YouTube this week put out a new video meant to address creators’ questions over its short-form video platform, YouTube Shorts. The questions it answered ranged from how the algorithm for Shorts differs from long-form YouTube to what counts as a view as well as those that addressed other best practices for creators who want to maximize their potential on Shorts.
While YouTube didn’t necessarily give away its secret sauce by publishing the algorithm details, as TikTok and Instagram have done, it did offer some high-level insights aimed at guiding creators making videos for Shorts. According to the product lead for Shorts, Todd Sherman, the Shorts algorithm differs from the long-form algorithm where people are tapping on videos to watch — essentially making a specific choice that then drives more recommendations.
But on Shorts, people are swiping through content not knowing what comes next. While both recommendation systems are designed to present videos that people will value and enjoy, the Shorts feed prioritizes a more diverse feed because people are flipping through hundreds of videos versus maybe 10 or 20 in long-form.
Sherman also noted that not every flip on Shorts is counted as a view, a difference from some other platforms where viewing the first frame is counted as a view. (TikTok counts views as soon as a video starts playing, it says). In Shorts, however, the viewing is meant to reflect that the user had some intent to watch, so the creators had some “significant threshold” that someone wanted to watch the viewing. However, the company doesn’t publish what its viewing limit is because it tweaks it from time to time and doesn’t want people trying to game the system. Additionally, Sherman said there isn’t a certain amount of time that creators benefit from showing their videos — instead, creators should think about how much time they need to tell their story.
But he also emphasized that Shorts will remain focused on videos 60 seconds and under so as not to blur the lines with YouTube itself. This differs from competitor TikTok, which has been experimenting with letting creators record longer videos after first releasing the short-form format.
Another interesting insight offered by the product master was that YouTube doesn’t want Shorts creators to bother with creating custom thumbnails like they do on YouTube, because most thumbnails never show up. The Shorts video shelf where the thumbnails would be displayed is just an entry point into the Shorts experience — but once inside, you won’t see the other videos’ thumbnails.
He also added that hashtags can be useful and meaningful and creators should use them, but it’s hard to generalize this advice. Time of day in posting is also not a factor for optimization, except for someone focused on news where the freshness of the information being shared would matter. The quantity of Shorts posted is also not a factor in gaining traction — it’s more about quality than quantity. Sherman also explained why Shorts sometimes take off and then just drop in views, causing creators to complain that they’re “stuck.
There are parts of the algorithm that try to find people, find creators an audience,” Sherman explained. “And sometimes these algorithms go and effectively find like an audience, they find a set of people who might enjoy your video. And depending on how that goes, it could get a lot more traffic or it could decrease,” he said. He also advised against deleting and reposting Shorts in an attempt to get them off the ground, given the risk of being considered spam. The company says it doesn’t see Shorts as cannibalizing long-form, but rather has plans to introduce ways to let creators link from Shorts to their long-form videos by the end of September.
However, it recently disabled links to other parts of the Shorts experience as a spam prevention measure. Elsewhere on YouTube, the company says it will test a new feature where channels that upload a lot — those with a lot of current uploads, for example — will have them all together on one shelf.
This way, viewers can explore everything from that channel, but won’t pull other videos in the subscription feed.
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