Transcript
Did you know that YouTube will index video subtitles in Google search? That’s why it’s vital that you not only have subtitles enabled, but have accurate subtitles added to each video you put up. Optimizing your videos for SEO is one of the greatest things you can do to effectively market yourself and grow an audience. We all know that videos rank high in search results, and previously that was done through video titles, descriptions and tags. While those still make a difference, as auto-captioning got more and more accurate, Google has shifted the algorithm to emphasize the actual content of the video. This makes a lot of sense, as a lot of people will post inaccurate titles and tag spam their videos to get seen, rather than improving the content. The best way to take advantage of this is not only to have auto captions enabled, but also add custom generated titles. That’s the best way to tell Google exactly what’s in the content.
Another really important reason to add subtitles is for ADA compliance. For hearing or visually impaired internet users, subtitles make your videos accessible for everyone. This will help you rank higher and expand your audience far beyond the standard user base. Manually generated subtitles, being more accurate, are really important here too, as hearing or visually impaired users won’t be able to as easily pick up on inaccuracies of auto-captioning. Inaccuracies can be frustrating and even offensive to users.
So add subtitles to your videos! And if you have the option of auto-generating them, be sure to check for accuracy word for word. It’ll help in more ways than you know.
