What is YouTube Trending?

Photo Credit: 200 Degrees

Somewhere on YouTube there's a 'Trending' tab that randomly spits out contents which somehow resonate with our preferences on the platform.

But what does it mean?
Why are there only a handful of videos?
What influences the type of videos displayed on this feed?

Well, continue reading to find out.

What is YouTube Trending? 

YouTube Trending is a definite list of new and popular videos that are specific to a viewers country. The contents that appear on the Trending feed are basically what YouTube's algorithm perceive as "interesting" to a wide range of viewers in that particular country. (In case you're wondering what 'YouTube's algorithm' is, it's the logic that decides what content to display on your feed and what not to.)

So any video that quickly captures interest; like a new music video from a popular artist, a new movie trailer, hot news or even a viral comedy skit from individual creators may appear on the trending list.

You might have noticed the exaggeration from the early paragraph? Well that's because a lot videos on YouTube perfectly fit as contents that 'captures interest'. However, YouTube accommodates only a limited number of videos on its trending page. As a result, several other signals (which we shall discuss below) are taken into consideration in order to come up with a list of videos worthy of being featured.

The trending page is updated roughly every 15 minutes according to YouTube and videos can increase, decrease or maintain their rankings with each update. New videos can also be added to the list while existing videos that are 'loosing momentum' can slip out.

In addition to that, videos that appear on the trending page are not personalized for every viewer. The list is the same for all users in a particular country except for India where the list may differ from state to state.

What is the purpose of the Trending Tab?

YouTube's personalisation feature is bomb when it comes to serving tailor made contents for users. Aside that, it does one thing pretty well too; hide viewers from other interesting stories and channels outside of their personalisations (especially on the mobile app). So only contents that are within the "personalisation bubble" will show up on a users home feed most of the time.

But there's a quick fix to this and its the 'Trending' tab.

The Trending tab will help you discover other amazing contents out of your personalisations and also keep you updated with happenings from within and outside YouTube.

Additionally,
The Trending tab is also a goldmine for content creators and brands to increase their channel awareness and subscriber counts. Channels featured on the Trending tab can easily gain access to a wider range of audience; which is a huge opportunity to increase fan base and channel popularity.

Where can i find trending videos on YouTube?

The 'Trending tab' is the grey flame icon on YouTube's homepage. Tap or click on it to see what's trending in your country. You can also check videos that are trending in other countries by changing your default location in the settings tab.

What type of videos are featured on the Trending tab?

Any video that does not contain excessive profanity, mature content, spread hate, promote violence or isn't inappropriate (conforms with YouTube's guidelines) can be featured on the trending page.

According to YouTube, they aim to surface videos that:

1. Are broadly appealing and shareable.
2. Are not misleading or clickbaity.
3. Are original or surprising.
4. Are relevant to the audience
5. Are reflective of the content on the platform.

In addition to that, other signals are also taken into consideration before the final list of videos are curated.

Such signals include (but not limited to)

1. View count
2. How quickly a video is generating views, shares and comments (i.e "temperature")
3. The age of the video
4. Where the views are coming from including outside of YouTube
5. Channel momentum (how quickly a channel is gaining views, subscribers and also how frequently videos are uploaded)

These signals are combined (using algorithm) to produce a list of Trending videos that are manually filtered by staffers (in some locations) to ensure safety, relevancy and appropriateness.

In US and other specific regions, a dedicated column on the trending page features selected Creators and Artist (with a minimum 1k subscribers) for a whole day.

The criteria for selection is the same as that for trending videos and the purpose is to help new creators and artists gain more fans and viewership.

I am an independent creator, can my videos trend?

Well, based on this guide,

Yes it can.

According to YouTube, the entire process of selecting videos for the Trending page is achieved using an algorithm (except filtering in some countries). The algorithm balances several factors and criteria (mentioned above) and comes up with a list of videos worthy of being featured. It doesn't matter whether the videos are from traditional media outlets or independent YouTube creators, so far they conform with YouTube's video uploading guidelines and fulfill the necessary criteria, they can be selected and featured.

But even with that, many solo creators are still of the opinion that the Trending page is gamed. They worry that YouTube is overly favoring traditional media over them and that staffers not algorithm eventually decide what gets featured and what doesn't.

According to a research conducted by Stephen (who goes by his first name) and owns the YouTube channel "Coffee Break", the average YouTube creator needs millions of views to hit the platform's Trending tab while traditional media outlets like The Late Night Show or ESPN only require hundreds of thousands or sometimes tens of thousands of views to make it there.

These figures were obtained after analyzing more than 40,000 videos uploaded between November 2017 and June 2018, from about 2000 unique channels.

Now whether YouTube is feeding us with lies or the whole research thing from Stephen is just a move to get his videos on the list, there isn't much you can do to make your videos trend on YouTube, and thats the bottom line.

Your best bet is to stick with the 'Trending criteria' and hope the algorithm or YouTube staffer is kind enough to notice your video and mark it on the list.

What can i do to make my videos trend?

As said earlier, there really isn't much you can do to make your videos trend on YouTube.

Just make sure you polish your contents with YouTube's criteria, maintain a transparent channel and avoid inappropriate contents at all cost.

A good practice is to always perform keyword research before making videos. It will help you identify topics that are currently popular or have the potential to explode in the near future.
Then with the right idea and quality, you have a good chance of creating contents that will be broadly appealing and novel.

Remember, the key is to create contents that lots and lots of people will love to interact with.

You can read here:  How to perform keyword research for YouTube.

I made it to the Trending tab, how long will i be there?

Well, it depends on 'video momentum'. If your video isn't gaining as much attention as it was before it got featured, it could easily slip out of the list and newer or existing videos will take up its spot.

Contrary to that, featured videos that are gaining more and more attention can keep increasing in rankings all the way to the tops spot and even stay there for as long as 5 days (in some cases). Then, the Trending gets refreshed and the videos are kicked out for newer ones.

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