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Is removing old youtube videos bad?


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Is it bad to 'unlist' old youtube videos? And what is best to do about them?

 

I have a youtube channel that I've been posting videos on since 2011. On and off...mostly off, but it's old.

About a year ago, I noticed that youtube was almost entirely recommending my 'most popular' videos, which are my oldest and worst videos, as they've had a decade to gather views from a time when youtube standards were much lower. I noticed these as suggested videos down the side of my screen when I watched other videos. I switched the worst of these offenders from 'public' to 'unlisted' and that problem vanished, but it makes me wonder if that was a good idea.

 

Of my 'top 10' videos by-viewcount, 9 are now unlisted. The result is removing over 112k views from a very small channel (162k views total). Which sounds like a terrible(!) idea when I write it out. So assuming it's awful, what's best? Just putting them back? 

 

Or am I caught in a bad cycle, and really need to just start over?

Edited by Reaperman
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It's your channel so you can do what you want with the videos you produced.

 

Having said that if it was me I would leave them up as a way of preserving the information they convey, much like old websites.

 

Even long time more famous YouTubers like LGR still has videos up from many years ago which people still watch even though they could have been "done better" but was from a time when most people had simple Flip Video cameras and not all this professional equiptment.

 

Yeah there might be some idiot zoomer in the comments bitching about the video being in 240p instead of 4K but screw 'em...

 

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I guess the direction I was going was 'does it hurt the channel in terms of impressions/rankings/etc?'--but I don't think google puts out enough solid info to know for sure. Wondering things like this probably signals the start of a 'youtube blues' cycle on my part. ;)

 

As an experiment I re-public'd two massive old videos that somehow represent 1/3+ (50k+) of the historical total views and hours on my channel. So far (almost 24h later) they have had no massively dramatic impact either way.  They haven't taken over my impressions, and doubling the total public watch-minutes of my channel overnight hasn't magically blown my channel up with popularity.

 

I'll keep an eye on them for at least a week, but if it stays roughly like this, I'll just unlist them again and not worry that I'm missing out on internet stardom ;) 

 

And nobody'd be missing out, these vids are actually kind of (very popular) garbage.  Neither even feature commentary and are just low-quality captured gameplay footage of a couple reasonably interesting games. (Tekken on NES, and GBA Payback on GBPlayer) 

Edited by Reaperman
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If they are 10 years old and are educational types, by that your setting out to give an historical breakdown of something to your audience, chances are new information has come to light during those 10 years and removing them should be seen as an opportunity. 

 

 

Come back at the subject matter if you want to give your views on it, with new videos using new skills and armed with new information and hopefully gain a new audience on the back of them. 

 

If the existing videos make you feel uncomfortable as they are your 'worst' ones, kick em into the long grass and forget about em. 

 

 

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I had two videos claimed.  Not new videos mind you.

 

One I went through some of the YouTube process because it was literally 3 seconds of silence in a video of a game I made ALL the assets for.

 

The other one I just deleted.  Not like I got monetization anyway.  If I can't monetize some random YouTube scam claims company can't either.

 

Can't think of any other reason to delete videos.  Figure in a way it helps recognition.  I still get comments on even my oldest videos.

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The short of it is, yes, making videos unlisted will remove the views from your overall channel statistics. The more views you have along with other forms of engagement (comments, likes/dislikes, etc), the more likely your channel will be recommended to others. So, if you want to have a better chance at that, it's best to leave the videos public as-is.

 

I wouldn't worry about your old content not being up to par with your current stuff. For someone new stumbling upon the channel, it's interesting seeing how much a creator has grown over the years. I also don't think people are as critical of ancient content. It's like a time capsule of a bygone era.

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