Hiding view count on videos...Anyone do this?

Eve Hemingway

Eve Hemingway

Active Member
Hi!

I have seen quite a few youtubers hide their view count and you can only see this once you click on the video. Can this make you get more views? Is that the main reason someone would do this? Do anyone else do this and have you find it makes a difference to anything in your analytics?
 
I haven't done it but I wouldn't expect it to drastically improve anyone's click through rate. The thumbnail, title, and topic will have a much larger impact on CTR than the view count. If I see a video that has value to me I will usually not even notice the view count I'm just interested in viewing what I see in the title/thumbnail.

Videos with lots of views do tend to get more views than most videos with less views. What you have to understand about that is that in many cases it is because YouTube is promoting that video by suggesting it and then people click primarily based on the topic/title/thumbnail. It's not usually getting more views just because people see it has views. I think most people are more interested in finding value in a video than just viewing it because it has a lot of views and that is why they click on a video.

I mean perhaps it could help, but I think the reality is that there are more important factors to whether a video is successful or not and this, like hiding subscriber count isn't going to magically compensate for those other areas.
 
OrbitGuy said:
I haven't done it but I wouldn't expect it to drastically improve anyone's click through rate. The thumbnail, title, and topic will have a much larger impact on CTR than the view count. If I see a video that has value to me I will usually not even notice the view count I'm just interested in viewing what I see in the title/thumbnail.

Videos with lots of views do tend to get more views than most videos with less views. What you have to understand about that is that in many cases it is because YouTube is promoting that video by suggesting it and then people click primarily based on the topic/title/thumbnail. It's not usually getting more views just because people see it has views. I think most people are more interested in finding value in a video than just viewing it because it has a lot of views and that is why they click on a video.

I mean perhaps it could help, but I think the reality is that there are more important factors to whether a video is successful or not and this, like hiding subscriber count isn't going to magically compensate for those other areas.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response. That's a good point. I also think videos stick out like a sore thumb when they don't display the view count which is why I wondered why they would not display it. But I noticed some YouTubers even with 1m+ subs still don't display the view count and I always wondered why they wouldn't.
 
i turned the view count off on my channel trailer that autoplays for new channel visitors.. on account of the fact that youtube doesn't count those autoplayed views anyway therefore why bother.

to answer your question though. I think 'yes' it might help with some of your vids if they have a low count already. Its exploiting the worst of peoples behaviour. People are shallow and can't think for themselves and so some won't click on a vid just because they think other people aren't. I tested this theory with subscribers.. I have low subscribers and i mostly only get subs when i turn my sub count off.
 
UhoohExtra said:
i turned the view count off on my channel trailer that autoplays for new channel visitors.. on account of the fact that youtube doesn't count those autoplayed views anyway therefore why bother.

to answer your question though. I think 'yes' it might help with some of your vids if they have a low count already. Its exploiting the worst of peoples behaviour. People are shallow and can't think for themselves and so some won't click on a vid just because they think other people aren't. I tested this theory with subscribers.. I have low subscribers and i mostly only get subs when i turn my sub count off.
Click to expand...

oh wow, I didn't know that about the channel trailer not counting the autoplays! I So thank you for that! I do find myself looking at the amount of views a video gets when deciding to watch it but then I can't really remember if I did this before starting my own channel so wasn't sure if that played a part in it. But that is a good point though! I will take your tips :D
 
UhoohExtra said:
Eve.. you can choose an unique youtube channel name now that you have +100 subs.. to replace the gobbldegook url.

in analytics, channel, status and features,
  • Custom URL
Click to expand...

That was so weird because I was just searching about how to fix the problem I have with that. Last month I'd actually enabled it on my channel and confirmed EveHemingway as my URL but for some reason it still doesn't work. Really annoying
 
UhoohExtra said:
People are shallow and can't think for themselves and so some won't click on a vid just because they think other people aren't.
Click to expand...

It is one of the ways that the views/subs count fever start.

If you visit a channel with e.g. 9 subscribers
and average of 4-6 views on any video and 0 -1 likes,
what is the problem?
Those are the real noumbers I mean...

People on YT when they see a small channel, go: "oh it is useless with bad content"!
same people on Google if they find a small blog or page with same details and info?
they share everywhere: "oh! look what I digged! it is super useful!"
:P XD :)
 
I don't hide the display of view counts.
I usually hide the display of like/dislike counts for videos where there's too many dislikes (2 or more for like counts below 10), just for not drawing in more dislikes.
 
Honestly, I find it kinda off-putting. Usually it's because this particular channel quite obviously places some level of stoke on the numbers they get and I just don't have time for those kinda shenanigans.
 
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