How YouTube ranks videos on the basis of closed captions and why closed captions or subtitles are important in YouTube videos.
We all know YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world after Google. So many videos are being uploaded on YouTube on daily basis, so, it is very important to optimize your videos using SEO strategies and tools. Otherwise, it would be impossible for you to rank higher on YouTube. There are many techniques and tools which you can apply to optimize your content on YouTube like adding proper titles, using keywords on the basis of traffic and competition, adding attractive descriptions, and adding closed captions.
Today, we will mainly focus on the role of closed captions in SEO and how YouTube ranks your videos on the basis of closed captions?
Before we discuss in detail the importance of closed captions, do you have to get some idea about captions? What are closed captions? Why do we use them? And where should we use them?
What are closed captions?
So, when you make a video, you add some text or transcripts in it in order to make it easy for the audience to understand your video. And these transcripts appear at the bottom of your video. These are called closed captions.
Now the question is can YouTube change your voice automatically to captions?
The answer is Yes, YouTube is now so advanced that it can turn your voice into closed captions automatically and in fact, many people use the YouTube auto transcript option for their videos. The problem with auto transcription is that it transcripts only 70% of your content accurately which is not good for your ranking and sometimes it also creates embarrassing captions of your video.
So, I would suggest you add captions by yourself and prefer manual captions over YouTube auto-captions. Or you can also allow YouTube to generate auto-captions and then edit it if you found any mistakes.
Importance of captions
Now, let’s discuss how adding these captions in your videos can rank you high on YouTube and what is the importance of these captions.
Increases watch time
Basically, Closed captions play a very vital role in increasing the watch time of your channel on YouTube.
When you use closed captions in your videos, it helps your audience to understand your content clearly and encourages them to watch your video till the end. In this way, they get more knowledge and information by reading those closed captions, and indirectly your watch time increases that definitely helps you to rank higher on YouTube. Moreover, enroll in this course to learn more about youtube engagement.
High viewership
Another benefit of using captions in your videos is high viewership.
It means when you add captions in your videos it means that you are making your video viewable for everyone. As 15% of the World’s population consists of deaf people. So, by adding closed captions in your videos, you are helping everyone to watch your video and thus increase your ranking. Read this blog to know more about viewership and engagement.
You can also caption your videos in another language or in that language which is common in the regions or countries where mostly your audience belongs to.
For example, if most of your videos are watched by Americans then you should add captions in the English language and if your audience is based in India, you should consider adding captions in Hindi. If you can’t add transcripts for other languages, at least add transcripts in English as it is an international language and more than 1.5 billion people understand English.
Other than this, when you use closed captions in your videos you help your audience in many ways like if someone is watching your video in a noisy atmosphere, captions will help him to understand and read the content. Similarly, if a person is watching your video during traveling or in a quiet library with muted sound, your captions will help them to read your content easily. And this will help you rank higher on YouTube.
Indexing on Google
The next most important benefit of captions is Indexing on Google.
Google is the parent company of YouTube and when you upload a video on YouTube without adding captions, it is difficult for Google to index your video because Google cannot read videos or images, it can only index your content by reading your title and description; but when you add captions, you provide convenience to Google to index even the words that you speak and ultimately rank you on both Google and YouTube.
4- Using Target Keywords
Last but not the least; one other important thing is to use Target keywords even in the words you speak:
Using target keywords in your video captions helps your videos to rank higher on YouTube.
When you use high search volume and low competition keywords in your video’s transcript, you help YouTube to rank your channel high and increase your appearance on the search results. You can do proper keyword research on every topic you want to make a video on.
Conclusion
So, that’s it for today. I hope you now know the importance of closed captions and will be adding closed captions in your upcoming videos. Make sure to implement all these tips if you want your videos to rank higher on YouTube.