Balancing Viral Potential with Long-Term Traction in Videos

Create High Quality YouTube Video - Wondershare Filmora

An easy and powerful YouTube video editor

Numerous video and audio effects to choose from

Detailed tutorials provided by the official channel

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Few social media mediums have grown more vital than YouTube. In certain instances, a good YouTube presence could make or break a business or budding entertainment sensation.

Those with high YouTube rankings typically yield more returns from the said venue. Luckily, users might increase these vital statistics by paying close attention to several factors that affect YouTube video ranking.

In this article

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

Top 8 YouTube Rank Tracker

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

If you are a YouTuber, you have to understand how videos rank higher. In turn, this will allow you to ensure your content appears in top search results more often. With that in mind, here are some factors that affect your YouTube ranking.

Video Title

YouTube videos number in the many millions. Therefore, users enjoy a significant deal of variety when choosing which ones to view. YouTubers may yield a more favorable ranking by creating a catchy title.

On-page YouTube ranking optimization is crucial if you want to get a higher video ranking. Metadata is one of the YouTube ranking factors; this includes your video title. Essentially, titles give the first impression of any video to end users, YouTube, and search engines.

A well-titled video attracts more traffic, which translates to more views. Experts recommend using short titles that immediately get to the meat and potatoes of what the video entails. Avoid long titles as some devices, browsers, and search engines can cut them off.

Video titles should have five words or less. Don’t forget to place keywords at the beginning of the title. The keywords should also be relevant to your video.

Video Description

When many videos on the same or similar topics exist, content can seem repetitive to prospective viewers. Therefore, YouTubers should offer a short but detailed description of the information contained within. And above all, address how their video stands out from similar content.

Because Google and YouTube cannot extract information from videos, they use text descriptions to define the content on videos. Therefore, if you do not include a description, search engines won’t know what your video is about: this might affect your ranking.

Make sure your video description is 250 words or more. Additionally, include relevant and suitable keywords.

When writing the description, you can place the main keyword in your first 25 words and then link to external URLs; for instance, you could link to related blog content or your social media channels.

Video Quality

Poor quality is an immediate buzz kill. Few people can bear to watch a video with poor sound or picture quality. In many instances, quality is one of the YouTube ranking factors. HD (high-definition) videos rank higher than lower-quality ones. YouTube often highlights HD videos in its top search results.

Filmora can help you improve the quality of your videos, which will make them rank higher. The software allows you to edit your video and change its hue, brightness, saturation, and contrast. You can also crop, cut, and trim your videos.

What’s more? Filmora allows you to adjust output volume, pitch, fade-in, and fade-out to make your video clear. Once you have finished creating your HD video, you can head to the Export tab and select Upload to YouTube to publish your video on your channel.

Try It Free

For Win 7 or later (64-bit)

Try It Free

For macOS 10.12 or later

Watch Time

Watch Time is also among the YouTube ranking factors. According to YouTube, Watch Time is the total length of time people spend watching your videos.

YouTube’s algorithm prioritizes videos leading to longer viewing sessions over the ones with more views. You can use Audience Retention Report and YouTube Analytics Views Report to find out which videos have the worst and best view times. Doing this will allow you to plan for your future content accordingly

Using annotations and leaving links to other videos in your description box can help you increase the length of your viewing sessions.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails have a positive effect on click-through rates when used the right way. You can use them to maximize your views and YouTube video ranking.

YouTube generates thumbnails by taking screenshots from videos. However, you might want to go for customized thumbnails, as this will allow you to stand out from your competitors and outperform their videos.

Make sure the image you use as your thumbnail is aesthetically pleasing and grabs the attention of viewers. Also, it should be relevant to the content in your video. Keep in mind that thumbnails with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1280-by-20-pixel resolution generally perform best.

Number of Views

Views are a vital YouTube ranking factor, as people are more likely to watch videos with a high number of views. The more views your video has, the higher it will rank, especially for competitive keywords.

If you want to rank high for competitive keywords, ensure that your videos get loads of views. For this reason, you have to take steps and get your video content on other platforms. In turn, you will increase the visibility of your videos and view count.

You could embed your videos into your blog posts or share them on social media platforms to get more people to watch them.

