A recent report reveals YouTube launched a significant algorithm update in July – and creators aren’t happy about it.
According to Bloomberg, YouTube updated its algorithm in early July to boost the visibility of “quality” children’s content.
As a result, some channels received a spike in viewership while others saw viewership decline.
This update is important to be aware of for anyone who produces content for kids.
What Has Changed?
YouTube confirmed the recent update to Bloomberg in a statement that was scarce on details:
“We make hundreds of changes every year to make it easier for people to find what they want to watch on YouTube. We recently made one such change that improves the ability for users to find quality family content.”
The report indicates YouTube updated its algorithm in an effort to appease the FTC. YouTube did not communicate the update to creators, who are struggling to make sense of it.
Some channels that produce content for children saw a major drop in viewers, while other channels producing the same type of content saw a major increase.
Creators are now questioning whether they should continue producing content for kids at all, as it appears the viewers they lost are not returning.
Bloomberg speculates the update is targeting certain types of channels that create animated content for children solely for the purpose of racking up views.
As anyone involved in SEO knows – Google doesn’t take kindly to people trying to game its systems.
It would make sense for YouTube to target channels that are exploiting its algorithm. However, other channels producing higher quality content for kids saw their traffic take a hit as well.
So creators are at a loss as to why the changes were made and how to recover from them.
What’s clear is that videos aimed at kids are definitely being impacted as a result of this update.