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Step 1 of 10 in this module#201 of 1,000

1. The Algorithmic Prime Directive: Maximize Watch Time

Part 3 • TikTok FYP High-Weight Ranking Factors

Every decision the FYP algorithm makes is in service of its Prime Directive: keep users on the app for as long as possible. A user who is actively watching is a user who can be served more advertisements. Therefore, the algorithm's job is to identify videos that are exceptionally good at holding human attention. It doesn't care if a video is "good" in an artistic sense. It only cares if the video is "effective" at being watched. Every metric it tracks is a proxy for attention.

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In this module: TikTok FYP High-Weight Ranking Factors10 steps
  1. 1The Algorithmic Prime Directive: Maximize Watch Time
  2. 2The King of Metrics: Video Completion Rate
  3. 3The God-Tier Metric: The Re-Watch
  4. 4The "Sonic Quality" Misconception
  5. 5The Role of Early Engagement: Likes, Comments, Shares
  6. 6The Initial Test Audience: The First 100-300 Views
  7. 7The Content-Retention Mechanism: Your Hook is Everything
  8. 8Analyzing Your Data: The "For You" Traffic Source
  9. 9The Negative Signal: The Immediate Scroll
  10. 10Your Actionable Strategy: Engineer for Retention