videos rank in the top 3 for a popular query:
According to the data, keyword-optimized descriptions have no impact on rankings:
It’s possible YouTube uses “keyword in description” as a ranking signal, but so little that it’s hard to measure. In fact, some videos had no description at all yet still ranked on the first page. This means the description isn’t as important as user-generated interaction signals (including views and subscriptions).
However, YouTube says: “Well-written descriptions with relevant keywords can increase views and watch time because they help videos appear in search results.”
So we still recommend including keywords in descriptions.
It was found that HD videos appear significantly more often than SD videos on YouTube’s first page:
These data can be interpreted two ways. First, it may indicate that creators who produce better content also tend to record in HD.
Second, there’s a possibility YouTube truly prefers HD video content.
Either way, the vast majority of well-ranking videos on YouTube are HD. 68.2% of all first-page videos are in HD.
To sum up, YouTube rankings are influenced most by user engagement—especially comments, shares, and likes. The length of the video is also important, as it helps retain viewers longer. YouTube also prioritizes HD videos and those that attract many new channel subscribers.
As for keywords in titles, tags, and descriptions, they have only a small influence on rankings. YouTube can determine a video’s topic without them, but we still recommend using keywords.
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