Systems and methods for optimizing videos are disclosed. A method of the present disclosure includes analyzing a video using a plurality of rules to determine one or more optimizations for the video, the one or more optimizations reflecting a subset of properties to improve viewership statistics of the video by automatically modifying characteristics of the video based on the subset of properties that is indicative of improved viewership statistics pertaining to a plurality of users of a media hosting service, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one characteristic, which when automatically modified, results in a change to the video that correlates to improved viewership statistics pertaining to the plurality of users. The method further includes causing the characteristics of the video to be modified to implement the one or more optimizations, and causing the video with the modified characteristics to be presented to at least a subset of the plurality of users.