How to Captivate Audience Attention with Your YT Shorts

10 Expert Suggestions to Make Your YT Shorts Stand Out

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

To make it easier for its audience to find crisp and entertaining content, YouTube has recently come up with a dedicated “Shorts” feature.

Ideally, any YouTube user can find the Shorts option on the app to watch interesting videos of 60 seconds or less. Though, it might take a lot of effort to make your YouTube Shorts videos appealing.

If you also want to go viral, then get to know about these YouTube Shorts tips that every content creator should follow.

YouTube Shorts Feature and Shorts Fund: Things to Know

Before we make you familiar with all kinds of YouTube Shorts tips and tricks, let’s cover some basics. Ideally, YouTube has recently come up with the Shorts feature to focus on short-length videos (and to rival Instagram Reels and TikTok).

You can now find the Shorts icon at the bottom panel on the YouTube app. Using it, you can watch or record short videos on YouTube easily. These are short-form clips of 60 seconds or less that you can create via the Shorts interface of the YouTube app.

The interface would let you record multiple videos at different intervals and add sound to your clips as well. Later, you can post these short clips on your channel to get more views on YouTube.

YouTube Shorts Fund

YouTube Shorts already hosts a massive number of more than 6 billion daily views as of now. To promote it, Google has come up with a YouTube Shorts Fund of $100M that would be rewarded to various content creators each month.

That is, a “Shorts Bonus” would be added to the account of content creators to appreciate their viral content.

Top 10 Tips for YouTube Shorts That You Must Follow

Now when we have covered all the basics, let’s get to know about some effective YouTube Shorts tricks that would help you come up with interesting content and get more audience for it.

Tip 1: Learn How to Shoot YouTube Shorts

Before you start posting videos on YouTube Shorts, you should know how the feature works. Ideally, you can find a dedicated option for Shorts from the bottom panel on the updated YouTube app. From here, you can watch Shorts or simply choose to create them as well.

You can give YouTube access to your smartphone camera before you start recording. To record anything, you can just tap and hold the red button (the recording icon) on the interface.

As you would release it, the recording would be stopped. In this way, you can seamlessly move from one scene to another without worrying about editing in post-production.

Tip 2: Stick to a Selective Niche

To have a consistent growth of audience on YouTube shorts, you should stick to a specific niche. If you search on YouTube, you can find short videos related to funny, inspirational, fitness, romantic, and all kinds of niches.

Most of the prominent content creators already apply these YouTube Shorts tips in which they first identify their target audience. Based on that, you can work on the type of content that you want to create and share to attain consistent growth on YouTube.

Tip 3: Add Appropriate Background Music to Your Short Videos

One of the best things about YouTube Shorts is that it lets us add a snippet of the music in the background, according to our content. Therefore, you must implement these tips for YouTube Shorts to make the most of this free feature of the app.

After recording your videos, you can tap on the “Sound” or the “Add Music” feature from the interface.

Now, YouTube will automatically load all kinds of trending music that you can use for free. If you want, you can enter the name of any song on the search option of YouTube shorts.

As you would select a track, it will automatically be loaded as the background music for your video. Though, you can also select a specific segment of the track and clip it accordingly to place it on your videos the way you like.

Tip 4: Insert Captions and Text Effects on Your Shorts

Apart from music, you can also add all kinds of text effects to make your YouTube Shorts videos appealing. After you have recorded a video, you can just tap on the text option from the bottom/side panel of the app.

You can now type anything and place it on the video to make it more interesting. If you want, you can also implement these YouTube Shorts tips to add subtitles or pre/post video captions without any hassle.

Tip 5: Adjust the Playback Speed of YouTube Shorts

Since a lot of content creators are coming up with YouTube Shorts, you would have to walk an extra mile to make them more appealing. In these YouTube Shorts tricks, I would recommend adjusting the playback speed of the video.

After recording the video, you can tap on the speed icon from the bottom/side panel. Here, you can make your videos play in slow motion or fast forward (in a range of 0.3x to 3x). This will add seamless speed control features to your videos without any technical issues.

Tip 6: Consider the Overall Length of Your Shorts Video

Even though the maximum length of the YouTube Shorts videos is 60 seconds, you don’t have to make it so long. If you look at most of the popular videos on YouTube Shorts, then you will find that they are of less than 30 seconds in length.