Closed Captions and Subtitles

Adding captions to videos with spoken-word content can improve your YouTube video ranking. Essentially, it opens up your videos to a larger audience, including people who are deaf and anyone speaking a different language from the one in your videos. Search engines also crawl close captions, which can boost your rankings.

While YouTube offers automatic captioning, it is not perfect. So you may need to make some edits or upload the captions yourself.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Ranking

Focusing on User Engagement

One of the best YouTube ranking optimization practices that you can implement is asking users to leave comments, like your videos, and share them. YouTube analyzes these metrics to determine the quality of your content. Ergo, if YouTube sees your video is engaging users, it will rank higher than those with little or no engagement.

Using Video Hashtags

Hashtags help people to find content that provides answers to their questions across various platforms. Use related hashtags when creating your descriptions to ensure people find your videos when searching for specific hashtags.

Tags help drive search because they make main trends more visible. After adding a hashtag to the description, it will appear above the video title, and viewers will see it hyperlinked.

Categorizing Your Video

After uploading your video, you should categorize it by going to Advanced settings. By choosing a category, YouTube will group your videos with similar content. Viewers will find your quickly, as they will come in the right audience searches. In turn, this will help your videos to rank higher.

Conclusion

With 720,000 hours of video being uploaded every day to YouTube, getting your videos to rank high is challenging. But by paying attention to the above YouTube ranking factors, you can improve your video ranking.

Try It Free Try It Free

Few social media mediums have grown more vital than YouTube. In certain instances, a good YouTube presence could make or break a business or budding entertainment sensation.

Those with high YouTube rankings typically yield more returns from the said venue. Luckily, users might increase these vital statistics by paying close attention to several factors that affect YouTube video ranking.

In this article

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

Top 8 YouTube Rank Tracker

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

If you are a YouTuber, you have to understand how videos rank higher. In turn, this will allow you to ensure your content appears in top search results more often. With that in mind, here are some factors that affect your YouTube ranking.

Video Title

YouTube videos number in the many millions. Therefore, users enjoy a significant deal of variety when choosing which ones to view. YouTubers may yield a more favorable ranking by creating a catchy title.

On-page YouTube ranking optimization is crucial if you want to get a higher video ranking. Metadata is one of the YouTube ranking factors; this includes your video title. Essentially, titles give the first impression of any video to end users, YouTube, and search engines.

A well-titled video attracts more traffic, which translates to more views. Experts recommend using short titles that immediately get to the meat and potatoes of what the video entails. Avoid long titles as some devices, browsers, and search engines can cut them off.

Video titles should have five words or less. Don’t forget to place keywords at the beginning of the title. The keywords should also be relevant to your video.

Video Description

When many videos on the same or similar topics exist, content can seem repetitive to prospective viewers. Therefore, YouTubers should offer a short but detailed description of the information contained within. And above all, address how their video stands out from similar content.

Because Google and YouTube cannot extract information from videos, they use text descriptions to define the content on videos. Therefore, if you do not include a description, search engines won’t know what your video is about: this might affect your ranking.

Make sure your video description is 250 words or more. Additionally, include relevant and suitable keywords.

When writing the description, you can place the main keyword in your first 25 words and then link to external URLs; for instance, you could link to related blog content or your social media channels.

Video Quality

Poor quality is an immediate buzz kill. Few people can bear to watch a video with poor sound or picture quality. In many instances, quality is one of the YouTube ranking factors. HD (high-definition) videos rank higher than lower-quality ones. YouTube often highlights HD videos in its top search results.

Filmora can help you improve the quality of your videos, which will make them rank higher. The software allows you to edit your video and change its hue, brightness, saturation, and contrast. You can also crop, cut, and trim your videos.

What’s more? Filmora allows you to adjust output volume, pitch, fade-in, and fade-out to make your video clear. Once you have finished creating your HD video, you can head to the Export tab and select Upload to YouTube to publish your video on your channel.

Try It Free

For Win 7 or later (64-bit)

Try It Free

For macOS 10.12 or later

Watch Time

Watch Time is also among the YouTube ranking factors. According to YouTube, Watch Time is the total length of time people spend watching your videos.

