How I improve my YouTube recommendations in 5 easy steps

I budget for monthly streaming services, but YouTube it’s still a staple in my entertainment regimen. Unlike the relatively limited list of movies and shows on these services, YouTube has hundreds of millions of videos on its servers covering a wide range of topics from millions of creators. This wide variety of content is good for viewers, but it also means that YouTube’s recommendation punts can often be off the mark.

In recent weeks, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of disgruntled users online complaining about this problem. Some are saddened to see previously re-recommended videos, while others voice suggestions that don’t match their subscriptions or searches. In short, users don’t see suggestions for videos they’re excited to watch or discover. It’s an annoying problem that ultimately ruins the YouTube experience whether you pay for it or not.

Thankfully, I haven’t run into any problems with these recommendations lately, thanks to years of careful and thoughtful YouTube use. But what exactly does that mean? After some introspection, I’ve come up with a few basic guidelines that help keep my YouTube recommendations focused and attention-grabbing. Hopefully these will help you too.

Although YouTube’s algorithms play a role in recommending content and provide a logical scapegoat, the chosen YouTube feed is ultimately down to user discipline.

I wish YouTube knew exactly what I wanted to watch when I wanted to watch it, it just isn’t possible. It can only make assumptions based on viewing history, current viewing trends, subscriptions, and searches. Therefore, we must be careful with the content we view on our accounts.

What does this mean in practice? If I’m interested in topics or channels I’m not yet subscribed to or interested in, I’ll watch that content incognito or through a secondary, non-essential account. Here I can assess whether I really enjoy the style, content and feel of that channel and then decide whether to subscribe or not. Importantly, this subscription will directly affect my referrals later on, so this decision will have ripple effects.

This pedantic practice keeps my main account a sanitized space where I get recommendations based on a narrow strip of content I really enjoy. And isn’t that what recommendations are all about?

Of course, I don’t always “rate” new channels. If a new channel’s content is relevant to topics I enjoy watching, I’ll often watch it on my main account. The bottom line is that the more focused your browsing history is, the more likely you are to encounter similar channels. This is satisfying feedback.

As I mentioned, YouTube also uses your search terms to inform your recommendations, and you can use this to your advantage.

This tip goes hand in hand with my first and foremost point, but if you search for “latest political news” you’ll likely see more recommended videos that match that topic.

For example, I’m into soft balcony gardening, so searching for “gardening tips,” “building a balcony garden,” or “balcony gardening strategies” helps me focus on YouTube.

Of course, this only works for topics of your interest. If you’re really interested in humanity’s various lunar missions and beyond, I’d suggest doing a search for “spacecraft history,” but not if you’re just looking for a quick scoop on the Artemis program. I would log into my secondary account again for this.

And on that note, using a secondary YouTube account is a big part of focusing on the referrals of your primary account. I could have mentioned this in one of the first two parts, but it is so important that it deserves to be repeated here.

Separating your digital life into silos is a great way to minimize cross-contamination, including YouTube and other Google services.

Note that this system does not need to take the form of a special secondary account. You can use incognito mode in the YouTube app, in a secondary YouTube app you use without an account, or in a dedicated web browser.

But how and when should you use this secondary space?

• When you want to watch a random YouTube video that doesn’t match your interests.
• When you want to test a channel from a creator you’re not sure about or it’s directly outside of your topic scope.
• Music videos if you don’t want your feed to be full of music-adjacent recommendations.
• Any videos sent to you by others.
• Any video that you don’t want to affect your main account. It ultimately comes down to your choices.

Subscribing to a new YouTube channel is powerful. Not only does this benefit the creator, but it also creates significant ripples in your YouTube account. Once you subscribe, you will likely see many referrals coming from this account. This makes it incredibly important to be sure before hitting the subscribe button.

Every few months, I’ll go through my YouTube subscription list and drop any I no longer enjoy watching or haven’t watched in a while. I’m also sure to watch a video or two from a channel I haven’t seen recommended in years but forgot I subscribed to. This triggers the recommendation system, and as soon as you watch this video, YouTube overwhelmingly recommends content from this channel.

I’ve seen a lot of users online suggesting that using these two features on YouTube helps guide referrals, but I’m not so sure.

Even though Google News and Discover are two completely different experiences and platforms, using these similar controls only makes that content appear in my feeds. It works for me to positively engage with the content I like and ignore the stuff I don’t. This lack of interaction appears to be a stronger driver of referrals.

For YouTube users, this means liking videos that appeal to you more often than using the “Not interesting” or “Don’t recommend channel” options. This is again in favor of the channel creator.

Note that I will occasionally use one of these functions, but mostly to highlight a problem with the channel itself. If it has a significant amount of AI-generated content, I’ll be sure to report it to Google Report choice.

Fresh start: Destroy your browsing history

Finally, if your YouTube account is far away, it’s best to clear your entire viewing history. You can go a step further and systematically remove channels from your subscription list, but starting with a clean watchlist is a good place to start.

According to the flood of comments on various forums, users are inundated with YouTube recommendations that either don’t suit their tastes, are wildly different from anything they’ve watched before, or are just plain sloppy. Thankfully, with a few careful viewing tweaks, you can more directly influence the content YouTube has to offer.

These guidelines are based almost entirely on anecdotal experience, but I believe they have some merit – these steps have kept my account clean and focused for years. While the odd random recommendation does make its way every now and then, my YouTube home screen feels like something I’ve created rather than a place where content is forced upon me.