YouTube’s NEW Shorts Algorithm Update Explained for March 2026 (GET SUBSCRIBERS FASTER!)

[00:00] YouTube just released a brand new

[00:01] YouTube Shorts algorithm for March of

[00:03] 2026. And if you make the five changes

[00:04] that I share with you in this video,

[00:06] it's going to make it easier than ever

[00:07] before for you to go viral on YouTube

[00:09] Shorts, for you to get more subscribers

[00:10] than you could have ever imagined, and

[00:12] for you to get monetized on YouTube

[00:13] right now. But I will warn you, if you

[00:15] skip these five things, it's going to

[00:16] feel like it's harder than ever before

[00:18] to grow. But it doesn't have to be

[00:19] because once you make these changes,

[00:21] it's like turning on easy mode for

[00:22] growing on YouTube. Change number one is

[00:25] that the first 3 seconds of your video

[00:26] is no longer the most important part

[00:28] when it comes to YouTube shorts. Because

[00:30] now there's something that's even more

[00:32] important. Because if we look at where

[00:33] shorts traffic is now coming from in

[00:35] March of 2026, 70% or more of it is

[00:38] coming from search results and from

[00:40] browse features. And guess what? The

[00:42] first 3 seconds of your video doesn't

[00:44] matter as much when we're talking about

[00:46] those placements. And what matters

[00:47] actually even more is going to be your

[00:48] title and your thumbnail. So, the first

[00:51] thing that we need to talk about is how

[00:52] to actually add a custom thumbnail. So,

[00:54] let's say that we're going to come over

[00:55] here and we're going to upload a video.

[00:57] For example, I'm going to grab this

[00:58] video right here. What you're going to

[00:59] want to do, and by the way, you can only

[01:01] do this from a mobile device, is you

[01:03] want to upload your video to YouTube

[01:04] Shorts from your mobile device. So, we

[01:06] can see right here, it's going through

[01:08] and processing. And then once this is

[01:09] actually done processing, this is going

[01:11] to allow us to choose that custom

[01:12] thumbnail. We're going to click on next

[01:14] right here. We're then going to see this

[01:15] pencil icon. You could scroll around and

[01:17] find the icon that you want. For

[01:19] example, maybe I want to add this. And

[01:21] then I could add in some text right

[01:22] here. And what that is going to do is

[01:24] increase the odds that people end up

[01:26] actually clicking on your content. And

[01:28] yes, this makes a massive difference.

[01:31] Let me prove it to you. Because look, if

[01:33] we come into a lot of my viral shorts,

[01:35] for example, this one right here got

[01:37] over 2.3 million views. We could see

[01:39] that there is a custom thumbnail on here

[01:40] with me pointing and saying, "Turn on

[01:42] these settings to grow faster on

[01:44] YouTube." But that's not the only one

[01:46] that has this. If we come back out here,

[01:48] we could see that this video also has

[01:50] the same thing. If we click on analytics

[01:52] here, we could see that this video has

[01:54] gotten 1.3 million views. And again, if

[01:56] we zoom in over here, I added in an

[01:58] arrow here, and I told you that you need

[02:00] to click on this little thing. And guess

[02:02] what? And all these things right here,

[02:03] helping these videos rank for search,

[02:04] helping them get views 24/7. And this is

[02:07] one of the biggest unlocks right now for

[02:08] YouTube shorts. So, please make sure

[02:10] you're adding in these custom thumbnails

[02:12] every single time that you upload them

[02:13] because it's going to make the

[02:14] difference between your video getting

[02:16] clicked on and going viral or people

[02:18] just scrolling right by your video. Now,

[02:20] change number two is you need to make

[02:22] sure that you're not posting too much

[02:23] and you're not posting too little right

[02:25] now on YouTube shorts. And how

[02:27] frequently you should be posting is

[02:28] really going to come down to what niche

[02:30] you're in and how frequently there are

[02:33] new content ideas for your niche.

