Can replying to YouTube comments actually increase your video views? I ran a test by answering 65 comments in one hour and track what happens next. The results are surprising!
I show how I handle comments on my channel, explore YouTube’s comment filters, and reveal whether engaging with your audience might boost your views. If you’re wondering whether replying to comments is worth the effort, this might help you decide!
Can you increase the views on your YouTube videos just by replying to your comments?
The idea is this: if you reply to all of your comments, you will double the number of comments on your videos, and maybe, just maybe, that is a good sign for the YouTube algorithm.
I made this video one year ago, and it’s just me answering 65 comments in a very short space of time. It was just over an hour, and I didn’t put the video out. I thought it would be a good idea to share how I deal with comments on my channel, but I... I was just worried it was going to look boring to just have me typing and replying to comments.
But I looked at the stats from when I shot the video and when I made the 65 comments in a short space of time, and the results, I think, are quite shocking.
I’ll go through those results at the end of this video, but here’s how I deal with all of my comments.
I’ve not replied to my comments for about two weeks now, and in that time, I think the views on both my channels have dropped from their giddy highs. The last 28 days, I’m seeing lows in the low 5000s. If I show you my last 90 days, I’ve been bouncing around the 10,000, 9,000 mark, but these troughs are starting to get deeper over the last two weeks.
And I’m not sure that it’s... it’s a coincidence that I haven’t been replying to any of my comments in the last fortnight. Usually, I reply to comments every day. I just tap away here and there as and when I can log in.
I have a backlog, not only of two weeks but also messages that I’ve missed before those two weeks.
So I am replying to all of my comments in one go.
To do that, we’re going to go into my YouTube dashboard.
Hello, YouTube dashboard!
You can go to this on studio.youtube.com. You can, of course, reply to comments on your YouTube app. I’m doing it on the desktop so that you can see the replies more clearly.
All we need to do is click on the Comments tab on the left-hand side, and that opens up our comments and mentions dashboard.
I wish we had, on YouTube, a dashboard for... for as a viewer so that I could see my comments, because I find it really difficult with the small window.
You can see there are these buttons at the top. There are two tabs: Comments and Mentions.
Oh! We’ve got a mention! Oh my goodness!
Uh, it’s from seven months ago. And one from 11 months ago. Well, I... I’ll deal with that later.
Sorry, Solomon and Welsh Tony! I’m so sorry.
We have some filters under the comments, though.
Can you see this triangle of lines here—this sort of upside-down pyramid?
And it shows you all the filters that we can apply to our comments.
I can hit this cross here. I’ll come back to the ones I haven’t responded to.
But if I hit, uh, this filter, you can see lots of different ways to filter our comments.
We can do a search, so I could just look for the word "Tony." Apply that, and it gives me anything that mentions the word "Tony."
The next filter is for comments that contain questions. So here are all of the comments asking me a question. I guess they use AI or just search for a question mark, but that’s quite handy.
If I go back into the filter, we can also filter by Public Subscribers.
This lists comments from people who have subscribed to my channel publicly, and you can see that with this little red, uh, kind of stack icon.
So if I just wanted to concentrate on the people who subscribe to me, it means I can prioritize those comments, which is good.
We can also filter by Subscriber Count, so let’s filter by... I don’t know... 10,000 subscribers.
And it just shows... oh, there’s a few here, but it also shows my comments in there, which isn’t that helpful.
We can filter by Super Thanks, so I can see all the comments where I have been given Super Thanks, which is really nice.
Thank you, those guys!
The Response Status—this is one that I am going to use.
We can choose the comments I haven’t replied to, the ones I have replied to, or—this is really useful—the comments where I’ve replied, and they’ve replied to my reply.
So it’s really easy to miss those messages, and it looks like there are some there already waiting for me.
But I’m going to use the default that YouTube gives me anyway, which is Response Status: I Haven’t Responded.
Should we do this?
I feel like we need some different music.
Let’s... let’s get some energy music.
And first up, here is a very, uh, easy—easy comment:
"Hi."
I think I’ll just give that a thumbs up, because in that video, I say, Why not say hi in the comments? I don’t think I need to go into, uh, replies for that.