YouTube’s algorithm prioritizes videos leading to longer viewing sessions over the ones with more views. You can use Audience Retention Report and YouTube Analytics Views Report to find out which videos have the worst and best view times. Doing this will allow you to plan for your future content accordingly

Using annotations and leaving links to other videos in your description box can help you increase the length of your viewing sessions.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails have a positive effect on click-through rates when used the right way. You can use them to maximize your views and YouTube video ranking.

YouTube generates thumbnails by taking screenshots from videos. However, you might want to go for customized thumbnails, as this will allow you to stand out from your competitors and outperform their videos.

Make sure the image you use as your thumbnail is aesthetically pleasing and grabs the attention of viewers. Also, it should be relevant to the content in your video. Keep in mind that thumbnails with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1280-by-20-pixel resolution generally perform best.

Number of Views

Views are a vital YouTube ranking factor, as people are more likely to watch videos with a high number of views. The more views your video has, the higher it will rank, especially for competitive keywords.

If you want to rank high for competitive keywords, ensure that your videos get loads of views. For this reason, you have to take steps and get your video content on other platforms. In turn, you will increase the visibility of your videos and view count.

You could embed your videos into your blog posts or share them on social media platforms to get more people to watch them.

Closed Captions and Subtitles

Adding captions to videos with spoken-word content can improve your YouTube video ranking. Essentially, it opens up your videos to a larger audience, including people who are deaf and anyone speaking a different language from the one in your videos. Search engines also crawl close captions, which can boost your rankings.

While YouTube offers automatic captioning, it is not perfect. So you may need to make some edits or upload the captions yourself.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Ranking

Focusing on User Engagement

One of the best YouTube ranking optimization practices that you can implement is asking users to leave comments, like your videos, and share them. YouTube analyzes these metrics to determine the quality of your content. Ergo, if YouTube sees your video is engaging users, it will rank higher than those with little or no engagement.

Using Video Hashtags

Hashtags help people to find content that provides answers to their questions across various platforms. Use related hashtags when creating your descriptions to ensure people find your videos when searching for specific hashtags.

Tags help drive search because they make main trends more visible. After adding a hashtag to the description, it will appear above the video title, and viewers will see it hyperlinked.

Categorizing Your Video

After uploading your video, you should categorize it by going to Advanced settings. By choosing a category, YouTube will group your videos with similar content. Viewers will find your quickly, as they will come in the right audience searches. In turn, this will help your videos to rank higher.

Conclusion

With 720,000 hours of video being uploaded every day to YouTube, getting your videos to rank high is challenging. But by paying attention to the above YouTube ranking factors, you can improve your video ranking.

Try It Free Try It Free

Few social media mediums have grown more vital than YouTube. In certain instances, a good YouTube presence could make or break a business or budding entertainment sensation.

Those with high YouTube rankings typically yield more returns from the said venue. Luckily, users might increase these vital statistics by paying close attention to several factors that affect YouTube video ranking.

In this article

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

Top 8 YouTube Rank Tracker

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

If you are a YouTuber, you have to understand how videos rank higher. In turn, this will allow you to ensure your content appears in top search results more often. With that in mind, here are some factors that affect your YouTube ranking.

Video Title

YouTube videos number in the many millions. Therefore, users enjoy a significant deal of variety when choosing which ones to view. YouTubers may yield a more favorable ranking by creating a catchy title.

On-page YouTube ranking optimization is crucial if you want to get a higher video ranking. Metadata is one of the YouTube ranking factors; this includes your video title. Essentially, titles give the first impression of any video to end users, YouTube, and search engines.

A well-titled video attracts more traffic, which translates to more views. Experts recommend using short titles that immediately get to the meat and potatoes of what the video entails. Avoid long titles as some devices, browsers, and search engines can cut them off.

Video titles should have five words or less. Don’t forget to place keywords at the beginning of the title. The keywords should also be relevant to your video.

Video Description

When many videos on the same or similar topics exist, content can seem repetitive to prospective viewers. Therefore, YouTubers should offer a short but detailed description of the information contained within. And above all, address how their video stands out from similar content.

Because Google and YouTube cannot extract information from videos, they use text descriptions to define the content on videos. Therefore, if you do not include a description, search engines won’t know what your video is about: this might affect your ranking.

Make sure your video description is 250 words or more. Additionally, include relevant and suitable keywords.

When writing the description, you can place the main keyword in your first 25 words and then link to external URLs; for instance, you could link to related blog content or your social media channels.

