One issue I’ve had for more than a year is how YouTube does not record views or watch time from the WriterSanctuary.com blog. Though, this is also happening on a couple of other blogs I own. So, what is the problem?
Well, if I knew that, this would be a much shorter blog post. I tried to address it a couple of months ago, but other things sidetracked me.
However, I decided this needs to be addressed especially since I set the live streams to “Unlisted,” which instantly evaporated 1,800 hours of watch time for the year.
Yeah, I’m not getting monetized anytime soon.
Problem: No Views and Watch Time on YouTube from the Websites
The main issue was that sometime in February of 2021, I made a change to WriterSanctuary.com that prevented YouTube from recording when someone would watch my videos.
This is a problem considering that the site generated quite a few views before then. Granted, it wasn’t a lot of views, but when you’re trying to get monetized, every second counts.
The thing is, I don’t remember what I changed last February. This is what happens when you don’t keep a proper log of things you do to your website in terms of “maintenance.”
What is confusing is how videos work just fine on half of my sites, but not the other half. Even though I use the same plugins and features.
Let’s see if we can track down the issue.
Solution to Fix No Views and Watch Time from YouTube on Blogs
I haven’t found one yet…sigh.
The Process of Fixing YouTube Views and Watch Time for Blogs
First of all, I’m trying to fix a live website. This means I need to be careful and pay attention to what I change or remove as to not interfere with the visitor experience.
To test the waters, I’m going to use this page to determine if data is sent to YouTube. I’ll remove all of the plugins and give the video a test view using Edge’s private mode.
I’m also using two ways of showing the video.
Using the Gutenberg Block
Using the Copy-Paste Code from YouTube
One of the hardest parts of testing in this fashion is that sometimes it can take two to three hours before the view is shown in YouTube analytics.
Disabled All Plugins Except Jetpack
I disabled all of the plugins from this blog with the exception of Jetpack. The reason why I left Jetpack running is that it’s inconvenient to keep reconnecting it every time.
I may still remove it in a future test, though.
Testing Copy-Paste Code
Testing the video at 2:05 pm – No joy. It’s odd considering how the last time I did this kind of a test, it worked perfectly. But like I said, it can take several hours before YouTube shows the data.
In the meantime, I’m going to switch to a WordPress theme to see if perhaps there is something weird about ThemeGrill.
Changing Theme to Twenty Twenty-One
I’ve just activated the Twenty Twenty-One theme in WordPress. I’m not sure if it’ll make a difference, but perhaps I forgot that I added some “optimization” code to the last theme.
And wow, does the site look like crap, now.
At any rate, at least I’ll be able to determine that the theme isn’t the problem.
Testing Out New Theme w/Copy-Paste Code
Testing video at 2:22 pm – No joy on this one either. Could it be Jetpack causing the issue? It’s the only plugin running. However, everything in Jetpack has been disabled. So, I’m not entirely sure what could prevent the data from going to YouTube.
I’ll give it a couple of hours to see if the data finally shows up. I know that in the past, it took as many as three hours before YouTube recorded the data from this blog when it was completely stripped.
Changing Back to ColorNews and Disabling Jetpack
While I’m waiting for the previous videos to show up, I am going to disable Jetpack and re-enable the ColorNews theme. I still don’t know how Jetpack would be causing an issue, though.
Testing Copy-Paste Code
Testing video at 3:12 pm – No joy.
So, I suppose I’ll just have to wait to see if the watch time and views show up on YouTube later. I really don’t know what else to try now. Everything has been disabled and removed. There should be absolutely nothing interfering with YouTube now.
Supplemental: I’m testing the video again at 3:25 pm using the regular version of Edge. I test with the privacy mode so that I don’t save cookies or information that may interfere with playing the video. In any case, there is still no views being recorded.
Testing Gutenberg Block Embed
Figured I would give the Gutenberg block a try since the copy-paste snippet isn’t working all that well. I doubt it’ll make a difference, though.
Testing video at 5:16 pm – No Joy.