[02:34] because I know some creators that post

[02:36] 20 times a day on shorts and I know

[02:38] other creators that only post three

[02:40] times a week on shorts. So, what you

[02:41] want to make sure that you're doing is

[02:43] you want to look at your competitors and

[02:44] see how frequently they're going through

[02:46] and posting on YouTube shorts because

[02:48] ideally you're going to want to post a

[02:50] little bit more than they are because

[02:51] this is going to allow you to do three

[02:52] things. One, it's going to allow you to

[02:54] get out more piece of content that are

[02:56] able to rank for search. And it's also

[02:58] going to allow you to just publish

[02:59] content way sooner and actually be able

[03:02] to get more views because right now

[03:03] there is a massive land grab going on

[03:05] with YouTube shorts. You want your

[03:07] shorts to show up in the browse features

[03:10] aka on the homepage when your ideal

[03:12] viewer logs on YouTube. And in addition

[03:14] to that, you want to show up in the

[03:16] search results. So, what you need to

[03:17] make sure that you're doing right now is

[03:18] you need to come up with a list of 25,

[03:21] 50, 75, even 100 different words that

[03:24] your ideal audience is going to be

[03:26] searching for. Because now these are

[03:28] going to be eligible to show in three

[03:30] different placements. The first place

[03:31] that these going to be eligible to show

[03:32] is when somebody does a search on

[03:34] ChateBT or on Gemini or on Grock or on

[03:37] Claude, guess what? Your YouTube short

[03:39] could be eligible to show up. In

[03:41] addition to that, you could be eligible

[03:42] to show up in the YouTube shorts

[03:44] results. And then the final placement is

[03:46] actually when people search for things

[03:47] on Google now, they get shown short form

[03:50] videos. And if you are able to show here

[03:52] in any of these places, it's going to

[03:54] increase the odds that your video is

[03:55] going to go viral and that people are

[03:56] going to begin to find your YouTube

[03:58] channel 24/7. But again, this is really

[04:01] going to come down to how much content

[04:03] you're putting out and whether or not

[04:04] you're putting content out at the

[04:05] frequency that allows you to get those

[04:08] land grabs before your competitors do.

