The Best Time to Post YouTube Shorts to Maximize Reach (2024)

Does it matter what time you post YouTube shorts?

You can post YouTube Shorts at any time of the day. While your Short always has a chance to reach viewers, uploading at certain times can impact your viewership. For example, if your target audience is in the UK and you’re in Chicago, posting a video at 9pm CT means a lot of your audience will be asleep when you upload.

The time at which you post a Short affects who will see your content, impacting how well you reach your target audience. This can have a domino effect on your video’s engagement levels. 

This is why we suggest posting at a peak time when your audience is most active. It’s more likely you’ll reach suitable viewers who will engage with your post, boosting it even more. 

What is the best time to post YouTube shorts?: 5 Factors to consider

Several factors affect what time you should post a Short. Knowing these factors can help you prepare to upload at the best time. It’s essential to do your research to give your videos the best chance of success. We’ve covered the most important info below, so read on to determine what factors you should consider.

Target audience

Knowing your target audience is essential as a content creator. The habits and routines of your target audience will affect what time you should post a Short.  If you have a good sense of who you want your content to reach, you’ll know when this audience is most active.

Let’s say you create content about studying and school supplies. Your target audience might be high school kids looking for inspiration. Your audience will likely have limited screen time between the hours of 8am and 3pm because of school. So posting outside of these hours can increase the chances of your audience actually seeing your Short.

You can follow this same logic to understand the best posting times for different groups of people. Parents, pensioners, full-time workers and college students all have different schedules. 

Time Zones

A rookie mistake when posting content is to forget about different time zones. If your target audience is not in the same time zone as you, be aware of how many hours difference there is between you. Avoid posting when your viewers are likely to be asleep or at work. 

If you’re a travel vlogger, you’ll need to pay close attention to the changing time zones you experience. You can set reminders on your phone of when to post for viewers in your target country.

YouTube’s Algorithm

Although the full ins and outs of the YouTube algorithm remain unknown, there are a few details to be aware of. The algorithm works to match viewers with content they are likely to be interested in. This system is responsible for the videos that get recommended to viewers, including the Shorts they scroll through.

The algorithm is based on a viewer’s watch history and how much they engage with certain kinds of videos. If a viewer enjoys content that is similar to yours, your Short may also get recommended to them. Because of this, you could try posting your video at a similar time to other content creators who produce similar content.

Analytics and insights

One of the best ways to work out when to post Shorts is through experimentation. You can try posting at various times on different days to discover when you get the most viewers.

You must check your analytics and insights to understand your Short's success. Under your channel's Analytics tab, you’ll find statistics for how many views your videos are getting. Look at any spikes in viewership and check which days you received the highest viewer numbers. This will give you an indication of the best times to post.

Data research 

Due to the popularity of YouTube Shorts, there has been research into peak posting times. This means there is already data available on the best days and times to post Shorts. Doing some research into these statistics can be helpful.

For example, one recent report suggests that the best time to post on YouTube is between 6pm-9pm, with Friday being the most popular day to post on. This report is based on responses from over 1,200 marketers. However, it’s a good idea to check out other reports and compare the figures for the best information. 

It’s also important to base your research on your particular audience. Look into the viewing habits of your target audience, such as students or working professionals.

How to decide on the best time to post your YouTube Shorts

Knowing when to post your YouTube Short can feel confusing. After all, you want to pick the best time to maximize the success of your video. In this step-by-step guide, we’ve broken down how you can decide on the best time to post a YouTube short. All you need to do is follow along with each step, and you’ll be a posting pro in no time.

Step 1: Decide your target audience

Knowing who your target audience is the best first step for posting at the right time. Think about the kind of content you create. Whether your Shorts are clips from vlogs, interviews, makeup tutorials, or anything else, consider what kind of person would enjoy watching them. It’s good to have an idea of your target audience’s:

• age range
• country
• pain points,
• habits

Step 2: Understand your audience

Now that you have a sense of your target audience, it’s time to think about their viewing habits. You can do this by considering their routine. For example, if your potential viewer is a business professional, they will likely work from 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday. You may need to post outside of these times so your videos have a higher chance of being watched. 

