4 Things To Check If Your Channel Isn’t Growing

A lot of YouTubers are struggling to get more subscribers and views. But if you check these four things in YouTube Analytics, you can find out exactly why your channel isn't growing. And that gives you the control you need to actually fix the issues!

Recommended Size: 100 - 1,000 subscribers

1. Audience Retention

The first thing to check is Audience Retention. This metric tells you how long your viewers watch your videos on average. If most of your videos are around 25% to 50% (or even higher), you're doing a good job engaging your viewers.

You'll probably have a couple of videos that fall under the 25% mark. That typically happens with longer videos. You can click on the titles of those videos to see the exact points where viewers drop off. This tells you exactly what to improve in your videos to keep them on board.

If your average audience retention is low, your most important job is to increase it. Try to make your videos as short as possible. Edit out all the boring parts. Make sure your presentation is enthusiastic and energetic. And always deliver value in every video to keep your audience engaged.

2. Traffic Sources

One of the most important reports ever is the Traffic sources report. This tells you how people discover your videos.

Whenever someone tells me that they don't get a lot of new subscribers, this is usually where the real problem becomes clear. Often times, their #1 traffic source is Browse features, which is just their subscriptions and video recommendations on the homepage of YouTube. Those are people who already know you!

You really want your traffic to come from Suggested videos, YouTube search and External. Those are new viewers who are introduced to your channel through one of your videos. If those factors combined don't make up for at least 50% of your traffic, or if YouTube Search or Suggested videos are ridiculously low, you need to focus on that more.

Click on YouTube search to find out what keywords your viewers type to find your videos. Are those the keywords you really want to be found on? If not, try optimizing your video descriptions and tags to improve your visibility for other keywords. If you do this right, this will also help your views from Suggested videos.

3. SEO Score

Speaking of getting found on YouTube: you should install the free VidIQ plug-in for Google Chrome in order to find out the SEO-score for your videos.

The SEO-score is an indicator that tells you how well your video ranks in the search results. You definitely want this to be a score over 50, and preferably even close to 70 or 80.

If your SEO-score is very low, make sure you know what keywords you want to be found on. Include them in your descriptions and tags. And use the plug-in to see which keywords people actually search for. You can find lots of tutorials about VidIQ on YouTube.

Note: TubeBuddy is also free and does basically the same thing, but I'm not as familiar with that plug-in.

4. Titles and Thumbnails

Titles and thumbnails are truly underrated factors that determine whether or not someone will click on your video or not. A good title and thumbnail will spark the viewer's curiosity and make them want to find out more.

You should always use a custom thumbnail for your videos. Make sure something in the thumbnail really stands out. And make sure your thumbnails are also very visible on a smaller size.

As for titles: be descriptive and use titles that entice the viewer to click the video. Which video title would you rather click on?

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In Conclusion:

Whenever I look at a channel that doesn't get a lot of subscribers and views, in 99.9% of the times the problems lie in one or more of these factors. I hope that by pointing them out to you, you'll at least be able to identify the real issues on your channel. Let me know what you discover in your metrics!

Handy links:

Thanks for taking the time to read this post! If you think this could be helpful to other YouTubers, please share this with them. If you have any questions about YouTube, feel free to contact me on Reddit (/u/AspiringInspirator)!

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