How YouTube’s Algorithms Work, An Eddie Murphy Example

I scrolled through YouTube’s homepage a couple years ago, stopping in the “Recommended section.”

I noticed Eddie Murphy in a thumbnail paired with the title “Eddie Murphy — Red Light ft. Snoop Lion,” a video posted to YouTube on September 9th, 2013.

I listened to the song, surprised at how well Eddie Murphy sings, and angry I hadn’t discovered this gem earlier.

I scrolled through the comments and noticed a trend.

Every commentator mentioned how and why this video appeared in their recommended page.

My curiosity piqued.

Why is a video, posted in 2013, listed on thousands of recommended pages in 2019?

After some research I brainstormed a few theories.

Eddie Murphy & Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto Online released a trailer on July 18th, 2019 promoting “The Diamond Casino & Resort,” a new addition to the game to be released on July 23rd, 2019.

Eddie Murphy’s song “Party All The Time” played in the trailer.

I had no idea he sang the song until browsing his YouTube channel.

If you type “Gta 5 casino trailer” into YouTube’s search bar, “song” is the second result displayed.

Obviously, people who watched the trailer wanted to know the backing song.

This drives traffic to Eddie Murphy’s YouTube page over the next week, which eventually pushes his channel into “Recommended”

Eddie Murphy, Netflix, & Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

In addition to this, on July 19th, 2019, bloggers published articles around the web about Eddie Murphy reportedly being in talks with Netflix to produce standup specials for a whopping 70 Millions dollars.

This is after the release of an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee featuring Murphy and Jerry Seinfeld.

With large media outlets like Vanity Fair, Fox News, and Forbes covering Murphy, YouTube’s algorithm picks up on his trending popularity and offers more of his content on recommended pages.

YouTube’s algorithm believes Eddie Murphy’s channel is suitable to be featured in the recommended section of a large general audience.

At least that’s the theory.

Either that, or someone at YouTube is a big fan of Eddie Murphy the musician.

If You’re Trending Elsewhere, You’ll Trend on YouTube

But I believe it’s a combination of the popularity of Grand Theft Auto, Murphy’s Netflix deal, and his appearance on Comedians in Cars Getting coffee that landed his channel on multiple recommended pages.

So What can you take from this as a content creator?

Try posting your YouTube video and building content around it.

Make a couple of articles about the topics discussed in the video.

Post these articles to your social media channels and free online publications like Medium.

Also try making videos on topics that are already trending.

This gives your video a head start since larger media outlets already completed some leg work for you.