Competing against an established YT channel - does it make sense to try?

[BHB747]

What do you think, is good SEO and good content enough to compete successfully with an established channel of the same niche?

An example could be; a lofi channel with 500k subs, which surely has gained a lot of backlinks from outside YT over time and has maybe 100 videos under the belt. If you would start from zero and use exactly the same keywords and care for a good amount of backlinks (also over time) and deliver constantly same good content as the competitor, but in a high frequence (an upload every second day), plus a daily short, how likely is it to be picked up by the YT algorithm? Or is it just an illusion to turn ever visible in the search results to those mentioned keywords?

 

[Xeervier]

Well, you'll never know until you try

 

[lotsofmoney]

If you are in for long term, it does not matter much. New channels are given boost by YouTube so you have advantage.

 

[FGOAds]

you can think about running ads to attract new viewers to your channel

 

[Persiden]

An established channel in your niche cannot hinder the growth of new channels in that niche. Focus on good relevant content and upload regularly.

 

[BHB747]

Thanks so far to all those who replied.

At the moment I observe some channels in the same niche. The leader of the pack covers more than 90% of the search results to his main keywords. This, since more than a year. As far as I have seen, the newcomers stayed small, having gathered about a few hundreds subs over a year each, while the "boss" makes 1000+ subs a day. I tracked backlinks of both, the small channels and the leader. Surprisingly the small once had even more. Mainly coming from blogs and SM profiles. Also the on-page SEO on YT was pretty much the same (checked with Tubebuddy & VidIQ).

My guess is, the size of the boss channel in regards of subs, views, likes, comments etc. and the domination of the search results (and probably the visibility in the suggestions) makes it hard to grow another channel in the same niche, no matter how great the content is. But yes, I can't (or won't) imagine it's completely impossible.

The reason I ask is, how's the real impact of SEO in the mix of things one can do to become visible on YT. Unfortunately no one really seems to know. Mostly guess work...

 

[mnrfas]

if you do this in other niches i would've said try your luck.. but for a "lofi channel", there is a lot of competition.
about the "impact of SEO": youtube is about retention, session time, engagement... SEO comes after those things.

 

[seomaster5]

That established channel was also once a small channel like yours. So never give hope.

 

[BHB747]

if you do this in other niches i would've said try your luck.. but for a "lofi channel", there is a lot of competition.
about the "impact of SEO": youtube is about retention, session time, engagement... SEO comes after those things.

Interesting thought about SEO later. I can't say, I know better, but to start up with acceptable SEO is probably a must-have, to be noticed at all. Manily by the algo. If you have a bad video title, which is part of the primary on-page SEO, YT might ignore you, since the algo won't understand, what your video is about. Same with description, tags etc. To improve SEO later, adapting to YT's algo updates, that makes sense indeed. But a basic SEO concept should already have taken place, or there is no one to engage with in the comments, since now views, no comments, no session time. But maybe I misunderstood you?

Btw, lofi is just one niche example I have a personal "crush" on. I'm actually surprised that this niche has a good handful of BIG competitors. Still, all of them seem to get a nice piece of the cake.

Another YT miracle. Aside of organically competing channels I've seen in the past some channels popping up over night and having several hundred thousands of views on their FIRST video within just a few days. And they weren't cause by bots as I could see in the very real comments section. I wonder how they turned visible right with their first video, zero subs and not coming from a website with an already existing huge community. Just by a good thumbnail and a crisp video title? No way... Hopefully one day someone leaks the magical trick. ^^

 

[BHB747]

That established channel was also once a small channel like yours. So never give hope.

Indeed. There is one which was the first in the niche and has grown since to a black hole regarding the keyword domination. Seems, to be the first in a niche is a good thing. Not only on YT...

 

[PURSUIT MEDIA]

Why not try this with another niche instead of competing on the same niche with a channel YouTube gives more visibility and credibility

 

[BHB747]

Why not try this with another niche instead of competing on the same niche with a channel YouTube gives more visibility and credibility

Logically, yes. But if you're into a certain topic you burn for and you'd go all-in with full commitment, you can't switch to a niche you have no clue about. Just because it might be easier to rank. Otherwise I would.

 

[PURSUIT MEDIA]

Logically, yes. But if you're into a certain topic you burn for and you'd go all-in with full commitment, you can't switch to a niche you have no clue about. Just because it might be easier to rank. Otherwise I would.

I understand if it's passion that is driving him. Good luck

 

[BHB747]

I understand if it's passion that is driving him. Good luck

Nailed it.

 

[paisawaisa]

What do you think, is good SEO and good content enough to compete successfully with an established channel of the same niche?

An example could be; a lofi channel with 500k subs, which surely has gained a lot of backlinks from outside YT over time and has maybe 100 videos under the belt. If you would start from zero and use exactly the same keywords and care for a good amount of backlinks (also over time) and deliver constantly same good content as the competitor, but in a high frequence (an upload every second day), plus a daily short, how likely is it to be picked up by the YT algorithm? Or is it just an illusion to turn ever visible in the search results to those mentioned keywords?

If you target trending topics, it will be the established channel which will rank above you if both upload on same time. But if you are quicker than him to upload, you have a chance to rank on top also.

 

[BHB747]

If you target trending topics, it will be the established channel which will rank above you if both upload on same time. But if you are quicker than him to upload, you have a chance to rank on top also.

Makes sense. Unfortunately what I want to target is the opposite. It's all about evergreens (musically). So, I think I know now where my chances lie...