The next one... I... I need to show you the video for context with some of these comments.
Uh, but you’ll see on the right-hand side that this was a tutorial about how to set up right-click on a MacBook.
"Thank you! First time using a Mac, and your video helped a lot."
So I’ll put something like:
"Thanks for the kind comments," and I’ll put her handle in because I’ve got this superstition that if I just say Thanks for the kind comments on every comment, it probably doesn’t work this way, but I’m worried that the YouTube algorithm would think that I’m a spam commenter because I keep posting the same—the exact same—comment.
So I... I do put the commenter’s handle into the reply. It takes up more time that I should probably spend on making videos, but I just... I just feel superstitious about not spamming, even though it’s on my own channel.
So I’ll hit reply, and I’ll give a thumbs up to my own comments.
I read somewhere—and I don’t know how accurate this is—but I think with comments, it is okay for you to thumbs up your own comments.
It’s not treated as gaming the system at all.
Some people even heart their own replies. That feels a bit... a bit much for me.
Next comment:
"Cheers, Neil, I’ll give this a go."
So you’re going to see this reply a lot, I think:
"Thanks for the kind message, I appreciate it. Good luck with your Google storage."
Reply.
"Thanks, man, really useful vid."
Oh yeah, that’s for fast-forwarding and rewinding while watching YouTube videos.
I’ve got a nice message that I can put here:
"Hi, thanks for taking the time to leave a kind comment. If you forget any, you can always press the question mark while watching YouTube videos, and it brings up the whole list. Thanks again."
And this comment looks interesting:
"Hi, Neil, I’ve just been invited onto the YouTube Shorts Creator Program, and I’m meeting up with my partner manager tomorrow evening, so hopefully, I’ll get some insights into what their plans are."
Wow!
"Thanks, Julie. Congratulations! That’s fantastic. Good luck with the meeting, and that’s wonderful work."
And I hit reply.
Onto the next comment:
"Thanks!"
Oh, that’s great! So I can give that a thumbs-up and a heart.
Right, Higana Sudek now—oh, from time to time, I get a comment that’s in a completely foreign language, and I always find this exciting because I think, Oh, could this be a bad comment in another language?
So, cover your eyes just in case this is rudeness. I’m sure it’s not, but I go to Google Translate.
It’s really easy to visit, just type in translate.google.com, and it brings up this translation page.
Oh, here we go:
"Daylight."
Oh, it’s Japanese! No... it really doesn’t want to translate this.
I’m trying different ways.
I think what I’ll do with this one, I’ll just give it a heart and a thumbs-up.
Who cares if it’s a horrible comment? I... I don’t care.
But maybe it’s a nice comment.
Next comment:
"I’m taking mine in. I got this a month ago, and this has been the issue since day one."
So the problem with answering lots of comments in one go is you’ve got to constantly flick through to try and remember the video that they are referring to.
This was a tutorial on how to fix a flashing red light on your MacBook charger.
So I’ll just say something like:
"Sorry to hear this! Good luck with your repair, and fingers crossed for you and your Mac."
Right, back to the Google—right, so this Google Photos video, it shows you how to fix your Google storage if you go over the free storage.
This video has received... received 1 million views.
It’s far and away my most popular video on my channel.
"Thanks for the kind updates, Kelly! Really pleased this might be working for you. Good luck with your Google storage."
But she actually left a message before that:
"Hi, how can I get all my photos in one place?"
Well, I actually have another video for this, so I need to look that up now.
So if I go to Content and then Google Photos Download—this is the video here.
So I’ll just get, uh, get shareable link:
"Hi Kelly, thanks for the great question! Here’s one way to download everything to one place in one go, in case it helps."
And there’s the link:
"Good luck with the download!"
And then I’ll heart and like those comments.
Next comment:
"Thank you very much! A good video, straight to the point."
Oh, that’s nice! A thumbs-up and a heart.
"Thanks for the kind message, I really appreciate it."
And I really do.
Because when I get horrible messages—and I tend to get one horrible message for every 20 to 30 nice messages—it really reminds me of how much I appreciate it when someone has taken the time and gone out of their way to leave a comment that isn’t... that doesn’t wreck my confidence.
