How Youtube’s ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ Button Provide More Accurate Counts
YouTube has recently announced that they have implemented a very significant improvement in their system. This time, the video-sharing platform confirmed that some enhancements in the system used to validate the number of likes and dislikes received by video content posted on the website are now in place. Given the nature of this confirmation, a lot of digital marketers and website owners are now considering this move as a favourable improvement for them since the total numbers of like and dislike that their videos posted on YouTube can now be counted accurately.
It can be remembered that the information regarding the new update was announced by one of YouTube’s representatives via the YouTube Help Forum. On the said forum, a certain “YT Lukas” clearly hinted that the platform’s validation system is now very much capable of ensuring that the number of likes and dislikes that every video posted on the site originate from real people instead of coming from bots or computer programs that some users use to boost the level of engagement that their content creates.
Article source: https://digitalmarketingjournal.weebly.com/blog/youtubes-like-and-dislike-buttons-now-provide-more-accurate-counts
YouTube Like & Dislike Counts
The number of likes and dislikes on a YouTube video is an important signal for creators, as it is a factor that determines what shows up in search results and the recommended videos section.
With that said, this announcement should come as good news to creators, especially those who may have received an unfair amount of dislikes from detractors.
Article source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/youtube-like-dislike-counts-now-accurate/257467/
How Does YouTube Count Views?
So, you want to be YouTube famous. You have the perfect video of a British child having his finger bitten by a British baby. You upload the video to YouTube and it is an instant sensation. However you’re wondering; can you increase your own views by refreshing the page? How does YouTube even count views?
YouTube’s definition of a view is a viewer initiated intentional play of a video. In the early years of YouTube a view count would increase whenever the video was loaded. This was a reasonable system, except it quickly became obvious that anyone — from a teenager sharing a home video to a business sharing a commercial –could simply reload their video over and over to increase their view count artificially. Since YouTube’s homepage displays popularly viewed videos sorted by the number of views, it was easy for anyone to game the system and have their video appear on YouTube’s front page.
YouTube couldn’t have that, so they tweaked the system a little. When the video is below 300 views, the views are counted in the same old-school reloading system. Fewer than 300 views will not affect YouTube’s website. This method of view counting is fine for low view counts. The leeway for abusing the system is small and insignificant.
Article source: https://www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/how-does-youtube-count-views/
The View Tipping Point
It is a different story when your video reaches 301 views. Why 301 views? The analytics behind YouTube’s view counting system demonstrates that any views higher than 300 could affect the quality of YouTube by crowding the homepage with artificially popular videos.
A view count freezing at 301 views is no glitch. Ted Hamilton, Product Manager for YouTube Analytics, explains that the YouTube database is set up to freeze the view count at 301 until YouTube employees can manually verify whether or not the views have been obtained legitimately.
More views can be obtained using automated computer processes (known as ‘bots’) that inflate the view count, or anyone refreshing a video hundreds of times, giving credit to videos that otherwise wouldn’t receive attention. If you want to count the celebrities that make an appearance in Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood music video, you don’t want to go through several artificially popular videos to find it.
YouTube analysts determine where the views are coming from. If a majority of views are coming from the same few computers, they are removed.
Article source: https://www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/how-does-youtube-count-views/
Understand Watch Time
There’s no denying that Views are an important metric for determining the success of a YouTube video.
But while they’re one indicator of performance, Views alone won’t give you enough information to make significant improvements to your YouTube videos, nor does YouTube put a lot of stock in them given the prevalence of clickbait tactics that often inflate View count.
Instead, views should be analyzed alongside a more important metric that’s key to getting on the good side of YouTube’s algorithm: Watch Time.
From Youtube’s perspective, Watch Time, or the estimated total minutes spent viewing your content, is more important than a raw view. The updated Analytics dashboard makes this clear by dedicating an entire section to this new, more telling metric of video performance.
Both Watch Time and Views, however, are really only useful indicators when analyzed alongside other data that can help you improve the discoverability and quality of your content, as we’ll explore further down in this post.
Article source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/6763696-youtube-analytics-10-ways-to-track-video-performance