YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Change Explained for 2026 (GROW MORE SUBSCRIBERS FAST)

[00:00] YouTube Shorts just released a brand new

[00:01] algorithm update that completely changes

[00:03] everything. You need [music] to change

[00:04] the settings that you're using when you

[00:05] go to upload your content, the type of

[00:07] content that you're making, and what

[00:08] you're doing after your content stops

[00:10] getting views. And by the end of this

[00:11] video, you're going to know about all

[00:13] these changes and how you could use them

[00:15] to get more views, get more subscribers,

[00:17] and increase your odds of you going

[00:18] viral. In fact, I just helped this

[00:19] creator, this creator, and this creator

[00:22] gain over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube

[00:24] simply by implementing the tips that I'm

[00:26] about to share with you. Change number

[00:27] one is you need to make sure that you

[00:29] optimize the settings when you go to

[00:30] upload something on YouTube Shorts. And

[00:32] if you've messed up any of this before

[00:33] in the past, you need to go through on

[00:35] all of your past Shorts and fix this.

[00:38] Okay, so those first settings that you

[00:39] need to make sure are turned on, I'm

[00:40] going to show you in this video right

[00:42] here. So, the first one that you need to

[00:43] make sure are turned on going to be

[00:45] these two on the right-hand side right

[00:46] here. In fact, it's going to be two

[00:47] settings, not one. And then we're going

[00:49] to go through another one. So, first

[00:50] right here is subtitles. You want to

[00:51] make sure that when you click into this,

[00:53] that this has the subtitles from your

[00:55] content right here. Because if this

[00:57] doesn't have subtitles in here, one,

[00:58] it's actually going to decrease the

[00:59] amount of people that YouTube end up

[01:01] showing your video to. And two, it's

[01:02] actually going to affect your metadata.

[01:04] And ideally, what you want to find is in

[01:06] the first sentence of your subtitles

[01:08] right here, you want to make sure that

[01:09] if you actually look at this, we can see

[01:11] viral on TikTok. And then if we come

[01:13] over to the title of the video, you want

[01:14] to make sure it has the same exact

[01:16] keywords. Same exact thing here, viral

[01:18] on TikTok. And essentially, what that's

[01:19] doing is my title is then combining with

[01:22] my subtitles in order to tell YouTube

[01:24] what the video is actually about. And

[01:25] then YouTube shows the content ideally

[01:27] to the correct audience. In addition to

[01:29] that, you want to make sure that you

[01:30] have the related video filled out right

[01:32] here. Because you want people that watch

[01:34] this video to go watch another video.

[01:35] For example, this one was about going

[01:37] viral on TikTok. So, I might want to

[01:39] link this video to another video about

[01:41] the same exact topic. We come over here,

[01:43] type in viral on TikTok, we can see that

[01:45] I have a bunch of other content here. I

[01:46] might want to link it to this video. So,

[01:48] now they're going to watch my short-form

[01:49] video and then they'll watch our

[01:51] long-form video. The other setting that

[01:52] you need to make sure is enabled is if

[01:54] you come under languages right here, you

[01:55] want to make sure you have all of these

[01:57] different language published right here.

[01:59] We can see that I have tons of them.

[02:00] It's being translated to Russian. It's

[02:03] being translated to Spanish, Portuguese,

[02:06] Polish, Korean, Japan, Italian. It's

[02:09] being translated to all these different

[02:10] languages. And what this ends up doing

[02:12] is actually increase the odds that my

[02:14] content gets shown to more people than

[02:16] just people that speak English. And this

[02:18] is one of the biggest hacks, one of the

[02:19] biggest tricks right now to getting more

[02:20] views on YouTube Shorts.

[02:23] Change number two is you need to make

[02:24] sure that you're optimizing your

[02:25] thumbnails before anything else. Because

[02:27] in the past, 90% of views came from the

[02:30] Shorts feed for YouTube Shorts, but this

[02:32] is now all completely changing. A lot of

[02:34] that reach is now coming from LLMs like

[02:36] ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok. In addition to

[02:39] that, your content is showing up inside

[02:41] of Google search results and on browse

[02:43] features, which is going to be the

[02:44] homepage and search results on YouTube,

[02:47] which makes your thumbnail more

[02:48] important than ever before. Because

[02:50] guess what? If your thumbnail's not

[02:51] optimized, somebody's not going to click

[02:53] and then as a result, you're not going

[02:54] to get the views that you deserve. And

[02:55] the YouTube algorithm's going to say,

[02:57] "Hey, nobody's clicking on this

[02:58] creator's videos. Let's not push out his

[03:00] channel." So, to prove to you just how

[03:02] powerful adding a custom thumbnail is, I

[03:04] actually want to show you this. So, if

[03:05] we look up how to add a thumbnail to

[03:07] YouTube Shorts and we come over here, we

[03:09] can see that an ad gets shown and then a

[03:11] bunch of Shorts content. Now, if we look

[03:13] at the Shorts that are getting the most

[03:14] views, 1.2 million, 400,000, 200,000,

[03:18] 1.3 million, 500,000. So, the one that

[03:20] got the most views is this one right

[03:22] here and we can see that the reason that

[03:23] it got the most views, and this is

[03:24] actually my video, is because I have

[03:26] this arrow actually pointing here. And

[03:28] we can see this isn't the actual way

[03:30] that the video starts off because I

[03:32] added this custom thumbnail right here.