So I do appreciate it.
"Thank you!"
Oh, that’s nice!
"Thanks," and I’ll put his handle in.
"I appreciate it! Good luck with your Google Photos."
And I hit reply.
This is a feature that isn't very helpful at the moment, but, uh, YouTube has given everyone a handle, and it's put numbers after their name just to deal with people having unique handles and URLs. But it makes it really difficult to reply, because I know his name isn't 4397.
I feel I should put the proper handle in just so that it looks, you know, like a mention rather than me trying to guess their name.
This is for a video about what to do if your phone is full with Google Photos.
"I did as you told. I made another account and shared all my photos with the new account. But after one day, Google disabled my new account. Why? So, can you explain?"
I can't.
That's... that's a shame, because the system that I explain in the video—I'm still using two years on now, and it's working a dream for me. So it's difficult to know how to reply to this, because I... I can't think of a solution.
So I just tend to be honest about that and encourage them to find another YouTube video for this new problem.
Everyone's circumstances are different. I don't know what's going on with their computer. Thousands of other people have watched this video without a problem, so, um... it... it's good of them to ask me in case I can think of something. But when I can't, I just have to hold my hands up and say, "I hope... hope they manage to fix it."
"How to delete your YouTube Shorts videos."
And it's from Mr. Bill Hicks—from beyond the grave! How amazing.
"That's all very well, but I'm watching YouTube on a laptop, and when I go to my history to delete some of the things I've watched, there doesn't seem to be a way of deleting—not disabling—the Shorts I may have previously watched."
Now, this happens a lot with my channel. He's actually referring to another video that he's watched, which is how to clear your watch history.
And I think what he's saying is that he's having problems clearing his Shorts watch history.
"Hi, thanks for the kind question, and sorry to hear about this! But this is very interesting—that you can't delete or clear Shorts viewing history.
There seem to be three dots for the Shorts shelf on History, but the three dots next to every video seem to have the 'Remove from Watch History' option.
Does clicking on this work for you? Thanks for the heads-up on this, and hope this might help!"
There you go! That's quite a long reply. But what's great about that reply is that I've actually learned something.
In the history, when you're trying to clear search history, there are two different places where the "Remove from Watch History" might actually appear. So I've learned something about YouTube there, which is helpful.
Um, Google.
Someone has just replied for "How to make a Google account," which is a short. They've just written the word "Google."
That's got to get a heart, surely, because I... I... I... I think the reason I haven't looked at my comments for two weeks is—I am scared.
I'm really scared that I'm going to hit something. And I have seen some pretty off-key messages. And they're so infrequent. And when they do arrive, they make no sense, either.
And they always say more about the commenter than they ever say about me.
And yet, it still... it still puts me off from living in the comments.
I'd rather be making videos than reading, uh, not-very-nice messages.
Obviously, everyone feels that way.
But, uh, so it's always really good when you get a nice message like that one.
"Download Google Photos.
Awesome work! Like a charm."
Comments that may be offensive have been hidden.
"Show hidden comments."
Should we look at the... the comments that even YouTube doesn’t want to show? On "Held for Review"?
Do I look at these?
Let’s do it. Let’s go in.
"Show hidden comments."
Here we go. Hold me. Hug me.
Oh, I now get another warning.
"They may contain language that’s considered offensive."
Oh. "Show." I’ll... I’ll have to blur it out.
Here we go.
Oh... oh, here we go:
"Useless idiot. Change your description."
I... I almost want to reply. Just say, "Thanks!"
What’s this one?
"Bad advice."
I’m... I’m going to—because I’ve done so many comments—I’m going to give that a heart.
"Are you that brittle?"
Right. This is my first horrible comment.
So this is on my video about how to block someone on YouTube.
"Are you that brittle?"
Now... now, the... the reply I want to give is:
"Are you that anonymous?!"
Let’s click on their channel.
Oh, look. They’re completely anonymous.
Oh, they’ve got an "About" here.
"The internet is dead. Everything is fake."
Okay. Well, this is a... a lovely... Should I just put "Yes"?
