We all know that no one is going to share their working method for ranking, getting into suggested, trending or high natural views...which leads me to wonder how much of the recent advice and information on this forum actually still works? Is it a case of most people are only sharing methods that are now outdated...?
I have been testing methods found on this forum for around 2 months (Properly optimizing SEO, boosting views, likes, shares, comments, in a way to look as natural as possible, embedding on appropriate forums etc) and still I'm struggling to get any organic traffic, other than from the forums I embed on. I know I'm not alone in this situation.
Many of the methods people discuss here actually do work. The problem is, people are either not executing on these methods properly, or they are using them for the wrong purpose.
For example, you can create a live event or premiere a video and boost them with livestream views or pre-premiere waiting viewers (will cost $1-$3 / 1K from smm panels) to instantly rank in a top position for most very low and low comp keywords, and some medium and high competition keywords. The method works very well. But, these videos will drop their rankings once the viewers leave. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of different uses for an instant #1 ranking that holds for a few hours. There are also ways to incoroprate such techniques into a long term ranking strategy. However, as with any video ranking campaign you need to factor in your goals, budget, expected revenue for each possible result, chance of generating psoitive return on investment, etc. to determine whether such a method will be worth it. In most scenarios, you shouldn't spend the extra $5-$30 to try to boost a premiered/live video.
What people do is, they see that there is a method for instantly ranking a video, and it's possible to use that method to rank in the #1 position. Some people will try the method, succeed, then see their video drop to page 20 by the next day and complain that the method doesn't work. Some people will try the method, fail because they didn't optimize properly on page or used a bad views service and complain that the method doesn't work. Some will do everything right and fail because no method works 100% of the time and they were unlucky, then complain that the method doesn't work.
It might look like people are sharing outdated methods when in fact the methods are fine, it's just that people complain about them not working because they lost money and time and are pissed off; whereas the people who succeed with a method don't waste time replying to a thread saying 'it worked, thanks' because they are focused on optimizing their strategy, creating new content, testing other methods, etc.
I know there is a "secret sauce" and I know it won't be shared, but it would be helpful if we could all agree what no longer works.
As a general rule, there is no secret sauce and if there was, it wouldn't be a secret for long because someone would share it.
A marketer who's focus is ranking videos on Google for local business keywords will have developed a strategy for keyword research, lead generation, video creation, on page SEO, and off page SEO, which they are constantly changing and improving as Google changes the way they rank content. They don't have a secret sauce, but succeed because they spend a lot of time learning how everything works and tweaking how they do things. If an algorithm update affects their strategy's results, they have to find a different way to do what is no longer working. Once they find that new way, they will continually tweak it for as long as it works.
They are successful because they have a high level of understanding of every aspect of their work which allows them to make the most of every variable they can control. They have a refined, precise strategy for ranking videos; not necessarily a 'secret sauce'.
Some say unlisted still works, others say it doesn't.
The unlisted method isn't really a thing anymore. As far as I am aware, there won't be a difference in results with making a video public then boosting views, likes, etc. and boosting a video while it's unlisted then making it public. In both scenarios, a video will lose the position it gets relatively quickly (unless you get lucky). If you want a temporary instaly high ranking, I'd recommend the live event or premiere boosting methods instead of the unlisted method.
So please comment which of the methods (that you're willing to share) still work and which you've tried that seem to add zero value.
Hopefully we can all help to build a picture of what is worthwhile doing and what is a waste of time when it comes to pleasing the algorithm!
Check my replies to threads from yesterday. I outlined a few basic ways to execute on view, like, etc. boosting strategies. Don't have time to write a detailed reply to this question right now, lol.