---
title: 'YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Update Explained for 2026 (GET MORE SUBSCRIBERS FAST!)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=rkUF1YjgEos'
video_id: 'rkUF1YjgEos'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 606
---

# YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Update Explained for 2026 (GET MORE SUBSCRIBERS FAST!)

> Source: [YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Update Explained for 2026 (GET MORE SUBSCRIBERS FAST!)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rkUF1YjgEos)

## Summary

YouTube's latest algorithm update prioritizes Shorts over long-form content, even on desktop. To grow in 2026, creators must adapt by ranking Shorts for search, optimizing metadata, using strong calls-to-action, and monetizing through related long-form videos.

### Key Points

- **Algorithm Update Overview** [00:00] — YouTube's new algorithm update affects all of YouTube, not just Shorts. Creators need to adapt to get more views, subscribers, and monetization in 2026.
- **Shorts Dominate Homepage and Search** [00:26] — On the YouTube homepage, more Shorts are shown than long-form videos, even on desktop. In search results, Shorts often outrank long-form content in views.
- **Ranking for Search with Shorts** [02:30] — Creators must rank Shorts for search because Shorts appear more on mobile and are referenced by LLMs like Gemini and ChatGPT. Key factors: metadata (keyword in title once, description twice, tags 5+ times) and keyword research.
- **VidIQ as a Secret Weapon** [03:48] — VidIQ helps optimize metadata and discover keywords. It offers AI-powered title, description, and tag suggestions, plus keyword research with search volume and competition data.
- **Turning Viewers into Subscribers** [05:46] — A call-to-action in videos can achieve 2-5% conversion rate. Example: a video with 1.7M views and a CTA gained 34K subscribers, while a similar video without a CTA gained only 4K.
- **Monetizing Shorts via Related Videos** [07:38] — Use Shorts to drive traffic to a short long-form video (2 min) that pitches a product, affiliate offer, or program. Reply to comments to increase conversions.

### Conclusion

To succeed on YouTube in 2026, creators must prioritize Shorts, optimize for search, use effective CTAs, and monetize by funneling Shorts viewers to long-form content with offers.

