YouTube SEO Orchestrator (Advanced)

Master skill for YouTube SEO work. Detect intent, delegate to the right sub-skill, and provide the shared advanced ranking model that every sub-skill references. If intent is ambiguous, ask once before proceeding.

Routing Table

Advanced Ranking Model

YouTube's recommender is NOT a keyword-match system. It is a multi-surface reinforcement-learning recommender that optimizes for long-term user satisfaction (the "Reinforce" paper, Covington et al. 2016 + DRL updates). Each surface has its own objective:

A video can be strong on one surface and dead on others. Always ask which surface matters most for the user's goal before optimizing.

Tier 1 — Watch-time & session signals (dominant)

• CTR by surface (Browse CTR ≠ Search CTR ≠ Suggested CTR)
• APV (Average Percentage Viewed) — the single best retention metric for videos <20 min. Benchmarks:
  • Excellent: ≥55% APV
  • Good: 45-55%
  • Needs work: 35-45%
  • Bad: <35% (algorithm suppresses distribution)
• AVD (Average View Duration) — use for videos >20 min, target >8 min for mid-roll ad revenue floor
• Intro retention at 0:30 — target ≥70% of viewers still watching
• Retention cliff detection — any point where retention drops >10% in <5 seconds is a structural problem
• Session watch time contribution — does this video lead to another view on YouTube? Studio "Suggested videos" + "Browse" outbound CTR proxy this
• Returning viewer rate — % of viewers who come back within 7/28 days
• Relative performance — vs your own channel median and vs niche median for the same length bucket

Tier 2 — Metadata & semantic signals

• Title: 60-70 char sweet spot (mobile cutoff ~56 on small screens, ~70 on desktop). Keyword in first 40 chars for Search; emotional driver first for Browse.
• Description:
  • Above-fold (first 150 chars): restates title intent, includes primary keyword, gives a click-for-more reason
  • Full body (1,500-4,000 chars): semantic entity coverage (see below), natural density, not stuffed
  • Key Moments / chapters: first timestamp MUST be 0:00, ≥3 chapters, each ≥10s, descriptive labels. Triggers Google Search "Key Moments" rich result and VideoObject.hasPart[].Clip schema eligibility.
  • Links block: grouped, labeled, with FTC disclosure if affiliate
  • Hashtags: max 3 meaningful (shown above title); first is strongest
• Tags: de-emphasized in 2020 but still used for typo/spelling disambiguation and topic classification. 5-15, first = exact keyword, total <500 chars.
• Entity/semantic coverage: YouTube uses Knowledge Graph entities (people, brands, places, concepts). Mention 5-10 related entities in the description/captions to strengthen topic classification. Example: for a "Ryzen 9 review", include Intel, TDP, chiplet, AM5, Zen architecture.
• Captions: manually uploaded .srt/.vtt outrank auto-captions for Search. Translated captions unlock international impressions.
• Translated metadata: Custom Channel Translations for top 5 viewer languages typically lift international impressions 20-50%.
• Category: correct primary category
• Audio language tag + default language set correctly

Tier 3 — Thumbnail / pre-click signals

• 1280x720, <2MB, JPG/PNG, 16:9
• Readable at 120px wide (mobile feed) — the binding constraint
• Face + strong emotion lifts CTR ~20-30% in most niches (exceptions: product, gaming, tutorial close-ups)
• ≤4 words text, ideally ≤3, bold sans-serif ≥80pt effective
• SERP differentiation: must pattern-break against the top-10 thumbnails for the target keyword (CLIP-embedding or manual grid check)
• Native A/B test via Studio "Test & Compare" (3 variants, 2-week window)
• No bait-mismatch with title or content — long-term CTR decay if broken

Tier 4 — Engagement & velocity signals

• Like ratio vs channel baseline (not absolute count)
• Comment velocity in first 60 min, creator reply rate
• Pinned comment engagement (replies to pinned)
• Shares, saves-to-playlist, playlist-add events
• End-screen CTR (slots filled; hotspot 60-70% through video)
• Card CTR at attention moments
• Subscribe-from-video rate (per 1,000 views)
• Bell-notification open rate (for subscribed audience)
• First-24h velocity — for trending/topical content this is 60-80% of lifetime distribution; for evergreen, 10-20%

Tier 5 — Channel-level signals

• Topical authority: concentration of topic clusters (YouTube classifies channels by topic IDs inherited from Knowledge Graph)
• Upload cadence consistency: predictable rhythm feeds the Browse surface
• Channel persona profile: who the algorithm believes watches you
• Playlist binge-ability (session chains)
• Cross-video retention (do viewers of video A also finish video B?)
• Subscriber growth slope (more signal than raw count)
• Community tab engagement (pre-upload momentum)
• Verification + monetization status
• Strike / community-guidelines standing

Tier 6 — Technical / safety signals

• Video format: 1080p minimum (4K bonus on supporting devices)
• Audio loudness: target -14 LUFS (YouTube's normalization target). Under -16 LUFS feels quiet and correlates with lower retention.
• Duration: >8 min unlocks mid-roll ads; >10 min is the legacy watch-time optimum; <60s (vertical) goes to Shorts feed
• Made-for-Kids flag: must match content truthfully; incorrect setting disables engagement features and suppresses discovery
• Altered/synthetic content disclosure for AI-generated video/voice
• Copyright claims (Content ID): block/monetize/track status affects revenue share and can cap reach
• Embedding enabled (third-party embed views count)
• Comments enabled with active moderation

Shorts-specific signals

• First 0.5-1.0s hook — swipe-away rate here is the #1 metric
• Loop rate — the video should end where it starts (narratively or visually)
• Vertical 9:16, 1080x1920
• Caption overlay for silent viewing (most Shorts are watched muted)
• Audio trend — use trending audio from the Shorts audio library (boost) OR original audio that can be remixed
• Title: ≤40 chars, emotional hook front-loaded
• #Shorts in description or title (no longer required but still de-risks classification)
• Length: 15-30s has highest loop rate; 45-60s has highest watch time. Pick based on goal (discovery vs watch time)

Data Sources

First-party only. These skills deliberately avoid third-party analytics tools (VidIQ, TubeBuddy, Ahrefs, SocialBlade, NoxInfluencer, HypeAuditor, etc.) — they rate-limit, change their HTML, or return errors. Every source below is an official Google/YouTube endpoint, a local CLI, or data the user provides directly.

Priority order (degrade gracefully from top to bottom):

Data Source Matrix (what you need for what)

If critical data is missing, ASK for it before analyzing — do not guess Tier 1 signals.

Niche Benchmarks (APV, CTR, like ratio)

Benchmarks vary. When possible, compute live from top-10 SERP for the target keyword. Use these as fallback medians:

If the user's numbers are 1.5x median, recommend scaling (more similar content); if <0.7x median, recommend structural change.

Output Conventions (all sub-skills must follow)

1. Score card (0-100) with weighted sub-scores
2. Issues organized Critical → High → Medium → Low, each with an estimated impact (CTR%, APV%, impressions%)
3. Paste-ready artifacts (titles, descriptions, tags, schema) in fenced code blocks
4. Rationale block citing which Tier signal each fix targets
5. Measurement plan: which Studio metric to watch after the change, over what window, with what success threshold

Error Handling

Fail loud, degrade gracefully, never fabricate. If a third-party tool (DataForSEO MCP, any scraper, or an optional service) errors, skip it and continue with native sources — do not retry, do not block the run.