Remember, your goal is to come up with crisp and interesting content via YouTube Shorts. To implement these YouTube Shorts tips, you can consider the ideal length of 30-45 seconds and only have essential content in your videos.

Tip 7: Use the Timer Feature to Shoot Your Videos Correctly

A lot of people make the rookie mistake of shooting their videos for too long in Shorts. Therefore, if you want to implement these YouTube Shorts tips and tricks, then consider using the timer feature of the app.

Before shooting the video, you can tap on the timer button from the bottom and set up a preferred duration for it (like 10 or 15 seconds). In this way, you can be sure that you won’t go overboard and keep your videos short automatically.

Tip 8: Set a Preferred Target Audience for YouTube Shorts

Great! Now when you have recorded and edited your video by applying these tips for YouTube Shorts, you are ready to post them. While posting your videos, you would be asked whether the video is targeted at kids or not. If the video is made for kids, then you should select the relevant prompt, as YouTube would improve the overall visibility of your videos in this case.

Though, if your videos are targeted at adults, then you should go with the second option instead. This would help you reach out to your target audience on YouTube easily.

Tip 9: Post Your YouTube Shorts the Right Way

Apart from setting the audience preferences of your YouTube Shorts videos, you should also take care of a couple of other things. For instance, you can consider making the visibility of your final video “Public” so that anyone on YouTube can watch it.

Besides that, it is also recommended to have the keyword “#Shorts” in the title of the video. You can also make the title of the video attractive and can even add a short description that would make your audience click on your YouTube video for sure.

Tip 10: Promote Your YouTube Shorts Video on Other Places

Lastly, posting the YouTube Shorts video is not enough, as you should also promote it to get more views. One of the best YouTube Shorts tips for promotion would be posting the snippet of the video as your Stories on YouTube.

You can also post your YouTube Shorts on other popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. by sharing their link. In this way, you can easily redirect your audience from other platforms and increase the visibility of your video.

Bonus Tip: Use a Professional Editor for Your YouTube Shorts Videos

As you can see after going through these YouTube Shorts tricks that the native tool of the app has limited editing options. Therefore, if you want to come up with better videos, then consider using a professional tool like Wondershare Filmora.

The desktop video editing tool has hundreds of filters, transitions, captions, stickers, and other effects to elevate the overall visual appeal of your videos. You can also access numerous AI-integrated features in Filmora and can directly export your videos in YouTube-compatible formats.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap, everyone! I’m sure that after following these expert YouTube Shorts tips and tricks, you can make the most of this newly added YouTube feature. You can consider following the above-listed YouTube Shorts tips to record your videos and make them interesting by adding sound and caption effects.

Though, if you want to make your videos even more appealing, then consider using a reliable and smart video editor like Wondershare Filmora.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Sky High Engagement: Optimizing for Virality and Visibility

5 Tips to Get More Views with YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist]

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a

In this article, we will give youa checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.

How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention
2. Do Keyword Research
3. Engage Your Audience
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length

1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:

Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.

Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.

Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access to Analytics
3. Select the video you want to review
4. Click into engagement
5. See where a dip in watch time

What is Good Audience Retention?

If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.

If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.

In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.

There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.

If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.

How to Improve Audience Retention

Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:

- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)

- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)

- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)

- Edit out the unimportant stuff

- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.

If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.

Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.

2. Do Keyword Research:

Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.

Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?

- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.

- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.

- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.

Why Keywords Matter

keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.

Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.

That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.

Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:

1. Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
2. Access Analytics
3. Select Reach
4. Click into Traffic Source
5. Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search

If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.

1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.

2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.

3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.

Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.

Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.

Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.

4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.

3. Engage Your Audience:

It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.

While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.

Here is an example of how it would work:

- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it

- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.

- Boom! Domino effect!

- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.

Get engagements with a call to action:

- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.

- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.

- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.

It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.

4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:

YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.

Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.

Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.

If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.

However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.

If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.

End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .

Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.

Key Takeaways:

1. Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
2. Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
3. Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
4. Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
5. Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.

Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking

Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.

For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.

However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.

- Subscribers know the moment your video is published

- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)

- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers

Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .

Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.

How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>

10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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