Video Quality

Poor quality is an immediate buzz kill. Few people can bear to watch a video with poor sound or picture quality. In many instances, quality is one of the YouTube ranking factors. HD (high-definition) videos rank higher than lower-quality ones. YouTube often highlights HD videos in its top search results.

Filmora can help you improve the quality of your videos, which will make them rank higher. The software allows you to edit your video and change its hue, brightness, saturation, and contrast. You can also crop, cut, and trim your videos.

What’s more? Filmora allows you to adjust output volume, pitch, fade-in, and fade-out to make your video clear. Once you have finished creating your HD video, you can head to the Export tab and select Upload to YouTube to publish your video on your channel.

Try It Free

For Win 7 or later (64-bit)

Try It Free

For macOS 10.12 or later

Watch Time

Watch Time is also among the YouTube ranking factors. According to YouTube, Watch Time is the total length of time people spend watching your videos.

YouTube’s algorithm prioritizes videos leading to longer viewing sessions over the ones with more views. You can use Audience Retention Report and YouTube Analytics Views Report to find out which videos have the worst and best view times. Doing this will allow you to plan for your future content accordingly

Using annotations and leaving links to other videos in your description box can help you increase the length of your viewing sessions.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails have a positive effect on click-through rates when used the right way. You can use them to maximize your views and YouTube video ranking.

YouTube generates thumbnails by taking screenshots from videos. However, you might want to go for customized thumbnails, as this will allow you to stand out from your competitors and outperform their videos.

Make sure the image you use as your thumbnail is aesthetically pleasing and grabs the attention of viewers. Also, it should be relevant to the content in your video. Keep in mind that thumbnails with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1280-by-20-pixel resolution generally perform best.

Number of Views

Views are a vital YouTube ranking factor, as people are more likely to watch videos with a high number of views. The more views your video has, the higher it will rank, especially for competitive keywords.

If you want to rank high for competitive keywords, ensure that your videos get loads of views. For this reason, you have to take steps and get your video content on other platforms. In turn, you will increase the visibility of your videos and view count.

You could embed your videos into your blog posts or share them on social media platforms to get more people to watch them.

Closed Captions and Subtitles

Adding captions to videos with spoken-word content can improve your YouTube video ranking. Essentially, it opens up your videos to a larger audience, including people who are deaf and anyone speaking a different language from the one in your videos. Search engines also crawl close captions, which can boost your rankings.

While YouTube offers automatic captioning, it is not perfect. So you may need to make some edits or upload the captions yourself.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Ranking

Focusing on User Engagement

One of the best YouTube ranking optimization practices that you can implement is asking users to leave comments, like your videos, and share them. YouTube analyzes these metrics to determine the quality of your content. Ergo, if YouTube sees your video is engaging users, it will rank higher than those with little or no engagement.

Using Video Hashtags

Hashtags help people to find content that provides answers to their questions across various platforms. Use related hashtags when creating your descriptions to ensure people find your videos when searching for specific hashtags.

Tags help drive search because they make main trends more visible. After adding a hashtag to the description, it will appear above the video title, and viewers will see it hyperlinked.

Categorizing Your Video

After uploading your video, you should categorize it by going to Advanced settings. By choosing a category, YouTube will group your videos with similar content. Viewers will find your quickly, as they will come in the right audience searches. In turn, this will help your videos to rank higher.

Conclusion

With 720,000 hours of video being uploaded every day to YouTube, getting your videos to rank high is challenging. But by paying attention to the above YouTube ranking factors, you can improve your video ranking.

Try It Free Try It Free

Few social media mediums have grown more vital than YouTube. In certain instances, a good YouTube presence could make or break a business or budding entertainment sensation.

Those with high YouTube rankings typically yield more returns from the said venue. Luckily, users might increase these vital statistics by paying close attention to several factors that affect YouTube video ranking.

In this article

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

Top 8 YouTube Rank Tracker

Factors that Affect YouTube Video Ranking

If you are a YouTuber, you have to understand how videos rank higher. In turn, this will allow you to ensure your content appears in top search results more often. With that in mind, here are some factors that affect your YouTube ranking.

Video Title

YouTube videos number in the many millions. Therefore, users enjoy a significant deal of variety when choosing which ones to view. YouTubers may yield a more favorable ranking by creating a catchy title.

