If you are a #YouTuber or even someone who does SEO for a living, I'm about to blow your mind:

Google doesn't give a sh*t about your title and description when it comes to ranking your content.

You think thumbnails are just for the user? Think again.

A thread ๐Ÿ‘‡ Image
Google's machine learning knows much more than you may realize. It's listening to what you say in your videos, it sees what your videos are about, and yes, it knows @whatsinside your thumbnail. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)
To demonstrate, I'll be using Google's Vision AI API. You can access it (for free) at the following URL and dump any image in and test yourself:

cloud.google.com/vision

Let's start with some of my thumbnails. Image
Vision AI doesn't just know a person is on the thumbnail, it knows it's a surprised person. It also picks up text.

Seeing the webcam in the photo, it knows the likely categories this video should be in.

However, it could improve. ImageImageImage
Look at the top objects identified. It's not the webcam, it's ME!

That doesn't help Google know what the video is about.

Faces catch human eyeballs (@netflix knows this well). We don't need to remove ourselves for the sake of pleasing a bot. Image
Take a look at this thumbnail from @ZachsTechTurf. This video is performing well.

Despite you and I connecting to the face, it's so little of a focus that Google can't pick up the emotion.

What do they pick up? That GPU and PC case makes it clear what the video is about. ImageImage
And yes, Google even tries to determine if the image is family-friendly. Compare a normal video of mine to a shirtless thumbnail that tanked a video.

Not only was it labeled a possibly "racy" video, it was labeled "likely" a spoof. Views SUCKED until I switched the thumbnail. ImageImage
I even tested a thumbnail on @PaddyG96's channel. His videos have been crushing it, except this video.

What does Google see? A possible "racy" video. Hard to think that doesn't suppress this video a bit. Image
Moral of the story:

Help Google (and your users) know what the video is about by making that thing the FOCUS.

Two videos from @UnboxTherapy. One crushed it, one didn't. You can guess.

Oh, notice how it picks up logos? Now it knows to show that video to @secretlabchairs fans. ImageImageImage
Use this tool to play around with your thumbnails and compare your high performing videos to your low ones. You'll find patterns.

Oh, and for you non-YouTube SEO folks, maybe think twice about the photo you upload to the next blog post you publish ๐Ÿ˜‰
If you haven't already seen, I posted another thread that further supports this theory:

โ€ข โ€ข โ€ข

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
ใ€€

Keep Current with Brandon Hassler

Brandon Hassler Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @brandonhassler

24 Oct
Published this video a little over 48 hours ago on a VERY small channel.

About to crack 140k views on the vid but ๐Ÿ‘€ at the traffic sources.

HALF of the traffic is coming from Pixel 6 search terms and nowhere in the title do I mention those terms.

(1/3) ๐Ÿงต ImageImage
The dilemma small creators often face is whether to optimize the video title for "clicks" or for search.

Optimize for clicks!

If adding/removing your desired keyword(s) makes the title more clickable, do it.

(2/3) ๐Ÿงต
Remember who owns YouTube and how advanced their AI and ML is.

This video further proves my theory that the thumbnail and actual content of the video (such as the dialogue) have a far greater weight for search.

See this thread for my breakdown:

(3/3) ๐Ÿงต
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(