Opinion · 4 min read
Stop chasing the algorithm. Start studying your audience.
Every week someone asks me what changed in the algorithm. My honest answer is almost always the same: less than you think.
I've worked with YouTube since 2015. In that time I've seen the platform change its formats, its features and the way it recommends videos. One thing never changed: the algorithm follows people. It recommends what viewers choose to click on and choose to keep watching. When you chase the algorithm, you're chasing a shadow. When you study your audience, you're looking at what casts it.
What studying your audience looks like
Read your comments like research, not applause. The questions people leave under your videos are your next ideas, written by the people you want to reach.
Look at what already worked, in your channel and in your niche, and ask why. A video that performs far above its channel's average is telling you something about what people want right now.
Treat every title and thumbnail as a promise, and the first thirty seconds as the moment you keep it. Most videos don't lose people in the middle. They lose them at the door.
The problem with hacks
Tags, posting times, the perfect description. They matter at the margins, and I still check them. But no hack has ever saved a video nobody wanted to watch.
One rule before you film
Before you hit record, write one sentence: who this video is for, and why they would click. If you can't write it, the algorithm won't figure it out for you.
Strategy isn't about outsmarting YouTube. It's about understanding people better than anyone else in your niche.
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