Similarly, if your target viewer is in a different country from yours, check the time difference between you. Make sure you post according to their local time, and not yours.

Step 3: Experiment with when you post

One of the most important steps is to experiment with the days and times you post your Shorts.

Now that you understand your target audience and their routines try posting on various days at different hours. Do this with at least 5 videos so that you can build up enough data about your viewers to look over later.

Step 4: Check your analytics

After experimenting with your posting schedule, it’s time to check out the results. You can do this by going to the Analytics tab of your YouTube channel. Here you’ll see how many views your videos have received. You can check to see on which days your videos received the most views, as well as a graph of your views from the last 48 hours.

Note this down as the best time to post your next video. Continue to post a video at this time each week for a month. Check your analytics regularly to see if this is consistently a good time to post, or if it was a fluke. If unfortunately, the views don’t stay consistent, go back to step 3 and experiment with posting times.

Bonus step: Schedule your future videos

Once you can tell by your analytics which days and times bring in the most viewers for your Shorts, you can create a posting schedule. This will help you grow your subscribers as you post regular content. 

It can be hard to keep on top of posting videos, even if you have them ready to go. That’s why some creators find it helpful to schedule their uploads. You can schedule a post from your YouTube Studio by:

•  Clicking ‘Create’, then ‘Upload videos’ and selecting the file you want to upload. 
• From there, click on the ‘Schedule’ button under the Visibility tab and choose when you want your video to be published.

Read more: How to Upload YouTube Shorts: Step-by-Step Guide (PC & Mobile)

What else can you do to improve the success of your YouTube videos?

When it comes to maximizing reach, don’t just draw the line at when you post your Youtube Shorts. There are plenty of other things you can do to increase views and engagement. To give your Short the best chance at success, we recommend doing the following: 

Use a Quality Video Recording Platform

A video recording platform is a great place to capture your video footage in high quality. The quality of your video makes an immediate impact on your viewer. Videos that are blurry with poor audio are less enjoyable to watch and can cause people to click off. 

Platforms such as Riverside can capture up to 4K video quality. Riverside uses local recording to capture everything directly on your device instead of relying on the internet. If you’re recording with a remote guest over the internet, your quality won’t suffer if your connection dips.

You can even polish off your video after recording. Riverside offers an array of automated editing tools to adjust your video. You can:

• Trim your recording by editing your transcript with our text-based editor.
• Repurpose your long form redordings into Shorts at the tap of an Ai button with our Magic clips tool
• Add highly accurate captions and style them as you wish

Learn more, or start creating YouTube shorts effortlessly with Riverside.

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Choose a Good Video Title

The title of your YouTube video is more important than you might think. It’s one of the ways the algorithm sorts your video, and it’s essential in giving people a first impression of your content. If you want people to stop scrolling and press play on your video, your title has to catch their eye.

Using SEO keywords in your YouTube title is a good way to maximize reach. Although you can use up to 100 characters in your video title, anything over 70 will be shortened. That’s why it’s best to keep video titles under 70 characters.

Add the Shorts Hashtag

If you’re posting a YouTube Shorts video, add the #Shorts to your title or description. This step is suggested by Google. Adding the #Shorts to your video helps Google’s system recommend your video across YouTube. It’s a quick, simple step that can boost your chances of being discovered by new viewers. 

Read more: How to Make YouTube Shorts: 101 Guide to Becoming an Expert

FAQs on the Best Time to Post a YouTube Video

Is there a best time to post YouTube Shorts?

The best time to post a YouTube Short depends on your target audience. Posting at certain times and on certain days can help you reach students, professionals, stay-at-home parents and other audiences. The best time to post your Short is when it’s most likely to receive the most views and engagement. You can work out the ideal time to post your videos by following the step-by-step guide in this article.

How do I get more views on YouTube Shorts?

There are many things you can do to increase the views on your Shorts videos. Taking steps to improve your content, like editing and adding subtitles, is a great way to get people to watch more of your videos. 

You can also maximize your views by carefully choosing when you post your videos. Finding the peak time to post your Short will help you effortlessly bring in more views. We’ve covered how to do this in the article above.