On-page YouTube ranking optimization is crucial if you want to get a higher video ranking. Metadata is one of the YouTube ranking factors; this includes your video title. Essentially, titles give the first impression of any video to end users, YouTube, and search engines.

A well-titled video attracts more traffic, which translates to more views. Experts recommend using short titles that immediately get to the meat and potatoes of what the video entails. Avoid long titles as some devices, browsers, and search engines can cut them off.

Video titles should have five words or less. Don’t forget to place keywords at the beginning of the title. The keywords should also be relevant to your video.

Video Description

When many videos on the same or similar topics exist, content can seem repetitive to prospective viewers. Therefore, YouTubers should offer a short but detailed description of the information contained within. And above all, address how their video stands out from similar content.

Because Google and YouTube cannot extract information from videos, they use text descriptions to define the content on videos. Therefore, if you do not include a description, search engines won’t know what your video is about: this might affect your ranking.

Make sure your video description is 250 words or more. Additionally, include relevant and suitable keywords.

When writing the description, you can place the main keyword in your first 25 words and then link to external URLs; for instance, you could link to related blog content or your social media channels.

Video Quality

Poor quality is an immediate buzz kill. Few people can bear to watch a video with poor sound or picture quality. In many instances, quality is one of the YouTube ranking factors. HD (high-definition) videos rank higher than lower-quality ones. YouTube often highlights HD videos in its top search results.

Filmora can help you improve the quality of your videos, which will make them rank higher. The software allows you to edit your video and change its hue, brightness, saturation, and contrast. You can also crop, cut, and trim your videos.

What’s more? Filmora allows you to adjust output volume, pitch, fade-in, and fade-out to make your video clear. Once you have finished creating your HD video, you can head to the Export tab and select Upload to YouTube to publish your video on your channel.

Try It Free

For Win 7 or later (64-bit)

Try It Free

For macOS 10.12 or later

Watch Time

Watch Time is also among the YouTube ranking factors. According to YouTube, Watch Time is the total length of time people spend watching your videos.

YouTube’s algorithm prioritizes videos leading to longer viewing sessions over the ones with more views. You can use Audience Retention Report and YouTube Analytics Views Report to find out which videos have the worst and best view times. Doing this will allow you to plan for your future content accordingly

Using annotations and leaving links to other videos in your description box can help you increase the length of your viewing sessions.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails have a positive effect on click-through rates when used the right way. You can use them to maximize your views and YouTube video ranking.

YouTube generates thumbnails by taking screenshots from videos. However, you might want to go for customized thumbnails, as this will allow you to stand out from your competitors and outperform their videos.

Make sure the image you use as your thumbnail is aesthetically pleasing and grabs the attention of viewers. Also, it should be relevant to the content in your video. Keep in mind that thumbnails with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1280-by-20-pixel resolution generally perform best.

Number of Views

Views are a vital YouTube ranking factor, as people are more likely to watch videos with a high number of views. The more views your video has, the higher it will rank, especially for competitive keywords.

If you want to rank high for competitive keywords, ensure that your videos get loads of views. For this reason, you have to take steps and get your video content on other platforms. In turn, you will increase the visibility of your videos and view count.

You could embed your videos into your blog posts or share them on social media platforms to get more people to watch them.

Closed Captions and Subtitles

Adding captions to videos with spoken-word content can improve your YouTube video ranking. Essentially, it opens up your videos to a larger audience, including people who are deaf and anyone speaking a different language from the one in your videos. Search engines also crawl close captions, which can boost your rankings.

While YouTube offers automatic captioning, it is not perfect. So you may need to make some edits or upload the captions yourself.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Ranking

Focusing on User Engagement

One of the best YouTube ranking optimization practices that you can implement is asking users to leave comments, like your videos, and share them. YouTube analyzes these metrics to determine the quality of your content. Ergo, if YouTube sees your video is engaging users, it will rank higher than those with little or no engagement.

Using Video Hashtags

Hashtags help people to find content that provides answers to their questions across various platforms. Use related hashtags when creating your descriptions to ensure people find your videos when searching for specific hashtags.

Tags help drive search because they make main trends more visible. After adding a hashtag to the description, it will appear above the video title, and viewers will see it hyperlinked.

