When it comes time to post your latest video on YouTube, Vimeo or any similar platform, it’s critical to have a good video description to increase the potential views you’ll get. The video description should clearly give your viewers an idea of what the video is about, but can also be a great tool to send viewers to your website or social media. We understand that it can be difficult to write the perfect video description, so we’ve prepared 5 suggestions on how to optimize your descriptions for YouTube videos and the like.
1. Use keywords to make your video indexable
Your video description can be more than just an informative explanation of your video. A secondary purpose of the description is to make your video rank higher in searches by making it SEO friendly. Although you may have included keywords in your title, it’s also useful to include some in your description to improve your SEO. Make sure your keywords are integrated smoothly in your text, and your video and website have a greater chance of being placed higher up in search results. If you’re not sure what keywords to use, research the relevant words in your field of expertise, and be sure to stay away from language that is too technical, as users will never use these in searches. You should also stay away from single-word keywords since they are very competitive and often not specific enough for your purposes. Another place to consult for help coming up with keywords is Google’s Keyword Planner; you can find the keywords that are relevant to your video and field.
2. Be brief but informative
People that are looking for videos aren’t usually interested in reading long and wordy descriptions. You don’t need to use the entire character limit for the description, that will be too long and will bore your viewers. Instead, keep your description simple and informative explaining what your video is about. Stay away from technical language that may be hard to understand by some, and stay away from providing false information as your video may be removed.
Keep it descriptive and short, and let your video do the talking. You definitely don’t want any spelling mistakes or vague sentences to make their way into your description though, so to help you we’ve compiled a list of tools that will help you write accurate descriptions.
- Mywritingway and Via Writing are online writing guides to help you create a well-crafted description.
- Paper fellows and Big Assignments are editing tools you can use to make sure your video description is clear and cohesive.
- Simple grad and Writing Populist are grammar checkers that help you keep errors and typos out of your important description.
- Academized and Oxessays should be consulted for a second proofreading opinion.
- Studydemic and AcademAdvisor are the go-to sites for formatting help.
- Australian Help will help you generate catchy words, keywords, subheadings, etc. and comes highly reviewed by Australian Reviewer.
3. Add time stamps
If your video is quite long or you want to direct your viewers’ attention to a certain part of your video, time stamps may be the way to go in your description. Your content will be easier for viewers to engage with, and you won’t be alienating viewers who simply don’t have the time to watch the video in its length but are still interested in the contents. You simply have to list your time stamps and identify the most important parts of your video, giving you a unique edge over many others out there.
4. Citations and mentions
Users are more tempted to share content when they’ve been mentioned. If you mention the people who assisted in the production and development of your video, they’ll be a lot more likely to share it, increasing the reach and impressions of your content.
5. Include backlinks
Your video description is also a great place to put as many backlinks to your pages as you can. Send your viewers towards any pages related to your video, whether it’s a product you’re selling and advertising, your sales pages, or if you’re offering services you can link to your website or social media. Try to link back to a page on your site that has a call-to-action, such as a subscription form. Also, include contact methods so your viewers can reach you and know that you’re open to questions and comments about your video. Murray Batton, a marketing manager at State of writing and Eliteassignmenthelp, explains that “social media and website links add credibility and professionalism to your post, and allows your viewers an opportunity to get to know you. It doesn’t hurt to link to similar videos you’ve made on the topic, or hint at other videos you’re making soon.”
When your priority and expertise is video creation, it can be difficult to also write an engaging description, but you want to do everything you can to increase your chances of people viewing your video. Luckily, following these easy tips will give you amazing results in terms of increasing viewership.