[03:34] Now, in order to do this, you need to do

[03:35] this from a mobile device. You're going

[03:37] to upload your YouTube Short from a

[03:38] mobile device and you're literally going

[03:39] to see what you actually see in this

[03:40] thumbnail right here. You click on that

[03:42] pencil and then you can choose any part

[03:44] of the video in order to actually turn

[03:45] that into the thumbnail. If we look

[03:47] right here, they did something pretty

[03:49] similar to mine. And guess what? That's

[03:50] why these two videos are getting the

[03:52] most views under here. This one is a

[03:54] custom thumbnail, not as good though.

[03:55] This one isn't a custom thumbnail. This

[03:57] one isn't a custom thumbnail. That's why

[03:59] those videos didn't get as many views as

[04:01] they could have gotten if they edited in

[04:03] a custom thumbnail. So, please make sure

[04:05] that you are adding these in. It will

[04:06] increase your reach. And change number

[04:08] three is you need to make sure that

[04:10] you're going through and actually

[04:11] finding breakout videos inside of your

[04:13] niche for you to be able to recreate

[04:15] them. And there's a new AI tool that

[04:16] makes this incredibly easy to do. Now,

[04:19] the way that you can actually go and do

[04:20] that is using VidIQ. So, if we come over

[04:22] to VidIQ right here and we come over

[04:24] into outliers, we can see right here

[04:26] that this is automatically set to my

[04:28] niche and it's showing me outliers for

[04:30] my niche. Or if I wanted to, I could

[04:32] search for things. For example, maybe

[04:33] I'm looking up TikTok algorithm and we

[04:34] can see this is then going to find me

[04:36] outliers. And we can see that it can

[04:38] find me outlier long-form content. It

[04:40] can find me outlier Shorts right here.

[04:42] It could go through and find me outlier

[04:44] thumbnails right here. And it can

[04:46] actually find me breakout channels. And

[04:48] what you're going to notice here is that

[04:50] this will actually go through and show

[04:52] you which channels are getting the most

[04:53] views in your niche that are breakout

[04:55] channels, which thumbnails are working

[04:57] the best for whatever topic you are

[04:58] uploading on, what Shorts are working

[05:00] the best, and what long-form content.

[05:02] And what you should ideally be doing is

[05:04] using this every single time that you go

[05:06] to actually look for something. And what

[05:08] I would do is sort this by highest views

[05:10] per hour. And this is going to reveal to

[05:12] you what topics are getting the most

[05:14] views for whatever you want to actually

[05:17] post about or whatever your niche is so

[05:19] that you actually know exactly what to

[05:20] post. In fact, using this and making

[05:22] this one change could be the difference

[05:24] between you getting millions of views or

[05:26] you being stuck with low views on

[05:27] YouTube Shorts. In addition to that

[05:29] though, you also want to use this

[05:30] optimize feature right here. This is

[05:31] going to allow you to go through with

[05:33] your long-form content or with your

[05:34] Shorts content and actually optimize all

[05:36] of your videos. For example, let's say

[05:38] this video didn't get as many views as I

[05:40] thought it should get, we could actually

[05:41] click on this right here and it will go

[05:42] through and give us different title

[05:44] suggestions. It'll give us different SEO

[05:47] suggestions. It'll actually review our

[05:49] video and tell us what we could have

[05:51] changed about the content. And this

[05:52] right here is the biggest secret to

[05:53] actually doing what the YouTube Shorts

[05:55] algorithm wants. Because you need to be

[05:57] looking at these outlier videos. You

[05:58] need to be optimizing all of your old

[06:00] content. You could go through and do

[06:01] this for all of your content to

[06:03] skyrocket your reach.

[06:05] Now, the best part about VidIQ is you

[06:06] can go to the pinned comment below and

[06:07] get started with it today for only $1. I

[06:10] would have never gained over 800,000

[06:11] subscribers if it wasn't for VidIQ. And

[06:13] this is going to be your secret weapon

[06:15] too because they release new features

[06:17] literally every single week and they

[06:18] make it way easier for you to grow

[06:20] faster on YouTube, go viral on YouTube.