Categorizing Your Video

After uploading your video, you should categorize it by going to Advanced settings. By choosing a category, YouTube will group your videos with similar content. Viewers will find your quickly, as they will come in the right audience searches. In turn, this will help your videos to rank higher.

Conclusion

With 720,000 hours of video being uploaded every day to YouTube, getting your videos to rank high is challenging. But by paying attention to the above YouTube ranking factors, you can improve your video ranking.

Transform Your View: Exclusive Alternative Video Websites

YouTube Alternatives: 3 Best Video Sharing Sites

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube is a great platform where almost everyone goes to watches videos. It is not the best platform for every video creator, though. This article will introduce you to some YouTube alternatives.

There are a lot of reasons you might want to learn about other websites like YouTube. You might want a site with less ads, or different ways of monetizing. YouTube can sometimes remove videos unfairly, so you may want a site where copyright claims are handled by people instead of robots. A lot of users simply want a site that is more like YouTube was when it was younger. There are features, like customizable channel pages, which have been discarded over the years.

YouTube Alternatives: 3 Best Video Sharing Sites

Here is a list of other places where you can upload videos:

1. Dailymotion

This may be the second most popular free video sharing website, and it is very similar to YouTube in appearance. Like YouTube, Dailymotion recommends videos to users based on what is trending as well as their personal viewing habits. Also like YouTube, there are ads in and around videos and you have the option of monetizing your content to earn ad revenue. There is more than one way to become a Dailymotion partner, though. You can sell a subscription for your channel instead of monetizing ads in your videos.

The main difference between Dailymotion and YouTube is that where YouTube has an abundance of both amateur and professional quality video, Dailymotion skews towards professional. There are personal vlogs and cat videos, but these are less the norm on Dailymotion than on YouTube. You may find less competition in your genre here. However, you should be aware that the expectations of viewers might be higher.

2. Vimeo

Although Vimeo is also a very popular video site, it is very different from YouTube. Everything from appearance to the types of comments left on videos is vastly different. The front page of this site does not display trending videos, for example. Instead it features high quality creative content that has been reviewed and singled out by Vimeo’s staff as some of the best the site has to offer.

There also are not any ads on Vimeo, whereas YouTube is full of them.

If you create, or are interested in creating, short films then this is where you should be posting. Many festival quality shorts are posted to Vimeo. There are vlogs there too, but they tend to be by serious video creators. The community on Vimeo tends to be a lot friendlier than YouTube so if you are still an amateur, but have dreams of being a pro, then this is probably still the site for you. You should be able to find real constructive criticism here rather than trolls.

Vimeo has a wider variety of privacy settings than YouTube. You can make videos watchable by everyone, just certain people, or require a password.

3. ZippCast

ZippCast is praised by some for being very similar to pre-Google YouTube. While the expectations for video quality may be slightly higher on DailyMotion than YouTube, and are much higher on Vimeo, they are basically the same on ZippCast. Comedy, gaming, music, animation, and vlogging are the most popular categories and almost all content is posted by average people with average skill levels. One of the ways in which ZippCast is like the ‘old’ YouTube is that you can customize the design of your channel.

One of the things users appreciate most about ZippCast is that identifying and removing copyrighted videos is done by humans rather than an automated system, like on YouTube. This means that if you use copyrighted content that is licensed to you or protected by fair use your video should not be taken down. It is common for YouTubers to have their videos unfairly removed, although disputing the copyright claim will usually result in getting the video restored.

Although it is definitely large enough to be considered an alternative to YouTube, ZippCast has been unreliable in the past (i.e shutting down randomly) and has lost the trust of many users.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube is a great platform where almost everyone goes to watches videos. It is not the best platform for every video creator, though. This article will introduce you to some YouTube alternatives.

There are a lot of reasons you might want to learn about other websites like YouTube. You might want a site with less ads, or different ways of monetizing. YouTube can sometimes remove videos unfairly, so you may want a site where copyright claims are handled by people instead of robots. A lot of users simply want a site that is more like YouTube was when it was younger. There are features, like customizable channel pages, which have been discarded over the years.

