What Does It Mean to “Rank” a YouTube Video?

What does it mean to “Rank” a YouTube video? And why is it important?

If you have done any research at all about growing a YouTube channel, you may have come across this phrase “rank a youtube video” or “how to rank your video?” What the heck are they talking about? Rank a YouTube video where? How?

In this article, we will discuss what “rank a youtube video” means. Additionally, how you can find video ideas that rank and why ranking is important to grow your channel!

What does it mean to “Rank” a Youtube Video?

Drum roll please…….“Ranking” in the YouTube world means to have your video shows up in the top 10 – 15 videos when someone searches a specific term or phrase. For example, let’s say you are searching for “quick breakfast ideas.” You would type “quick breakfast ideas” into the YouTube search bar. Then, you would click search and see the results.

 Typically, the first result is a paid promotion video, as highlighted in light blue in the picture above. People or businesses pay to promote their particular video to a specific audience and those videos appear first in search. If you are interested in learning more about promoting videos to appear as the first video, Sprizzy can help. Click here to find out more. 

Ranked Videos

The videos that appear below the paid promotion video, are what is referred to as “ranked” videos. They are the highest placed videos for that particular search phrase or word. So, the #1 ranked video for the search term “quick breakfast ideas” is “9 Easy & Delicious Breakfasts” by the YouTube channel “Tasty.” You can see this video has over 2.5 million views. Plus, the channel itself has almost 17 million subscribers! 

Now, when you log in and search, your top-ranked videos may not be exactly the same as someone else. YouTube’s algorithm also takes into account your interests and what you normally watch Then, they curate your own top 10. Therefore, it may not look exactly the same as someone else’s top 10 or 20, and so on.

How you can find video ideas that rank?

Go into Youtube and start searching for different phrases related to your own channel. Look and see what are the first 10 or so videos that result in the search. These “top-ranking” videos are important to note. They can be potential popular video ideas for your channel as well. A great strategy for coming up with video ideas that will get you views is to implement this type of research before recording a video. Of course, do not copy the exact video. However, you can note the title, and topic, and see what you can do to improve that video by making a better version as your own video. 

How to find top-ranked videos per channel?

You can take this research a step further. When you find the top-ranking video for a particular search term related to your channel or niche, click on the channel and go to the channel’s videos. Sort the videos by most popular. You will see the top-ranking videos for that channel. Those top-ranking videos could also be potential video ideas for you as well, and the fact that they are top-ranked is proof they will be popular videos. 

Now, of course, if you decide to make a video on a similar topic, the quality and content must be similar or better to perform equally as well. Also, take into consideration their number of subscribers. If you have 500 subscribers and they have 500,000 subscribers, then it would be reasonable to not expect as many views as their video. However, it can still be a popular video on your own channel and one that brings in more subscribers.

Here is a channel where the videos have been sorted by “Most Popular” and it shows the most popular videos that have millions of views first, instead of the most recently released video. 

To Summarize:

In summary, when you search for a competitor’s channel, these first most popular videos are potential video ideas for your channel.  Also, just searching a search term or phrase related to your channel in the youtube search bar, will result in top-ranked videos that are also great video ideas. They have proven they are already popular with so many views. Does this mean you can’t ever make a video that you don’t see already topped ranked? No, of course not. You always have the freedom and creativity to create the content you want, but every now and then research popular ideas to give your channel a boost if needed!

Why Ranking your videos is important?

So, back to ranking videos. Why is it important to have ranked videos, besides the joy of just being in the first 5 – 10 top listed videos? Well, it is necessary to have ranked videos on the first page of YouTube Search (basically the top 10, though you could stretch it to the top 20). It is necessary because those videos will get you found by potential subscribers. The first videos are generally the ones people click to watch. Rarely does someone click to the fourth or fifth results page for a video. If you don’t have any videos that are ranking, then it will be hard to grow your channel because no one can even find your channel. 

Publishing Your Videos

In summary, it is important to get your videos ranking because that is how your channel will grow and be found by potential new subscribers! 

Many people think that, as soon as they click “publish” and make a video “public” it will be sent out to the world of youtube and automatically attract tons of viewers. Unfortunately, that is not how Youtube works. Even once you have clicked publish, your video is still somewhat hidden until it starts to gain traction. It can gain traction if it is great content, has a great title and thumbnail, and then it starts to rank. It can start to rank as it gets more views, people are watching a lot of the video (50% or more!), and people are engaging in the comments. Also, it is typically better to make videos five minutes or longer to help the ranking. Shorter videos don’t rank as well. To learn more about gaining views after you publish, check out this article.

If you are having trouble ranking your videos at the top of the search, check out Sprizzy. Sprizzy helps promote your video to get the views and exposure it deserves.