The YouTube description of your video must give your audience a detailed overview of the content of your video. The information you enter in the YouTube description field will help viewers understand what your video is about when searching on Google and YouTube. Along with your video’s title and tags, the description plays an important role in YouTube SEO and rankings – but only if it’s done right. Do not know how to write a YouTube description? No problem! That’s what we are here for. So let us get started!
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How do you write a good YouTube description?
An effective YouTube description that gets your video more views should include the following:
- Relevant text of at least 1,000 characters
- Keywords that are searched for on Google and YouTube and that match your video
- Hashtags
- Timestamps
- Links to related content or affiliate links
1. Your description helps YouTube understand the content (and context) of your video. Every word or keyword you include in the description can help improve your video’s ranking in YouTube search (and in suggested videos).
YouTube strongly recommends that you optimise your video description for SEO:
– Always use what is called a focus keyword. A focus keyword is the most important phrase you are trying to rank for. Ideally, you already have this focus keyword in mind before you shoot the video. This way you can also mention the focus keyword in the spoken text of the video. Since YouTube also searches your subtitles, this could give you an extra SEO boost.In the YouTube description, you should mention the focus keyword in the first paragraph. Repeat it at least 2-3 times in the rest of the text to give the search engines a clear signal what the text and your video are about.
-Use Google Trends, YouTube AutoSuggest to research these keywords. Ideally, you should choose a focus keyword that is characterised by high search volume and low competition. 2 or 3 alternative versions of the focus keyword should also be included; for example, if your main keyword is “cooking spaghetti”, the alternative versions could be “cooking spaghetti”, “spaghetti recipe”, etc. In this example, your category keywords could be “cooking” or “recipes”. Remember that irrelevant words in your description can lead to a poor user experience and may violate YouTube’s guidelines.
2. Use natural language: Give an overview of the content of your video in natural language. Summarise the keywords you want to include in the description text in an easy-to-read frame, which should not just be a string of keywords. Remember that the YouTube algorithm gives more importance to the keywords that appear in the first 2-3 sentences of your description.
3. Since the first lines of your YouTube description are displayed in search engines, they should be interesting enough to pique people’s interest to watch your video. YouTube also recommends including links to playlists and information about what your channel is about.
4. Include hashtags.YouTube hashtags make it easier for your viewers to search for related videos. YouTube allows you to include up to 15 hashtags in the description. The first three hashtags you entered will be displayed above the title of the video.
5. Comply with the law: If you have used copyrighted content (music, images or videos) under the Fair Use Act, you must mention it in the description of your video and provide a link to its website. If your video contains product placements, you should also include a reference to the sponsorship in the YouTube description. For example, you can include something like “This video was sponsored by [company name]”
How long should a YouTube description be?
YouTube provides you with 5,000 characters (about 800 words) for the description. So you should use every single character or at least make them as long as possible. Make sure that the text is relevant to your video.
Also include some hashtags and do not forget to add your keywords at a rate of about 1-2%.
How should I design my YouTube description?
When designing your description for the YouTube description box, you should try to find ways to make it stand out, for example by using ASCII characters and symbols such as the arrow on either side of a word or phrase. You can also structure paragraphs with dividers. Anything you can do to make your text easier to read and highlight your important information.
What should I avoid when drafting my YouTube description?
YouTube clearly states what should be avoided when writing your description.
Special characters like < > because YouTube does not want you to write HTML code in the description.
- Copyright infringements.
- Hashtags that violate YouTube’s community guidelines
- Anything else that violates the community guidelines.
How to write a YouTube description efficiently?
After you have written a few YouTube descriptions, you’ll see how important it is to do the task efficiently.
Here are some ideas on how to make writing a YouTube description more efficient.
- Use description templates (see example below).
- Use the YouTube Upload Defaults feature. This feature saves you time by allowing you to set your default information for future uploads.
- Optimise older videos with bulk editing in YouTube.
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