YouTube Alternatives: 3 Best Video Sharing Sites

Here is a list of other places where you can upload videos:

1. Dailymotion

This may be the second most popular free video sharing website, and it is very similar to YouTube in appearance. Like YouTube, Dailymotion recommends videos to users based on what is trending as well as their personal viewing habits. Also like YouTube, there are ads in and around videos and you have the option of monetizing your content to earn ad revenue. There is more than one way to become a Dailymotion partner, though. You can sell a subscription for your channel instead of monetizing ads in your videos.

The main difference between Dailymotion and YouTube is that where YouTube has an abundance of both amateur and professional quality video, Dailymotion skews towards professional. There are personal vlogs and cat videos, but these are less the norm on Dailymotion than on YouTube. You may find less competition in your genre here. However, you should be aware that the expectations of viewers might be higher.

2. Vimeo

Although Vimeo is also a very popular video site, it is very different from YouTube. Everything from appearance to the types of comments left on videos is vastly different. The front page of this site does not display trending videos, for example. Instead it features high quality creative content that has been reviewed and singled out by Vimeo’s staff as some of the best the site has to offer.

There also are not any ads on Vimeo, whereas YouTube is full of them.

If you create, or are interested in creating, short films then this is where you should be posting. Many festival quality shorts are posted to Vimeo. There are vlogs there too, but they tend to be by serious video creators. The community on Vimeo tends to be a lot friendlier than YouTube so if you are still an amateur, but have dreams of being a pro, then this is probably still the site for you. You should be able to find real constructive criticism here rather than trolls.

Vimeo has a wider variety of privacy settings than YouTube. You can make videos watchable by everyone, just certain people, or require a password.

3. ZippCast

ZippCast is praised by some for being very similar to pre-Google YouTube. While the expectations for video quality may be slightly higher on DailyMotion than YouTube, and are much higher on Vimeo, they are basically the same on ZippCast. Comedy, gaming, music, animation, and vlogging are the most popular categories and almost all content is posted by average people with average skill levels. One of the ways in which ZippCast is like the ‘old’ YouTube is that you can customize the design of your channel.

One of the things users appreciate most about ZippCast is that identifying and removing copyrighted videos is done by humans rather than an automated system, like on YouTube. This means that if you use copyrighted content that is licensed to you or protected by fair use your video should not be taken down. It is common for YouTubers to have their videos unfairly removed, although disputing the copyright claim will usually result in getting the video restored.

Although it is definitely large enough to be considered an alternative to YouTube, ZippCast has been unreliable in the past (i.e shutting down randomly) and has lost the trust of many users.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube is a great platform where almost everyone goes to watches videos. It is not the best platform for every video creator, though. This article will introduce you to some YouTube alternatives.

There are a lot of reasons you might want to learn about other websites like YouTube. You might want a site with less ads, or different ways of monetizing. YouTube can sometimes remove videos unfairly, so you may want a site where copyright claims are handled by people instead of robots. A lot of users simply want a site that is more like YouTube was when it was younger. There are features, like customizable channel pages, which have been discarded over the years.

YouTube Alternatives: 3 Best Video Sharing Sites

Here is a list of other places where you can upload videos:

1. Dailymotion

This may be the second most popular free video sharing website, and it is very similar to YouTube in appearance. Like YouTube, Dailymotion recommends videos to users based on what is trending as well as their personal viewing habits. Also like YouTube, there are ads in and around videos and you have the option of monetizing your content to earn ad revenue. There is more than one way to become a Dailymotion partner, though. You can sell a subscription for your channel instead of monetizing ads in your videos.

The main difference between Dailymotion and YouTube is that where YouTube has an abundance of both amateur and professional quality video, Dailymotion skews towards professional. There are personal vlogs and cat videos, but these are less the norm on Dailymotion than on YouTube. You may find less competition in your genre here. However, you should be aware that the expectations of viewers might be higher.

2. Vimeo

Although Vimeo is also a very popular video site, it is very different from YouTube. Everything from appearance to the types of comments left on videos is vastly different. The front page of this site does not display trending videos, for example. Instead it features high quality creative content that has been reviewed and singled out by Vimeo’s staff as some of the best the site has to offer.

There also are not any ads on Vimeo, whereas YouTube is full of them.

If you create, or are interested in creating, short films then this is where you should be posting. Many festival quality shorts are posted to Vimeo. There are vlogs there too, but they tend to be by serious video creators. The community on Vimeo tends to be a lot friendlier than YouTube so if you are still an amateur, but have dreams of being a pro, then this is probably still the site for you. You should be able to find real constructive criticism here rather than trolls.