[06:22] And again, I have an exclusive offer at

[06:23] the pinned comment below where you can

[06:25] get started today for only $1. It's an

[06:27] absolute no-brainer if you're serious

[06:29] about growing on YouTube. Change number

[06:31] four is you need to change the strategy

[06:33] that you're currently implementing on

[06:34] YouTube. When you come across a video

[06:36] idea that's actually worth making, you

[06:37] should ideally be doing two to three

[06:39] different videos on it and not only

[06:41] relying on one video because it might be

[06:43] your hook, might be your length, might

[06:44] be something else that actually leads to

[06:46] you getting more views on YouTube. In

[06:47] fact, I want to prove this to you by

[06:49] showing you how I do this on my own

[06:51] channel. Okay, so here's how I'm

[06:53] actually doing this. Let's say that we

[06:54] come over to my Shorts and we type in

[06:55] something like YouTube setting. Guess

[06:57] what we are going to see? We're going to

[06:58] see this video, 3,000 views, 8,000,

[07:01] 16,000, 15,000, 900,000. If we scroll

[07:04] down, 2.9 million, 180,000, 16,000 on

[07:08] the same exact topic right here. I've

[07:09] uploaded several videos and several of

[07:11] them have gone viral. Or maybe we come

[07:13] over here and we type in YouTube

[07:15] algorithm. What are we going to notice?

[07:17] 4,000 11,000 5,000 120,000 91,000

[07:21] 33,000. You don't get to decide which

[07:24] video you make on a topic is going to

[07:26] actually go viral. But what you do get

[07:27] to decide is how many times you actually

[07:29] swing at that pitch, aka that video

[07:32] topic. Let's come over here, best time

[07:35] to post. What are we going to see? We

[07:37] are going to see that again several

[07:39] videos. 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 18,000,

[07:43] 120,000. And ideally, what you should be

[07:46] doing is doing the same strategy as me.

[07:48] You should be making multiple videos for

[07:50] each topic that you deem as a good

[07:52] topic. Because you never know which one

[07:53] of these videos is going to end up

[07:55] taking off. You just know that that

[07:56] topic is going to be good. So, if you

[07:58] actually swing and you miss, guess what?

[08:00] Just swing again. That's a great thing

[08:02] about YouTube is these videos are free

[08:04] to make. They're free to upload and you

[08:05] can just keep uploading until you have a

[08:07] video actually do well for whatever

[08:09] topic your ideal audience wants to see.

[08:11] We come over here and type in hashtag,

[08:12] we see the same thing. These videos have

[08:14] done solid, but if we scroll down a

[08:16] little, 160,000, 800,000, 60,000. There

[08:19] are so many videos and so much

[08:21] opportunity that you need to make sure

[08:23] you're doing this. Now, that last change

[08:25] you need to make sure that you're making

[08:26] is when you go to upload a YouTube

[08:27] Short, you need to make sure that you're

[08:29] actually creating a Short that's the

[08:30] right length. And now YouTube actually

[08:32] shows you what length you should make

[08:33] your content. Check this out.

[08:36] Now, the way that you're going to

[08:36] actually do this is you're going to come

[08:38] over into your YouTube analytics right

[08:40] here. You are going to click on trends

[08:41] and whatever topic you were going to

[08:43] upload on. For example, we could come

[08:44] over here and we could type in YouTube

[08:46] algorithm or even I'll type in YouTube

[08:48] Shorts algorithm. Let's say that I was

[08:49] going to make a short-form piece of

[08:50] content about this. What I would do is I

[08:52] would type this in right here. Under

[08:54] what people are watching, you want to

[08:55] click on show all. You want to come

[08:57] under Shorts. This will show you what's

[08:59] doing the best. We can see 13 seconds, 5

[09:01] seconds, 15, 21, 7, 47. So, the majority

[09:05] of videos that are doing well under this

[09:07] are anywhere from 7 to 21 seconds long.

[09:09] So, if I was making a video about this

[09:11] topic, I would also want to make it

[09:12] short. But let's say that we come over

[09:14] here and we type in something like

[09:15] ChatGPT hacks, we're going to find

[09:17] something completely different. If we

[09:18] come under here, 1 minute, 46 seconds,

[09:21] 57 seconds, 41, 20, 56. So, the best

[09:24] videos under here are anywhere from 40

[09:26] seconds to 1 minute long. So, depending

[09:28] on what topic you're going to upload,

[09:30] even if it's inside of the same niche,

[09:31] it's going to change how long you should

[09:33] be making your videos. And that's why

[09:35] you need to be going through and looking

[09:36] at this before you upload any piece of

[09:38] content. Because making content that's

[09:40] the wrong length could be the reason

[09:42] that you're not getting the views that

[09:43] you want. You could have done everything

[09:44] else right that I've shared with you in

[09:46] this video, but you're simply making

[09:47] content that's not the right length. And

[09:49] as a result, you don't get the views you

[09:50] want. Now, if you enjoyed this video and

[09:52] you want to learn how you can get more

[09:53] subscribers on YouTube fast, I would

[09:55] strongly suggest you check out this

[09:56] video right here that walks you through

[09:58] with bunch of different changes that you

[10:00] need to make sure that you're

[10:00] implementing in order to get more

[10:02] subscribers faster on YouTube right now.

[10:04] If that's something that's interesting,

[10:05] well, please check out this video right

[10:06] here.