youtube categories

YouTube is home to a diverse range of content, spanning across numerous subjects and genres. To help viewers find videos that align with their interests, YouTube organizes its content into categories.

But, do these categories still hold significance as metadata in today’s YouTube landscape?

The YouTube category list remains relevant, albeit less prominent in today’s metadata-driven landscape. Although categories may not be the primary factor influencing discoverability or search rankings, they still offer value to creators, advertisers, and viewers alike.

In this deep dive, we’ll explore the YouTube category list, discussing each category and analysing their importance in the current meta landscape.

Category	Description
Film & Animation	Contains animated films, live-action films, and other film-related content.
Autos & Vehicles	Features content related to cars, motorcycles, boats, and other motorized vehicles.
Music	Showcases music videos, concerts, and other music-related content.
Pets & Animals	Offers videos featuring pets, wildlife, and other animal-related content.
Sports	Highlights sports events, interviews, and content related to various sports and activities.
Travel & Events	Showcases travel vlogs, destination guides, and event-related content.
Gaming	Dedicated to video game content, including gameplay, reviews, and live streams.
People & Blogs	Contains personal vlogs, lifestyle content, and opinion pieces from various creators.
Comedy	Features stand-up comedy, sketches, and other humorous content.
Entertainment	Showcases a variety of entertaining content, such as TV shows, interviews, and performances.
News & Politics	Contains news broadcasts, political discussions, and content related to current events.
Howto & Style	Offers tutorials, DIY projects, and style-related content.
Education	Features educational content, including lectures, documentaries, and instructional videos.
Science & Technology	Contains content related to scientific discoveries, technological advancements, and innovations.
Nonprofits & Activism	Showcases content related to nonprofit organizations, social issues, and activism.

The Reason for YouTube Categories

Categories serve several purposes in organizing and classifying YouTube’s vast content library. They help viewers find videos that match their interests and preferences, making it easier to navigate the platform. Additionally, categories can help creators target specific audiences and tailor their content to resonate with viewers in that category.

The Importance of Categories as Metadata

In the early days of YouTube, categories played a vital role in metadata and content discovery. However, over time, the platform has shifted its focus to other metadata elements, such as keywords, tags, and video descriptions, to better serve its recommendation algorithm.

Today, categories still hold some significance but are no longer the primary factor in determining video discoverability or search rankings.

Instead, YouTube’s algorithm places more weight on factors like watch time, engagement, and relevance, using metadata such as titles, descriptions, and tags to better understand the video content.

Metadata Importance in YouTube’s Algorithm

Metadata Element	Importance
Category	Low
Title	High
Description	High
Tags	Medium
Watch Time	High
Engagement	High

Relevance of Categories in Today’s Meta Landscape

While categories may not be as influential as they once were, they still serve a purpose in the broader YouTube ecosystem. For creators, selecting the appropriate category can help provide context for their videos and signal to potential viewers what type of content they can expect.

Moreover, categories can assist advertisers in targeting specific niches, enabling them to reach their desired audience more effectively.

For viewers, categories can be useful for discovering new channels and content, particularly when exploring niche interests. Although the YouTube algorithm may not rely heavily on categories for recommendations, viewers can still use them as a starting point to navigate through the vast array of content available on the platform.

Conclusion

By understanding the role of categories in the current meta landscape, creators can better tailor their content and metadata to maximize visibility, reach their target audience, and ultimately succeed on the platform.

What are YouTube categories?

Now, this is one of those questions that many people ask. It’s just they have no idea. If you’re jumping onto the YouTube platform right now, then there are many legacy features that have been around for literally over a decade now that used to be much more specific for this platform that has slowly got less and less important over time.

What Are YouTube Categories? [Do They Matter?]

Categories specifically put you in buckets based on what content you create, how to, style, business, money, food, finance, people, education.

I’ll be honest, I’m not totally sure what the list is anymore, mainly because it doesn’t matter.

Back when the platform was in infancy, you highlighted specifically what your content was about. If yours was comedy, then there would be specific areas on the site. You could go to only comedy videos and there would be specifically only people videos.

The way the YouTube algorithm currently works, it doesn’t matter. What you need to focus on is the title, the descriptions, kinds of your tags, and then the audience that it pushes out to.

There is no relation to the category you are in to the views that you get. If I was to switch this video from educational to gaming, I’m not going to get more gamers watch these videos.

Now, there might be something way back in the legacy algorithm that specifically recommends you against specific things, but it’s highly unlikely nowadays.

This machine is very powerful and very clever. So you shouldn’t be homing over the fact that what I do, ‘how to videos’, am I an how-to in style or am I an educational channel?

What you need to focus on is the content you create on a regular basis. If you stick to one niche and you’re not doing cooking on Thursday, knitting on Friday, and then skydiving on Sunday, followed by car repair on Tuesday, as long as you’re niched, then YouTube knows that’s your niche.

Because over time you have a hundred videos and those hundred video tags, all points into that kind of direction that say a hundred of your videos are all about cars. All of those tags would all be automobile based, and old cars, spark plugs and repairs.

It is very highly unlikely that out of those 100 videos, you’ve tagged it like a knitting pattern tutorial.

That’s one of the reasons why focusing on a niche can be so important and powerful mainly because it establishes your niche in your viewers’ mind, rather than YouTube in itself.

It’s just one of those questions that nags at you, because it’s still there. It’s still in the system and it hasn’t been removed.

Final words

It’s just like people saying, “Do you get paid for likes?”

I’ve got a video here, and if you’ve got a question about anything, no matter how small or weird or stupid, leave it in the comment section and subscribe, so you get to see the answer.