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How Does Getting a Thumbs Down Impact YouTube SEO Ranking?

by BrianMI
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
If you get a thumbs down on your video, does that impact how where google shows it on their standard search results pages? (not the YouTube search results)

I'm about to create a series of videos highlighting properties for sale in my area. I know that over time, interaction, subscriptions, and comments strengthen your channel as a whole a help future videos that you make rank better/faster as long as the other factors like keyword in Video Title, description, etc are all on target...

...but does the TYPE of interaction matter? My thought is to ask people to give a thumbs up if they like the home or a thumbs down if they don't like it so much once they see the video tour...but will the thumbs down cause it to drop off the 1st page of Google if it was initially ranking in the #4 or #5 spot?
#impact #ranking #seo #thumbs #youtube
  • Profile picture of the author danparks
    I wouldn't use YouTube up/down as the rating system for your visitors to use, as you said you're going to be telling them to go ahead and feel free to give thumbs down to your videos. Whether it affects SEO or not, it's bad to have a video with a bunch of thumbs down.

    Why not go ahead and post the videos on YouTube, but then embed each video on your site, so visitors to your site are watching from your site. And then under each video *on your site* have a star rating system or thumbs up/down rating system on your site? For each video. There are various rating plugins if you're on WordPress, and other types of ratings solutions if you're not using WordPress. Then visitor ratings don't have anything to do with YouTube ratings.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Thumbs down has no impact.

      Proof? Some of the most hated videos are Numero Uno.

      Now perhaps the total of likes/dislikes might be a very
      low level ranking factor, but certainly not thumbs up or thumbs
      down on their own. A ratty video with a lot of thumbs down
      might already be ranking low because the promise of the
      video was not there. But a popular hated video is probably ranking
      high because zillions of people are in fact watching it, sharing it,
      and despising it. Can you say Justin Bieber? Rebecca Black?

      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author wayneh
        I agree with @paulgl it has little or no impact on your ranking. It may have more of an impact on whether people will watch your video and take the action you want because of the negative social proof.
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        • Profile picture of the author danparks
          Originally Posted by wayneh View Post

          I agree with @paulgl it has little or no impact on your ranking. It may have more of an impact on whether people will watch your video and take the action you want because of the negative social proof.
          This is why I said "Whether it affects SEO or not, it's bad..." You're right in that it could have an impact on whether people watch a video. If someone got to the video by a means other than the OP's website, that person would see a bunch of thumbs down and skip the video, not realizing it's supposed to be a "different" kind of rating system imposed by the website owner.

          Simply in general it's not a good idea to try to repurpose an existing rating system as your own type of system.
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          • Profile picture of the author paulgl
            People watch videos out of curiosity and thinking they are going to
            actually see somehting worthwhile. I can't even remember at anytime
            looking at the thumbs up to see if the video is worth it. I do admit
            that I look at the total number of views, but more because it's
            such a prominent stat. Google showcases the total number much
            more often and prominently. Not that I'm saying that affects ratings,
            but it could affect whether it gets more views.

            Paul
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            If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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            • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
              Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

              People watch videos out of curiosity and thinking they are going to
              actually see somehting worthwhile. I can't even remember at anytime
              looking at the thumbs up to see if the video is worth it. I do admit
              that I look at the total number of views, but more because it's
              such a prominent stat. Google showcases the total number much
              more often and prominently. Not that I'm saying that affects ratings,
              but it could affect whether it gets more views.

              Paul
              The more thumbs down I see, the more interested I am to see what everyone's crying about. Infamy is a powerful tool indeed.
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              • Profile picture of the author BrianMI
                Truth be told...I really don't EVER recall looking at the number of Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down a video has gotten until I started tooling around YouTube seeing what kinds of videos have more "likes" or not.

                My videos are not going to get a huge number of views, but the views I do get are very valuable to me. My thought is that initially they won't be paying attention to the Likes/Dislikes at all. Then, when I tell them to give the video a thumbs up/down based on whether they would like to live in a particular home if money was no object, the Like/Dislike button will all of a sudden pop out at them as will the number likes/dislikes the video has gotten.

                Very quickly they will be "trained" to look at the number of likes/dislikes a video has as soon as they visit the video while I'm giving my intro spiel about the basic rundown on how many bedrooms the house has and stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author digla343
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author BrianMI
      Originally Posted by digla343 View Post

      You could probably go on fiverr and get one thousand likes for five bucks. See if your ranking changes and know for sure.
      Since Google IS YouTube...I think they know when the likes are fake.
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    Thumbs up or Thumbs down have no effect on a ranking of youtube video, it's just a stats for a viewer to see how much a video is like or disliked by other viewers, it's only the views and shared of a video that affects its ranking
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    Well that is nice to know.
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    Tim Pears

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  • Profile picture of the author dotgirish
    Controversial videos can have more thumbs down, that doesn't mean that it should not be ranked. So I think thumbs down is not been considered as a ranking factor, more over many videos which have thousands of thumbs down are ranking high on YT.
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