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Tap, tap. Hello, is anyone there? 🎤 Getting views on YouTube can feel like talking to an empty room — especially when you’re just starting out. But that feeling is more common than you’d think, and it doesn’t have to stick around.

And, with the right approach, getting more views on YouTube in 2026 is achievable — even if you’re just getting started.

In this article, I’ll share 13 tried-and-tested tips on how to get more views on YouTube. Whether you’re someone who just created their channel or you’ve been stuck on the same average viewership numbers for a while, there’s something here for everyone.

Key takeaways

Prioritize ideas: Focus on topics that solve specific problems for your audience.
Promote binge-watching: Organize videos into episodic series and playlists to create a TV show experience.
Master the hook: Spend time on thumbnails, titles, and the first 30 seconds of the video to encourage people to actually click and watch
Optimize for search engines: Use keywords in titles, descriptions, tags, and spoken dialogue.
Use YouTube Shorts: Test new concepts and funnel viewers to long-form content.

Jump to a section:

1. Focus on your idea first
2. Think of your YouTube channel like a TV show
3. Treat your thumbnails and titles like hooks
4. Add keywords in your title, description, tags, and subtitles
5. Hop on niche and platform-related trends
6. Cross-promote your YouTube videos on other channels
7. Repurpose your long-form videos for YouTube Shorts
8. Collaborate with other creators in your niche
9. Use YouTube cards and end screens
10. Analyze your YouTube analytics
11. Engage your audience early on
12. Post when your viewers are online
13. Remember, YouTube is a long game
FAQ about YouTube views
More YouTube resources

1. Focus on your idea first

It’s easy to get swept up in filming, editing, and thumbnails, without really spending much time and energy on your video idea itself. But beautiful sets, fancy thumbnails, and slick editing can’t make up for a weak video topic.

You want to find video ideas that are familiar and unexpected. In other words, something they’re already interested in (familiar) but also something they want to learn more about (unexpected).

Great video ideas start with a deep understanding of your audience. “You need to understand your ideal viewer,” says YouTube creator Cara Nicole.

“Ask yourself: What are they already interested in? How do they want to be talked to? What news and cultural trends are they paying attention to? That gives you a starting point for making videos that resonate.”

There are plenty of ways to find content ideas for YouTube, but here are my three favorite ones (all beginner-friendly):

How to find great YouTube ideas

Good ol' Google

Search for a question your audience would look for on Google. If you’re a productivity creator, try searching ‘how to be productive’ on Google.”

Look for the ‘People also ask’ and ‘People also search for’ sections. These are real audience questions — and you might even find a ready-made title in them.

13 Ways to Get More Views on YouTube in 2026 — Tried + Tested

You can take this further by searching for more specific questions your audience is asking. For example, if you’re making videos for someone struggling to be productive while working from home, search for “how to be productive while working from home.” You’ll find plenty of ideas in the ‘People also ask’ and ‘People also search for’ sections.

YouTube Trends

In YouTube Studio, you’ll find a Trends tab under the Analytics section. Here, you’ll find ideas based on what your audience watches and what you’ve already posted. Some of them might be a hit and miss, but you can find some inspiration, directly from YouTube.

Try typing a basic query into the YouTube search bar to see top keywords and how popular they are. You’ll also find some videos similar to the ones you’ve searched for below.

Comments and YouTube Community posts

This one’s simple: Listen to your audience and see what follow-up questions they have left on your videos. You can try this on other platforms too — not just YouTube.

If you’re new to YouTube and don’t have a lot of comments from your audience, do a competitor analysis and check the comment section of creators in your niche. What are the follow-up questions people have? These can be your future video ideas.

To find breakout ideas, go to a competitor’s profile, click Videos, then click on the Popular tab. These are the videos that outperformed the others. If it’s a topic you can make your own, it could be a winning idea for your channel.

Jade Beason, founder at Social People Agency, also suggests doing the same exercise using YouTube’s search bar: “Search broad topics around your niche and then filter it based on content shared within the last month or year (depending on how popular and time-sensitive your niche is),” she recommends.

“Then, look for any videos that received more views than the number of subscribers that the creator has. That’s a clear sign that it was pushed out by YouTube’s algorithm,” Jade says

“Repeat this process to see if you can find any inspiration or patterns for your future video topics. But remember to use other creators’ videos for inspiration, not imitation.”

Similarly, if you have a tiny audience on YouTube already, you can also use the YouTube Community Posts to communicate with your audience and test content ideas.

For example, YouTuber Alina tested the waters about a topic with a community post on YouTube. Once there was enough interest, she turned it into a video.

How to make your YouTube ideas stand out

Of course, almost every niche on YouTube has a lot of creators in it — so standing out takes a little more intention.

“Analyze the market and then find your competitive edge,” recommends YouTuber Ali Abdaal. “Think in which domains can you stand out — for example, depth of research, storytelling, editing, relatability, or authenticity.”

This is consistent with what YouTube employee, Rene Ritchie, recommends, too: “What makes you different? What makes you interesting? If you're just going to copy what somebody else does — unless you can do it so significantly better that people will just rush to you — it's probably gonna be really hard,” he says.

“But if you can figure out what makes you unique, I think there are just unlimited possibilities.”

A great example of this is Cleo Abrams. Her YouTube videos are all about optimistic tech. But her standout quality is the depth of research on every topic and the stunning animations.

Another way to stand out is to adapt a format from a different or adjacent niche into your YouTube videos.

“You can kind of take things over from different niches. Let's say it's golf. Are there any other niches that have a certain level of adjacency to golf? You can apply [similar] formats in so many niches,” says YouTuber Paddy Galloway.

“It sounds simple, but so much of our success through my consulting company is by seeing what is working in different niches. What is a format that other people are not doing yet