For smooth user experiences and for helping content creators to bring traffic to their videos, YouTube included various types of features in their platform. One such important feature of YouTube is the ‘Browse features’. In this post, I’m going to discuss the topic of YouTube browse features in a detailed way. Topics like what is YouTube browse features, the types of browse features of YouTube, and how to rank YouTube videos in browse features will be discussed in this post.
So let’s begin with –
What is YouTube browse features?
What do browse features mean on YouTube? Generally, YouTube browse features are one of the features of traffic source categories like notifications, and suggested videos. From the traffic source reports, a content creator is able to see how a viewer found their video on YouTube.
For a YouTuber, it is important to know about the details of the browse features on YouTube because it can help them to analyze their traffic sources i.e. they will know the different traffic sources, their high-performing video and what should they need to do to trigger their other videos to perform like their high performing videos that come under the browse feature.
Generally, YouTube browse features traffic sources consisting of YouTube Home, YouTube Watch History, YouTube Watch Later, and Subscriptions. Each feature has an important role in bringing traffic to your video.
Types of YouTube browse features –
Below I have mentioned these sub-features in a detailed way and also to fully utilize these features you need the first login to your YouTube account.
1. YouTube Home –
This is a landing page of the YouTube platform i.e. when you search YouTube.com in your search bar you will land on a page where you can see lots of other channel’s videos, this first screen is called YouTube Home.
YouTube has really changed and evolved from its initial stage, they change its algorithm from time to time to give a smooth user experience to its viewers. In earlier days, YouTube recommended only subscribed channel videos on the YouTube home page to its viewers, but nowadays the YouTube home page has a combination of both subscribed channel videos and related videos.
YouTube algorithm automatically knows your video taste when you search for a video in the search bar, so when next time you visit their platform they try to recommend other related videos from the previous video on your YouTube home page because they want you to stay on their platform for a longer period.
2. YouTube Watch History –
The YouTube history section is filled with videos that you’re already watched in the past. You can find the YouTube history section on the left side under the library section of the YouTube menu.
The importance of the history section is immense on YouTube, let’s understand this by taking an example; if you are watching a particular cooking video and you decided to make this particular dish by yourself later on, but later on when you are ready to make this dish and want to revisit that particular video for revision purpose but you can’t find the video and also you forget the title of the video, then what will you do? In this condition ‘YouTube watch history‘ comes into play, by going through the history section you can find your exact cooking video.
3. YouTube Watch Later –
When you are browsing different videos on YouTube and you find a video that is worth watching but at that moment you need to go somewhere by closing the YouTube mobile app or turn off the computer, but later on you realized that you forget the title of the video and now you can’t find it. In this situation, you can use the YouTube watch later feature to save your videos.
Your save video will be in one playlist so that you can watch that video later on. You can find the YouTube watch later section on the left side under the ‘Your videos’ section of the YouTube menu.
4. Subscriptions –
One of the core features of YouTube is the subscription feature. Subscribing a channel is like following someone on Instagram for their Instagram post or Instagram stories. Like creating a bookmark against the YouTube channel so that it is easy to find the upcoming videos or YouTube shorts they made.
Whenever after watching a video if you like that video and find it worthy and also like to watch other videos made by the same creators then you can subscribe to their channel. By subscribing to their channel you will get a notification from YouTube itself whenever the creators upload new video content to their channel.
How to see YouTube browse feature –
Now after reading the above paragraphs you might have a little bit of knowledge about youtube browse features meaning. Now a question comes, as a creator where you can find these YouTube browse features. Well, below I have mentioned some steps for the PC version so that you can access them and analyze your traffic sources.
Step 1– Open your YouTube account, Click ‘Analytics’.
Step 2 – Select ‘Content’ and then ‘SEE MORE’ under the title ‘How viewers find your videos.’
Step 3 – Click ‘Traffic source’ and then ‘Browse features’ as shown in the below image.
Step 4 – A screen will appear with categories like ‘Home’, ‘Subscriptions’, ‘Watch History’, and ‘Watch Later’.
That’s it, this way you can see your video traffic sources.
How to rank YouTube video in browse features –
YouTube browse features are the best traffic sources for YouTube videos. If you rank in YouTube browse features, especially in ‘YouTube Home’ and ‘subscription’ features then you will get lots of traffic. But how can you rank your video or how can you convince your first-time viewers to subscribe to your channel and also watch more videos from your channel?
YouTube algorithms influence the recommendations of videos based on the point of view of both the audience and the creators. From the point of the audience, the YouTube algorithm knows about viewers’ likes, dislikes, search history, what types of videos or channels they generally watch, do they watch long videos or YouTube short videos, etc.
And from the point of the creators, the YouTube algorithm sees the performance of a video. When a user uploads a video, the YouTube algorithm tries to calculate various factors such as do the viewers like it, how much time they watch, the average performance of multiple videos that are on the same topics, etc.
So to rank your videos in YouTube browse features you need to focus on the following areas –
- Maintain your consistency. You need to keep uploading your videos on a regular basis without sacrificing your video quality. The more you upload quality content the more you have a chance to rank in the YouTube home feature.
- If you see one of your videos ranking in the YouTube browse feature then you should try to focus on creating related videos to the previous one. This way you can keep your audience engaged with the other videos.
- Try to make long videos so that watch time increases but try not to lose the quality of the video. Watch time is one of the core ranking factors which will help you in ranking.
- Also if you see a topic is trending right now on the YouTube platform, which is under the same niche as yours then you should try to make a video on that trending topic. This way you may have a chance to see your video in YouTube browse features.
Conclusion –
As a YouTube content creator, you should try to analyze these kinds of basic features of YouTube because these features play a vital role in your channel’s growth. I think I have covered most of the topic of YouTube browse features in this post. If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment down below.
