Before discussing it in detail, there is one thing you need to know about the youtube chapters. If you have ever found yourself seeking your way through a long YouTube video to get to the “good” part or the part that’s relevant to you, you will so much appreciate this feature called Video Chapters. This feature uses timestamps that creators apply to their videos, allowing viewers to easily jump forward to a specific section of the video or rewatch a portion of the video.
Why youtube chapters are important for your youtube videos?
Chapters are useful tools to engage viewers and choose their favorite part of the video. With the help of youtube chapters, viewers can now jump to the section which they want to see and can skip the other parts of the video. This feature is quite much useful for particularly instructional videos.
How to create YouTube chapters?
To create youtube chapters, you have to enter timestamp information in the description of the video. This can be done during the upload process or by editing when the video has been uploaded.
What are YouTube Chapters?
Now, let’s move to our main topic of discussion that what are youtube chapters?
Basically, chapters split up a video into sections with each one divided into a separate preview. This gives more information to the viewers by allowing them to re-watch or hover to any desired part of your video.
Moreover, youtube chapters also act as reminders to inform the viewers how long a segment will last. In simple words, it gives the exact timing of a certain timestamp. For example, you are watching a video tutorial on website development and you already have purchased the domain of your website, then you can skip the domain buying part and jump to the next section.
In short, YouTube chapters show the individual segments of the video.
How to Add Chapters to your YouTube Videos?
Now the important thing is how you can add youtube chapters to your videos?
Well, it is quite simple. To turn on chapters for a video, add a list of timestamps and titles and you’re done.
But, remember one thing. To add video chapters, make sure that the first timestamp you list starts at 00:00. Your video should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order. Because the minimum length for video chapters is 10 seconds.
Now you now know the importance of chapters and the process of adding chapters to a video, now the question is, should all your videos have chapter markers?
The answer is simply no!
Because, for certain types of videos, it simply does not make sense to add chapters. If the video is short means less than 2 minutes or relates to the type of categories including Film & Animation, Music, Comedy, and Entertainment. Then, I would advise you to avoid adding any chapters in your youtube videos.
The reason for not adding chapters in short videos is that chapters here can reduce watch time and audience retention. If you want to know more about youtube retention, read this article. Moreover, enroll now to grow your subscribers quickly.
Sometimes, it happens that YouTube Chapters do not Work for your videos?
There might be several different reasons why youtube chapters do not work for your videos.
- You have not added a 00:00 timestamp
- One of your chapters has less than 10 seconds
- The timestamps are not listed in chronological order
- You have added less than 3 chapters
- Your channel has active copyright strikes
- Your channel has less than 1k subscribers
- You have entered timestamps with full stop instead of a : colon.
- Your video content could be potentially inappropriate to some viewers
Once you have fulfilled these requirements, you would be able to add youtube chapters to your videos.
Conclusion
So, when creating longer videos having different topics or many content ideas, viewers can easily jump to the correct part without searching in the search results or looking in the description box. This feature of youtube chapters also increases user engagement and watch time.