Vimeo has a wider variety of privacy settings than YouTube. You can make videos watchable by everyone, just certain people, or require a password.

3. ZippCast

ZippCast is praised by some for being very similar to pre-Google YouTube. While the expectations for video quality may be slightly higher on DailyMotion than YouTube, and are much higher on Vimeo, they are basically the same on ZippCast. Comedy, gaming, music, animation, and vlogging are the most popular categories and almost all content is posted by average people with average skill levels. One of the ways in which ZippCast is like the ‘old’ YouTube is that you can customize the design of your channel.

One of the things users appreciate most about ZippCast is that identifying and removing copyrighted videos is done by humans rather than an automated system, like on YouTube. This means that if you use copyrighted content that is licensed to you or protected by fair use your video should not be taken down. It is common for YouTubers to have their videos unfairly removed, although disputing the copyright claim will usually result in getting the video restored.

Although it is definitely large enough to be considered an alternative to YouTube, ZippCast has been unreliable in the past (i.e shutting down randomly) and has lost the trust of many users.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube is a great platform where almost everyone goes to watches videos. It is not the best platform for every video creator, though. This article will introduce you to some YouTube alternatives.

There are a lot of reasons you might want to learn about other websites like YouTube. You might want a site with less ads, or different ways of monetizing. YouTube can sometimes remove videos unfairly, so you may want a site where copyright claims are handled by people instead of robots. A lot of users simply want a site that is more like YouTube was when it was younger. There are features, like customizable channel pages, which have been discarded over the years.

YouTube Alternatives: 3 Best Video Sharing Sites

Here is a list of other places where you can upload videos:

1. Dailymotion

This may be the second most popular free video sharing website, and it is very similar to YouTube in appearance. Like YouTube, Dailymotion recommends videos to users based on what is trending as well as their personal viewing habits. Also like YouTube, there are ads in and around videos and you have the option of monetizing your content to earn ad revenue. There is more than one way to become a Dailymotion partner, though. You can sell a subscription for your channel instead of monetizing ads in your videos.

The main difference between Dailymotion and YouTube is that where YouTube has an abundance of both amateur and professional quality video, Dailymotion skews towards professional. There are personal vlogs and cat videos, but these are less the norm on Dailymotion than on YouTube. You may find less competition in your genre here. However, you should be aware that the expectations of viewers might be higher.

2. Vimeo

Although Vimeo is also a very popular video site, it is very different from YouTube. Everything from appearance to the types of comments left on videos is vastly different. The front page of this site does not display trending videos, for example. Instead it features high quality creative content that has been reviewed and singled out by Vimeo’s staff as some of the best the site has to offer.

There also are not any ads on Vimeo, whereas YouTube is full of them.

If you create, or are interested in creating, short films then this is where you should be posting. Many festival quality shorts are posted to Vimeo. There are vlogs there too, but they tend to be by serious video creators. The community on Vimeo tends to be a lot friendlier than YouTube so if you are still an amateur, but have dreams of being a pro, then this is probably still the site for you. You should be able to find real constructive criticism here rather than trolls.

Vimeo has a wider variety of privacy settings than YouTube. You can make videos watchable by everyone, just certain people, or require a password.

3. ZippCast

ZippCast is praised by some for being very similar to pre-Google YouTube. While the expectations for video quality may be slightly higher on DailyMotion than YouTube, and are much higher on Vimeo, they are basically the same on ZippCast. Comedy, gaming, music, animation, and vlogging are the most popular categories and almost all content is posted by average people with average skill levels. One of the ways in which ZippCast is like the ‘old’ YouTube is that you can customize the design of your channel.

One of the things users appreciate most about ZippCast is that identifying and removing copyrighted videos is done by humans rather than an automated system, like on YouTube. This means that if you use copyrighted content that is licensed to you or protected by fair use your video should not be taken down. It is common for YouTubers to have their videos unfairly removed, although disputing the copyright claim will usually result in getting the video restored.

Although it is definitely large enough to be considered an alternative to YouTube, ZippCast has been unreliable in the past (i.e shutting down randomly) and has lost the trust of many users.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

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