[FAQ]

Hey,

I’m trying to work out my content strategy and I’m a bit confused about how YouTube treats my different videos. My long-form videos seem to live or die based on their click-through rate and how long people watch them.

But with Shorts, it feels like a totally different game. Some of my Shorts get almost no views, while others suddenly get thousands of views out of nowhere. It doesn’t seem to be as connected to my thumbnails or titles.

Is there a fundamental difference in how the algorithm recommends a Short versus a longer video? I want to make sure I’m optimising my content correctly for both formats.

Cheers,

Alex

[Jeff Bullas]

This is a fundamental distinction to understand for a modern YouTube channel.

Short Answer: They are two separate systems. The long-form algorithm prioritises your thumbnail and title formats to earn a click, while the Shorts algorithm prioritises the first two seconds of your video format to stop a swipe.

Mastering your channel’s growth means optimising your content formats for both of these different discovery engines.

Your traditional, long-form videos are judged by two key content formats before they are even watched: the visual format of your thumbnail and the text format of your title. These must work together to convince a viewer to click. Once they click, the algorithm measures success by watch time. The Shorts algorithm, however, functions in a feed, making the click-through rate irrelevant for discovery. For this video format, the only metrics that matter are “viewed versus swiped away,” which is entirely dependent on the strength of your visual and audio hook in the first seconds, and average percentage viewed. A Short that can hold a viewer’s attention and earn a high completion rate signals to the algorithm that this video format is valuable and should be pushed to a wider audience.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Author]

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