4 Steps to Structuring a YouTube Video That the Algorithm Will Love
It works for any genre of content.
YouTube is usually a long and arduous process.
That’s why it’s important to not shoot yourself in the foot when it comes to how you’re structuring your videos.
I argue structuring a video correctly will cut your journey from zero to hero in half.
Not only that, but the algorithm will become a super fan of your videos — immediately promoting them to new heights. This will in turn create a snowball effect that will slowly but steadily grant you tons of views and ad revenue.
Interested? Implement these steps & you’ll be ahead of 99% of creators.
The Intro — How To Make The Viewer Stick Around Every Time
Most YouTube intros suck.
The problem with having a lackluster intro is that it’s the second worst way to ruin your video (the worst being having a poor thumbnail + title).
If people can’t bear to get past your intro, or you fail to capture their interest — the algorithm will look negatively upon your video. You’ll never grow or generate any revenue with such garbage audience retention.
The solution is to always structure your video intros the same way. The right way.
The perfect YouTube intro only needs to do one thing: explain exactly what’s going to happen in the video in a succinct, engaging way.
Simple enough. But very hard to execute.
👉 The reason you must explain exactly what the viewer can expect out of the video in the first few seconds is that you haven’t earned their trust. They’re looking for the tiniest reason to click away if it seems like you’ll be wasting their time. This goes for all channels, regardless of the type. This is why you have to capture a small part of the viewers’ trust by assuring them that you will be respecting their time, and that you’ll provide the exact content they clicked for.
How to do it?
You are free to formulate your intros however you want, as long as they hit on the points I mentioned above.
Here’s a short example inspired by Mr.Beast-style videos:
“In this video we’re going to do/show you _______. X and Y will happen, these are the stakes (if you have any). Watch until the end for/At the end of the video we will…”
It really doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. Assure the viewer they’re in the right place for what they came for, and you’re golden.
The Middle — The Mistake That Makes 99% of Your Viewers Skip Forward
Now I’m going to contradict what I said about the intro.
Imagine you’re holding a seminar.
Your audience is sitting in front of you, eagerly awaiting you to flood them with helpful information that’ll change their lives.
You turn on your Powerpoint presentation and the first slide says “set goals”.
Suddenly, people start leaving the room. Not all of them, but some. You keep talking like nothing’s happened, and eventually you switch to the next slide. This slide says “schedule your time”. Even more people start filing out of the room.
Eventually, there are only a couple of people left.
Now back to reality. The seminar is your video, and the audience is your viewers. The amount of people left at any moment is your audience retention.
You might think the audience (your retention rate) left because your ideas were unoriginal. That’s not the case. You might have had innovative things to say about each slide.
The problem is that you revealed what the whole section was about first, rendering the rest of what you were going to say pointless.People will just go “Oh yeah, set goals. That’s simple and I know about that already.”
You have to be a little cheeky here. Be a marketer and a storyteller. Unlike the intro where you immediately have to reassure the viewer that you’ll spill the beans they desire, for the rest of the video you need a more restrictive approach.
You have to phrase your content in a way that won’t leave the viewer bored. Instead, they should eagerly be listening to each section and wondering what comes next.
To draw another parallel, it’s a lot like writing great subheadings. You have to make sure each subheading (video section beginning) is sparking curiosity to know more.
❌ Example bad subheading:
- “To Have Better Sleep Quality You Need To Limit Blue Light”
✅ Example good subheading:
- “This Common Mistake Is Ruining Your Sleep Quality”
You see? It’s the same deal with video content. You have to keep putting breadcrumbs on the trail to make your viewer stay to the end of your video.
The Outro Pt. 1— How To Turn One View Into 100,000
What really hurts a video is it ending poorly.
Most YouTube creators are under the illusions that their outros are fine. Their analytics usually tell a different story.
There are two main problems with bad outros:
- You miss the opportunity to create session time since the viewer didn’t see your “watch next” video.
- It hurts the overall video analytics any super steep drop in retention signals the algorithm and it’ll get promoted less.
NEVER end a video. Or rather, never sound like you’re about to.
Your script wants to sound like you’re going to keep delivering the viewer value. Not only that but it should be framed as a pitch for why they should watch your next video.
Let’s say your channel is about baking.
This is an example of how you might end a video about baking cakes:
“I’ve shown you plenty of ways to bake a cake without a recipe, but the truth is that there are more tips you need to make sure your cake turns out amazing every time. Like in this next video, where I show you how to bake a cake way faster using a super cool trick, that will also help with… etc., etc.”
Another tip: never say “thank you for watching”.
Well, you can. But as soon as you do the viewer will stop listening. You’re signaling that this is the end of the content that they came for and that’s their cue to leave.
The Outro Pt. 2 — How To Turn Viewers Into Fans & Make Them Obsessed With Your Content
The most important part of closing out a YouTube video is to make sure the viewer watches another one from your channel.
This is where most people make the same mistake.
They make the mistake of thinking that the “more the merrier”. This means that add two, three, or even four videos to watch during their end screen.
This isn’t optimal. People don’t do well with choice.
Studies have shown that people end up less satisfied and less likely to choose anything when participants choose between multiple options.
So, leave your viewers with a single option. But not just any option.
Based on the video they just watched, choose the closest video to it that:
- Education channel: answers other related questions the viewer might have after watching this video.
- Entertainment channel: is in the same or similar style that you think the viewer will love.
This will easily create so-called “binges” among your viewers. You might even end up getting comments about how they can’t stop watching your content, or that you’re reading their mind.
The algorithm will also adore you as viewers going from one of your videos to another means they’re creating session time for you.
The algorithm loves session time.
Hopping from one of your videos to the next signals that your channel is capable of keeping viewers on the platform. Viewers staying on YouTube → YouTube earns more from advertisers → The algorithm promotes your videos like crazy.
And there you have it. Are you doing all these things?
Leave a comment and let me know :)
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