How to add captions to YouTube videos: A Step by Step Guide

Key Takeaways:

• Boost Discoverability: Captions provide text for YouTube’s algorithm to crawl, significantly improving SEO.
• Accessibility is Key: Adding subtitles makes your content accessible to the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.
• Muted Viewing: Many users watch on mobile in public places; captions ensure your message is heard without sound.
• Multiple Methods: You can use auto-generated captions, manual typing, or professional file uploads.
• Global Reach: Translating captions into other languages can exponentially expand your international audience.

Imagine a scenario where your YouTube viewers are trying to watch your video in a noisy environment without headphones. They might not hear the audio clearly and may eventually stop watching your content. This means you miss crucial moments to build your loyal audience. In such instances, knowing how to add captions to YouTube videos can immensely help you retain your potential fans. It can also help viewers with learning disabilities or those who speak a different native language. Let’s dive deeper into why you should add captions to your YouTube videos and a few actionable steps to do so.

Why must you essentially add captions to your YouTube videos?

Adding captions to your YouTube videos can significantly increase the viewer-to-subscriber conversion. Here are a few prominent benefits of adding captions to your YouTube videos.

Enhances Viewer Experience

You never know what conditions your potential viewers will watch your video under. Adding captions beforehand helps address common hearing barriers, such as unclear audio, different accents, and unnecessary noise, thereby enhancing the video viewing experience for your fans.

Potentially Increases Engagement

An enhanced viewer experience often leads to higher engagement with your videos. Adding captions helps people understand what you’re trying to say, and they are likely to stay longer on your videos, engage with different aspects, and even share your content. According to an industry survey by Version and Publics Media, 80% of respondents said they are more likely to watch the entire video if captions are available.

Adding Captions makes your videos Accessible

When growing a YouTube channel, you cannot rely solely on a single target audience that speaks your native language. The world’s second-largest search engine gives you the opportunity to reach a massive audience across various geographic locations. Videos with captions can help reach people who watch videos without sound or who have hearing issues.

Improves YouTube SEO

YouTube crawlers cannot watch your videos, but they can crawl text-based elements like engaging titles and descriptions to know more details about your video. Adding closed captions to your YouTube videos provides search engines with a written version of your video’s context, which helps them rank your videos higher in search results.

Open Vs Closed Captions: Which is the ideal choice for your videos?

Now that you know why you must add captions to your videos on YouTube, let’s uncover the key differences between the two types of YouTube captions and which one you should choose based on your needs.

Open Captions:

These captions are permanently embedded in your YouTube video and always visible to viewers, regardless of the platform they use to watch it. However, YouTube crawlers won’t be able to read them because they are not uploaded as a separate SRT file. You can go with open captions when you simply want to upload your video without stressing over creating a separate captions file for the search engine to read.

Closed Captions:

Closed Captions are significantly better than open captions since they are added as separate files that the search engine can read and crawl. Besides, closed captions include features like multilingual settings and can be customized to suit your viewers’ needs. However, which one should you choose?

Here’s a clever solution. I suggest you use open captions for visibility and style since they are always visible. Also, add closed captions in parallel to improve SEO and rankings.

How To Add Captions to YouTube Videos? Simple Steps

Let’s go in-depth with the specific steps you must know about how to add captions to your YouTube videos. These steps can vary based on whether you are adding captions to a new video or an already uploaded video.

Steps to Add Captions when uploading a New YT Video

1. Log in to your YouTube Studio.
2. Click on the ‘Create’ option and click on ‘Upload videos’ in the top right.
3. Drag and drop your video file to upload.
4. Enter the details as required and click on ‘Next.’
5. Under the video elements tab, click on ‘Add Subtitles’.
6. Now, you can click ‘Upload file’ to add captions to the YT video.

Don’t worry if you are confused about the last step to upload a captions file to YouTube. I have covered that in detail below.

Steps to Add Captions for Existing YouTube Videos

1. Log in to your YouTube Studio Dashboard.
2. Select the ‘Subtitles’ menu in the left menu.
3. Select the video that you want to add captions to.
4. Click on ‘Add language’.
5. Select the option to ‘Add Language’.
6. Go to the ‘Subtitles’ column and click on the pencil icon that appears.
7. Click on ‘Upload file’ to add the captions file.

How to Upload a Captions file to YouTube?

A caption file consists of the text and the timestamp at which the respective text should be displayed. The most common caption file type is SRT.

The following formats are compatible with YouTube; you can upload any of these caption files to your YouTube studio dashboard:

• SRT (.srt)
• SBV (.sbv or .sub)
• WebVTT (.vtt)
• TTML ( .ttml)
• DFXP (.dfxp)
• SCC (.scc)
• EBU-STL (.stl)
• Videotron Lambda (.cap)
• Cheetah (.cap or .asc)

Here’s how to add captions to your new YT video or to an existing one.

1. Upload a new video or hover over an existing video to which you want to add captions, using the methods above.
2. After clicking on ‘Upload file’, select ‘With Timing’ and ‘Continue.’
3. Select the SRT file from your computer or laptop’s local file browser.
4. Review the captions and their timings. Click on ‘Done’ if everything seems right.

How to Add Captions using Auto Sync

YouTube’s auto-sync feature is ideal if you already have a transcript of your video narration. However, this method to add captions will only work if your transcript and narration are in the same language. Also, I won’t recommend this step for creators who create longer videos with low-quality audio.

1. Upload a new video or navigate to the subtitles option of an existing video, following the steps suggested above.
2. Select ‘Auto Sync’
3. Copy and paste the transcript text into the text field visible. Review the captions for accuracy.
4. If everything looks good to go, you can select ‘Done’. It may take some time for the platform to auto-sync the text to video. The video is automatically published once the captions are ready.

Typing Manually to Add Captions to YT Videos

This option is beneficial if you don’t have the video transcript. YouTube’s built-in options make the manual typing task easier. Here’s how to use this option.

1. Follow the steps as stated above to upload a new video or add captions to an existing one.
2. During the ‘Upload file’ option, select ‘Type Manually.’
3. Go to the text editor, and select ‘Pause while typing checkbox’ beneath the video player.
4. Play the video at a speed that suits you.
5. Start manually typing the captions.

Should You Use Automatic Captioning by YouTube?

Although YT provides an automatic captioning option, it is better to add human-edited captions, as automatically generated captions can contain errors for various reasons. The reasons could be different dialects, mispronunciation, or different accents. These minor issues can make the captions inaccessible while viewing the video and spoil the experience for your potential viewers. So, if you are using them, be sure to review them thoroughly.