A Hashtags have been a huge part of social media for years, being made popular by Twitter and Instagram. However, now Youtube are embracing them as well. The company have been working on a new feature that allows its users to discover more content by using hashtags. This is done by either clicking on the hashtag or searching for one directly.
Whilst hashtags were used before, clicking on one used to return a mixture of content. Some videos were related to the hashtag, whilst others werent. This can lead to a frustrated user experience.
Now, only videos using that exact hashtag will show up on Youtube’s new hashtag pages, making it a cleaner experience for users. Each landing page will be sorted to keep the “best” videos at the top. Although this is great for users to discover popular videos quickly, it will inevitably become slightly harder for newer content to be seen this way.
Unlike Twitter where the most recent content appears at the top, Youtube’s algorithm could still be a great research tool for businesses and creators to find ways to use the hashtag strategy in an effective way. For example, if they discover a certain hashtag is saturated with content, they can do some keyword research to discover more niche hashtags that their videos can appear more dominantly on and be found more easily.
Users will be able to go directly to a hashtag page by using the following format:
www.youtube.com/hashtag/(yoursearchterm)
Whilst the increased use and focus on hashtags on Youtube may not be a major change for users, it could significantly help those currently working on improving their Youtube strategy.