## Transcript

YouTube just released a brand new
algorithm update for YouTube Shorts. And
this doesn't only affect YouTube Shorts,
this affects all of YouTube. So, you
need to make sure that you're adapting
to the new strategies for how to get
more views, how to get more subscribers,
and ultimately how to monetize your
YouTube in 2026. And don't worry because
I'm going to walk you through the five
changes you need to make right now in
this video that just helped this
creator, this creator, and this creator
all gain over 100,000 subscribers. And
they're going to help you, too, so long
as you don't skip any of them. Change
number one is you need to understand
what direction YouTube is actually going
in. And in order to show this to you, I
wanted to show you what YouTube looks
like now. Okay. So, here's what I really
want to emphasize to you. If we come
over here to the YouTube homepage right
here, what you are going to notice, the
first thing that I am getting shown are
three videos right here, long form
videos. And two of these, guess what?
Are non-sponsored videos. This one is a
sponsored video. And then the rest of
the content that shows up here is going
to be shorts. And guess what? I don't
even engage with shorts. I don't watch
shorts. And then if we come down a
little bit more, we're going to see more
long form. We're going to see more long
form and then more shorts. And if we
look at this, what you're going to
notice is there are more shorts getting
shown to people than long form content.
And guess what? This is on a computer.
If you come over to a mobile device,
it's even worse. People are getting
shown more shorts. Now, I'm not saying
that it's worse in the case that this is
bad for YouTube. I'm saying it's worse
in the case that you're only uploading
long- form content. Now, let's say that
we come over here and we do a search for
something. For example, how to add text
in video cap cut. Now, what you're going
to see is that when we do a search for
this, one long form video gets shown and
then the rest of the content that's
going to show here is going to be
shorts. And I want you to look at
something right here because this will
actually tell you what people are
actually clicking on, what people are
actually watching. This long form video
ranking number one literally by Cap Cut
has 89,000 views. This video almost
550,000. This video 430,000. This video
460,000. This video 568,000.
This video 28,000. If we come in here
393,000,
68,000 3 million. So what kind of
content do you think that people are
actually watching when they go to search
for something? They are not watching
this long form content anymore. They are
now watching shorts. And you need to
make sure that in 2026 you are doubling
down not only on ranking for search with
YouTube shorts but also that you are
doubling down on uploading more YouTube
shorts. In fact, the biggest creators on
the platform are now prioritizing this.
Now change number two is you need to
make sure that you begin ranking for
search with YouTube shorts. And there
are several reasons that you need to do
this. One short show up more than
anything else on mobile devices. two
LLMs like Google Gemini, Chat, Chippy,
Claude, they actually go through and
reference shorts more than long form
content because in a lot of cases shorts
deliver on the promise a lot earlier.
Now, if you want to rank for search
right now, there's essentially two
things that you need to be focused on
and I want to walk you through exactly
what these things are because one of
them is going to be the metadata on your
post and the second is going to be
making sure that you're using keyword
research the right way. Now, the first
key to being able to rank for search
with YouTube Shorts is you need to make
sure that you have your metadata set up
correctly. If we come over here, this
video right here is ranking for YouTube
settings. And the reason that it's
ranking for YouTube settings is if I do
control find and I type in YouTube
setting, you're going to notice that
shows up one time in the title that
shows up two times in the description. I
have YouTube setting right here. And
then I also have YouTube settings in the
next sentence. So, if you want your
stuff to actually rank on YouTube
search, you need to make sure that one,
the keyword shows once in the title.
Two, the keyword shows twice in the
description. And if we come down here to
the tags, you're going to notice that it
shows more than five times. And you need
to make sure that the same exact thing
is happening in your content. Now, one
of my secret weapons for being able to
do this is Vid IQ. In fact, that's
what's giving me these title suggestions
right here. That's what's giving me this
description suggestion. And that's
what's telling me exactly what tags I
should be putting in my video because
Vid IQ allows you to very easily use AI
in order to figure out exactly what
title, what description, what tags you
should be using for specific keywords.
In fact, if we come over here into the
description details right here, what we
could actually see is that if we click
on this, we could tell it what our video
is about, what our target keyword is,
what emotion we want, and this actually
goes through and then optimizes all
those different things for us to be able
to rank for search. In addition to that,
if we come over to vidiq.com and we come
over here to discover, you're going to
see keywords right here. And what this
is going to show us is exactly how many
people are searching for things. For
example, if I type in faceless
Instagram, we can see 10,000 people are
searching for this a month. This then
gives me related keywords. It gives me
questions around this. It gives me
matching keywords. And this is going to
tell me how easy it's going to be to
rank for this term and how many people
are actually going to be searching for
it. In addition to that, if we scroll
down right here, this is then going to
show us all the different trending video
down here that we could actually make
content like. And as you can see, there
are tons of videos. And then basically
all you're doing is creating content
with the title or the description or the
thumbnail or on the topic. And then
guess what that does? It increase the
odds that you're going to be able to