[04:10] Which is why I'm urging you right now to

[04:12] please try to post two to three times a

[04:14] day on YouTube shorts, ideally at least

[04:17] 5 days a week. I know it might sound

[04:19] like a little bit of work, but trust me,

[04:20] I'm about to show you something that

[04:22] makes it way easier to do. And I'm also

[04:24] going to share with you how big of a

[04:26] difference this actually makes. Now,

[04:28] change number three is you need to make

[04:29] sure that you're driving traffic from

[04:31] outside of YouTube to your YouTube

[04:34] channel. And there's a right and there's

[04:35] a wrong way to do this. The wrong way

[04:37] for you to do this is to put a YouTube

[04:39] video in your bio or to send people a

[04:42] link of a YouTube video. That is not

[04:44] what you want to do. YouTube is going to

[04:45] look at this as invalid traffic and it

[04:47] actually could end up hurting your

[04:49] channel. Instead, what you want to make

[04:51] sure that you're doing is you want to

[04:52] make sure that you're getting people to

[04:53] go through and search for the terms that

[04:55] you want to rank for or even searching

[04:57] for your name on YouTube. For example,

[05:00] this creator right here does an

[05:01] absolutely amazing job at this and it's

[05:03] helped her gain over a million

[05:04] subscribers on YouTube. If we come over

[05:06] to her content right here, for example,

[05:08] this video right here, we could see my

[05:10] YouTube channel is your number one

[05:11] source. She's not putting a link in

[05:13] there or anything like that. She's just

[05:14] telling people she has a YouTube

[05:16] channel. Or if we come over to this

[05:17] video right here, we could see that she

[05:19] says here, if you want to find free

[05:22] courses on all these topics, search for

[05:24] Betty and business on YouTube. Now,

[05:26] guess what? If we come over to YouTube

[05:28] and we do a search for this, I want to

[05:30] show you what actually happens. We could

[05:32] see that the first thing that shows up

[05:34] are all of her shorts right here. Her

[05:36] channel shows up and then if we scroll

[05:37] down, we could see a bunch of different

[05:39] viral videos. Now, you want that same

[05:40] exact thing to happen when people are

[05:42] searching for you. And the easiest way

[05:44] for you to do this is to make sure that

[05:46] you're posting your YouTube shorts

[05:47] across Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and

[05:50] and any other platform that has short

[05:53] form content. And the easiest way that I

[05:55] found for you to be able to do this

[05:56] without creating extra work is using

[05:59] metricool.com. Because Metricle lets you

[06:01] post to all these different platforms

[06:03] from just one dashboard. And you can

[06:06] even schedule out those posts for the

[06:07] future so that you could batch create

[06:09] like a week worth of content. And it's

[06:11] not something that you have to go in and

[06:12] you have to do every single day because

[06:14] this is going to help you drive more

[06:16] traffic to your YouTube channel and get

[06:18] discovered the right way. And the best

[06:19] part about Metricool is that if you go

[06:21] to the pin comment below, you can get 30

[06:23] days free access to any of their premium

[06:24] plans with Code Robert. And on top of

[06:27] letting you post to multiple platforms,

[06:29] they also allow you to add your

[06:30] competitors and spy on them to see

[06:32] exactly what topics and what formats are

[06:34] getting them the most views. And they

[06:36] make it incredibly easy for you to be

[06:37] able to respond to all of your private

[06:39] messages, all of your DMs, all of your

[06:41] comments on all these different

[06:43] platforms from one location. So, what

[06:45] are you waiting for? Go to the pink

[06:46] comment below and get started with 30

[06:48] days free access to any of Metro's

[06:50] premium plans today with Code Robert.

[06:52] Change number four is you need to make

[06:54] sure that you're updating what metrics

[06:56] YouTube is actually looking at because

[06:57] it's not the metrics that you thought it

[06:59] was. In fact, they completely changed

[07:01] what they care about right now. And I

[07:02] want to go through some of my viral

[07:04] videos to actually prove to you what

[07:06] metrics you should be looking at, what

[07:08] you should be tracking, and what you

[07:09] should be ignoring because not every

[07:11] metric on YouTube is created equal. And

[07:13] if you've ever looked at the YouTube

[07:14] analytics, you probably got overwhelmed

[07:16] because there's thousands of different

[07:17] metrics, but 99.99%

[07:19] of them don't matter. So, if we actually

[07:22] come over here, I'm going to do a search

[07:24] for all my videos that have gotten over

[07:25] 100,000 views recently. And I want to go

[07:27] through each of them to prove to you

[07:29] exactly how this works. So, if we look

[07:31] at this first video right here, we can

[07:32] see it got over 600,000 views. The

[07:34] reason for this is twofold. And

[07:36] literally, look at this one video. Got

[07:38] me over 10,000 subscribers. If we scroll

[07:40] down here, date to watch is over 75%.

[07:43] You need to make sure that this is over

[07:45] 75%. That is non-negotiable. If yours is

[07:48] not over 75%, one of two things is wrong

[07:50] with your video. One, the topic isn't

[07:52] really something that your ideal

[07:54] audience was interested in, so they just

[07:56] left immediately. Or the hook that you

[07:58] had in your video wasn't good enough.

[08:00] And you want to make sure that you're

[08:01] adding a text hook in your content. In

[08:02] fact, if we play this one, we could see

[08:05] that the text hook pops up right here.

[08:07] Change a setting to increase your views.

[08:09] And we can see if I zoom in here that

[08:11] it's bright yellow. It's got the logo.

[08:13] Captures people's attention. And that's

[08:15] why people stayed to watch this video.

[08:17] Now, if we come over to my other

[08:18] content, we're going to see the same

[08:20] exact thing is true for this video right

[08:22] here. If we scroll down, 160,000 views,

[08:25] 91% stayed to watch. Now, if we come to

[08:27] the next video here, 150,000 views,

[08:30] we're going to see the same thing here.

[08:32] This is 77%. So, it doesn't really

[08:34] matter how high that number is. It just

[08:37] needs to be over 75%. And then the next

[08:39] thing you want to pay attention to is

[08:41] your average view duration versus the

[08:43] length of your video. If your video is

[08:45] less than 30 seconds, so 30 seconds to 0

[08:48] seconds, this average view duration

[08:50] number needs to be greater than the

[08:52] length of your video for your video to

[08:54] go viral. Now, if we look at a lot of my

[08:57] viral videos, we could see that it

[08:59] wasn't the case that my video was less

[09:00] than 30 seconds. So, if we look at a

[09:02] video like this that's 49 seconds, we

[09:04] actually need to pull out a calculator

[09:06] for this one. So, I'm going to come over

[09:07] here. I'm going to grab my calculator.