Should I...? I shouldn’t even give a response to this, should I? Because—and this might be the comment to end on—I think this will be the one to end on.
So, this is... this is the hardest part about replying to comments.
It’s like... I’m trying to provoke a response from you.
"Are you that brittle?"
Thing is, I’ve explained everything I need to explain in that video.
And that video is awesome. It’s brilliant. I love it. And I don’t care what anyone thinks about it.
I don’t know if I need to reply.
If I reply to it, then I’m kind of giving them the attention they want without them having made a video.
And also, it kind of negates the time that I spend on the people who’ve taken the time to be nice and to help me with my channel.
So I think I’ll just give that a thumbs down and ignore it.
Um... I could... I could remove it.
Um... which is funny, because that’s what the video is about.
This is actually a good comment to end on because that video that he’s commenting on is all about bad comments.
And my goodness, it really touched a nerve with some people.
Like this commenter here—I think they are looking up this video about how to block comments to see if creators are able to block messages or ban them from their channel.
And we are. We are able to block comments.
And some people who want to lurk and post anonymously—they do not like this.
I’ve had other comments like this saying things like:
"I’m going to sue you!"
Like... they’re going to sue me for explaining how comments work on YouTube.
Okay. That’s a really good use of your time.
And, uh, the other comment I keep getting on that one is:
"You can’t stop free speech!"
But to me, the term "free speech" comes from the time when you’d stand up publicly in a town square and you’d put your reputation on the line to offer your opinion. Because you’re in public. And the town can judge you.
Bad comments that come from anonymous avatars, like this comment, aren’t free speech.
They’re... they’re kind of like someone walking past the person who’s putting something out there, vulnerably, and then shouting at them before walking off.
This here is not free speech.
This is heckling.
Because they don’t have the same stakes or investments as the creator—you and I—and they’re not publicly identifiable.
That is being a heckler.
We don’t need to give time to hecklers.
Too true, one-year-ago me.
So, what happened next?
I shot that video one year ago, and I thought I would just have a look at my view counts—my statistics—from that day, just to see if answering all of those comments did have any impact on my views.
And, oh my goodness, it might be a complete coincidence, but this is my view count.
These are my views from one year ago.
I shot the video here on the 6th of March. It’s around the 5,000-something level. And then, within a few days, look at this—it’s up to 7,000, 8,000.
And then it just stayed up there.
And it just stayed, and stayed, and just slowly crept up.
It just seems like such a coincidence.
Your results might vary, but what a leap here!
Like, within a week, the views don’t just, like, go up ever so slightly and then down again.
I mean, they just chunk up from 5,000 to 8,000.
And then, if I show you how that fits in with the whole of last year...
So, I made the video here, and I answered all of those comments here.
And that’s why I was a bit worried, because these... these views were a bit low compared to what I had experienced.
But then, look at it.
I mean, it just shoots up all the way for the rest of the year.
It’s like it put things on a completely different trajectory.
Now, that might have happened anyway.
But I didn’t make any videos in this period where the views actually jumped up.
The only thing that I did was answer 65 comments in one hour.
And who knows?
Maybe it was a signal to the algorithm.
Maybe having many of those 65 people come back to the video to see the comments—maybe that tripped something in the algorithm to, uh... to say that my videos were bringing people back.
I don’t know.
So, this might be a complete happenstance. Complete coincidence.
But for me? That was an incredible rest of the year.
And the spark for that happened when I answered all those comments in one go.
What do you think?
Guess what? You can leave a comment!
It’ll be lovely to hear from you.
How are you finding answering comments?
Is it a bit of a pain?
Do you not want to look?
I don’t want to look most of the time—for fear of what I’ll find there.
But mostly—overwhelmingly—I find good comments.
I got one slightly iffy comment in 65 comments.
So, one in 65 hit rate isn’t bad.
Maybe you have a different experience. I’d love to hear your experiences.
And I’d love to know—if you try this, do you see the same results?
If you don’t answer your comments, and then just plow in on the comments that you do have, does it have this kind of result?
Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button.
It really helps me to keep this channel going.
Really appreciate it.
And right here... are some more YouTube tips and tricks that you might enjoy.