rank for search. And Vid IQ is a secret
weapon to being able to figure that all
really easily from one dashboard. The
best part about Vid IQ is you could go
to the pin comment below right now and
get started with it today for only $1.
This is an exclusive offer for my
audience. And guess what? I would have
never gained over 800,000 subscribers if
it wasn't for Vid IQ. Because my secret
to growing has been ranking for search
and Vid IQ is the only tool that makes
this incredibly easy to do. Not only
because they do the keyword research,
but also because they help you fix your
metadata. So, what are you waiting for?
Go to the pin comment below and register
for it right now. Now, the next thing
you need to make sure you're doing is
you need to make sure that you're
actually turning your viewers into
subscribers because not only is this
going to get you your 100K plaque or
your million plaque a lot quicker than
if you didn't do it, it's also going to
help your videos get pushed out more.
And here's the perfect way to do it. So,
when it comes to actually getting
subscribers from your viewers, you need
to make sure you have a call to action
in your content. You need to make sure
that you're getting anywhere from a 2 to
5% conversion rate. So, if you get 1,000
views, you should get 2 to 5% of
followers from that, which is going to
be anywhere from 20 to 50 subscribers
from just 1,000 views. Now, if we come
into my content, this is literally gets
really obvious when I've used it and
when I don't. So, if we click on this
video right here, we can see 1.7 million
views. This video gained me 34,000
subscribers. Now, if we come down a
little bit, let's say that we look at
this video right here that got a million
views. This one only got me 4,000
subscribers. And the sole reason for
that is because I did not put a call to
action in this video. And in the other
video, I had a call to action. Now, to
double down what I was showing you
earlier, I want to point something out.
If we look at this video right here, 1.9
million views. This video is getting
almost all of its traffic from search.
If we come over to this video right
here, 1.7 million views. Once again,
most of its traffic from search. If we
come over to this video right here, 1.6
million views, most of the traffic
coming from search. If we come into this
video right here, again, 1.3 million
views, most of the traffic from search.
So essentially, what you're trying to do
is rank for search on YouTube, have a
good call to action at the end, and that
needs to be related to whatever the goal
of your viewers are. For example, if I
look at all of these shorts right here
that have gotten over a million views,
they're all about growing faster on
YouTube. So, what I would do is simply
just end the video in the last 3 seconds
and say, "If you want to grow faster on
YouTube, hit that subscribe button." And
then 2 to 5% of the people that watch
that video are going to hit that. That's
why I've been able to gain so many
subscribers. Now, the last thing that we
need to cover now that you know how to
get more views, how to get more reach,
and how to turn those views into
subscribers is how you actually monetize
YouTube shorts. And I actually found out
this method years ago, but I'm going to
tell you about it today. Okay. So, if we
look at my YouTube content, here's how
I'm actually doing this. If we come over
here and we type in Robert Benjamin,
what we're going to see is that several
different shorts pop up. For example,
this one right here, how to go viral on
Tik Tok. If we click on this video right
here, what you are going to notice is if
I pause it, we are pointing out to this
related video right here. And if we skip
to the end of the video, I say that if
you want to get started with this, click
this video here. And then if we click
over here, what you're going to notice
is that this is a long form video. But
more importantly, this is a super short
long- form video. It's only 2 minutes
long. And we could see right here that
I've driven a few thousand views to this
video. And essentially, the only point
of this video is to get people to click
the link in the description here or to
click the link in the pin comment. And
guess what? This is actually driving
additional signups for this tool right
here, Metricool. And I'm not only using
it for sponsorship deals, I'm also using
it for other stuff. Now, something you
want to make sure that you're doing when
you're actually implementing a strategy
like this is you want to make sure that
you're coming through and replying to
every single one of these comments right
here because guess what that does? It
increases the odds that people actually
end up going with this. Now, if we come
over to another one of my videos that
I've uploaded, for example, this one
right here, 1.9 million views. We could
see that if I click on the related
video, it's going to bring us over here.
Now, look at this video. This one has
gotten over 50,000 views. And again, we
could see that the goal of this is to
drive people to my programs right here.
And this is exactly what you should be
doing. Whether it's for sponsorship
deals, affiliate offers, for your own
program, you should be using a related
video that's going to have a pitch in
it. And then you can actually put a pin
comment in here because you can't put a
comment in YouTube shorts, but this is a
way for you to still get a lot of views
from YouTube Shorts, drive that traffic
over to long form and be able to
monetize people. Now, if you're still
struggling to grow on YouTube, it's
probably because one, you just haven't
implemented the things I shared with you
in this video, or two, you need some
personalized one-on-one help. That's
exactly what I want to offer you. In
fact, I want to help you grow faster on
YouTube by telling you everything you
need to do differently. what to do
differently with your titles, what kind
of content you should create, how you
should fix your videos, and so much
more. If that sounds interesting, well,
please check out this video right here
that walks you through three different
ways we can work together one-on-one,
and I can help you grow faster on
YouTube the same exact way I help this
creator, this creator, and this creator
skyrocket their growth. I'll see you
over there.