[09:09] We could scroll down and we could see

[09:10] that the video view duration is 43

[09:12] seconds and the length of this video was

[09:14] 49 seconds. So if we take 43, divide

[09:17] that by 49, we can see that's 87%. You

[09:20] want to make sure that it's at least

[09:22] 80%. So on a video that was 49 seconds

[09:25] long. If we come over here, type in 49

[09:27] *8. We need at least 39.2. So aim for 39

[09:32] seconds of average view duration in

[09:34] order for this video to go viral. so

[09:36] long as you would have kept people for

[09:37] that long, your video would have ended

[09:39] up going viral, as long as you have both

[09:41] that stay to watch number and the

[09:43] average view duration. Then the final

[09:45] thing that you need to make sure is true

[09:47] is you need to make sure that your

[09:48] YouTube channel is actually optimized

[09:50] with all of the right settings, all of

[09:52] the right descriptions, your homepage

[09:54] setup, and so much more. And we're about

[09:55] to dive through all of those things and

[09:57] how you can make sure that they're set

[09:59] up. Now, in order to show you all this,

[10:01] I actually wanted to walk through one of

[10:02] my other YouTube channels cuz this is a

[10:04] new channel, so it's probably more

[10:06] relatable for you guys. So, the first

[10:08] thing that we need to make sure that we

[10:09] do is if we come over here to the top

[10:11] right hand corner and we click on your

[10:13] channel right here, we need to make sure

[10:15] that your homepage is going to be set up

[10:17] correctly. Now, ideally, what you want

[10:18] to have is your popular videos, then all

[10:21] of your videos, then all of your shorts,

[10:23] and then all of your posts right here.

[10:25] Now, the way that you're going to do

[10:26] this is when you come to your homepage,

[10:28] you're going to be able to click on

[10:29] customize channel right here. From here,

[10:31] what you're going to be able to do is

[10:32] you're going to be able to click on home

[10:34] tab right here. And this is where you'll

[10:36] actually be able to figure out all those

[10:37] different layouts. And if we click into

[10:39] this, we could see that you could remove

[10:40] sections. You could change where they

[10:42] show up and you could add more sections

[10:44] if you wanted to or if you had other

[10:46] sections and then you could view it on

[10:48] your channel, you could publish it. It's

[10:49] very easy to make those changes. In

[10:51] addition, from over here, you need to

[10:53] make sure that you have a banner image

[10:54] set up that ideally is going to be

[10:56] incentivizing people to subscribe. You

[10:58] want to make sure that you have a

[10:59] profile picture set up that ideally is

[11:01] going to be bright, is going to stand

[11:02] out, and it's going to help people

[11:04] remember who you are. In addition to

[11:06] that, your name and your handle.

[11:08] Ideally, they should be the same. And

[11:10] you want to try to have your niche in

[11:12] your handle. For example, I talk about

[11:14] AI tools on this channel, which is why I

[11:16] have AI inside of my name. Now, from

[11:18] here, the other thing that you want to

[11:20] do is come over into your settings and

[11:22] make sure that you have the correct

[11:24] settings enabled. And there are going to

[11:25] be several of them. The first one that

[11:27] you want to look for is coming into

[11:28] channel right here. You want to make

[11:30] sure you have the correct country of

[11:31] residence. And you want to make sure

[11:32] that you have keywords here. These

[11:34] keywords should contain three things.

[11:36] The first thing is going to be your

[11:37] channel name, which we could see right

[11:39] here. The second thing are going to be a

[11:40] few of your competitors, which we could

[11:42] see right here, Matt Wolf, AI Advantage.

[11:44] The third thing is whatever you are

[11:46] posting about, you want to have all

[11:48] those different keywords in here so

[11:49] YouTube understands what your videos are

[11:51] actually about. The next setting you

[11:53] need to care about is going to be under

[11:54] advanced settings. You want to make sure

[11:56] that this says no, this channel is not

[11:59] for kids. And you should only be doing

[12:01] this so long as your content isn't

[12:03] exclusively for kids. In addition to

[12:05] that, if you scroll down here, you want

[12:06] to make sure that automatic dubbing is

[12:09] turned on with these same settings that

[12:11] I have right here. And if we keep

[12:12] scrolling down even more, you want to

[12:14] make sure that clips, this is checked

[12:15] on. You want to make sure that video

[12:17] quality enhancements is turned on, both

[12:19] for visual and for audio. And you want

[12:22] to make sure that hype is here. And this

[12:23] one is really important. Third-party

[12:25] training, turn this off. You do not want

[12:28] this happening on your channel. And that

[12:29] final thing you want to make sure that

[12:30] is true is if you come over to feature

[12:32] eligibility that all three of these

[12:34] showed enabled. If none of those are

[12:36] true or if you have any of these

[12:38] settings messed up, could be the reason

[12:39] you're not getting the reach that you

[12:41] want. Now, if you enjoyed this video and

[12:43] you want to learn in the best time to

[12:44] post on YouTube shorts right now to go

[12:46] viral in 2026, I would strongly suggest

[12:48] you check out this video right here that

[12:49] walks you through exactly that. I'll see

[12:52] you over there.