YouTube descriptions are very underrated but are highly important to boost your YouTube channel’s SEO. Wondering what role they play when it comes to rankings? It all depends on how appealing your descriptions are. In this blog, we will understand what a YouTube description is, how you can write great descriptions and how it affects your video’s ranking.
What Is A YouTube Description?
A YouTube description is a text that gives users an overview of your video or channel. This information can help users understand the video content better.
There are two types of YouTube descriptions:
- YouTube channel description: This text appears on the channel’s “about” page.
- YouTube video description: This text appears below the YouTube videos.
If done correctly, your descriptions can boost your chances at SEO, ranking, views, subscriptions, and many more factors.
We encourage creators to buy YouTube views and gain more traction on their channel, but that doesn’t reduce the significance of organic SEO such as video descriptions that go hand-in-glove with paid strategies. So now, let’s learn how to write good descriptions on YouTube.
How To Write Great YouTube Descriptions?
1. Use Important Keywords In YouTube Description
Since YouTube is one of the world’s largest search engines. If you use the right keywords in your descriptions, your video can rank on YouTube’s search results page. So always use relevant and focus keywords. The focus keyword must be mentioned in the first paragraph of your description. Try repeating it not more than twice in the rest of the description. This will help the algorithm understand what your video content is all about.
If you don’t know how to find the right keywords, you can use tools like Google Trends and YouTube AutoSuggest.
2. YouTube Descriptions With Friendly Language
When writing your description, make sure your language isn’t too technical. If your description sounds like a robot, users won’t click on it. Use more natural and friendly language to ease your audience in. Try using the keywords to fit organically, since YouTube’s algorithm focuses on keywords than the rest of the text.
3. Use Hashtags
YouTube hashtags help your users find relatable videos under one tag. YouTube allows creators to use 15 hashtags in the description section. The first three hashtags appear above the video’s title while the rest in the description box. Learn how to find the best YouTube hashtags to increase your YouTube video’s views and rankings.
The AI Youtube Hashtag Generator will reduce your research time and fetch popular hashtags free of cost.
4. Using Links In YouTube Descriptions
Here are a few links that you can use in your video’s description and increase your chances of ranking.
- Timestamp Links
- Subscribe Links
- Social Media Channel Links
- Related Video Links
- Affiliate Links
Begin by executing these SEO strategies for starters, then promote video on YouTube if you want more growth.
Takeaway
By now, you must know how vital YouTube descriptions are for the growth of your YT channel. Remember to insert your main keyword in the description’s first sentence to be visible to users. Also, place a CTA in the first or second sentence. You can use tools to preview if your SERP snippets are user and algorithm-friendly.
Make an impact in the first 138 characters since that’s the only section that appears when a video is viewed on a computer. You can be creative with the rest of 5,000 characters, i.e., 800 words. Use characters and symbols to make them visually appealing, and divide your sections using separation lines. Avoid using any special characters, copying from other channels, using irrelevant hashtags, and inappropriate language. An efficient AI YouTube Description Generator will make your job easier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Can YouTube descriptions affect watch time or retention rates?
YouTube description’s primary purpose is to attract views and clicks. But if you add time stamps, then you can increase watch time and retention rates, as it would allow users to know whether concepts related to their intent are being covered or not. There are more ways of increasing watch hour though.
Q2. How do YouTube descriptions impact video recommendations?
Your video title alone isn’t going to capture all the keywords and hashtags, or provide depth on what concepts were covered, but your video description will. Hence YouTube can recommend your videos for slightly relevant topics in the trendings section, based on what’s stated in your video description.
Q3. Does YouTube care about the first few sentences of the description?
The first 138 characters of YouTube descriptions hold utmost importance, as that is shown as meta-description on Google search results and YouTube results.
Additionally, YouTube algorithms will also look at video titles, hence we recommend using a dynamic AI YouTube Title Generator to craft impactful titles.
Q4. Does YouTube use the entire description for ranking?
No, the first 138 characters in the video description are crucial for ranking.
Anything additional would matter from user perspective:
- User trust (reference articles),
- User retention (timestamps),
- Conversions (business website, product links, social media links, and contact details).