Your YouTube video description can make or break a video’s success.
It’s a key factor in whether the YouTube algorithm chooses to show your content in search results or recommendations. Or buries it in obscurity.
But why exactly does it matter so much? And how do you write a killer video description that wins over the algorithm and draws in viewers?
We’ll take you through a full breakdown of the background, as well as best practices, templates, and tools for you to leverage.
Key Takeaways
- YouTube video descriptions are a cornerstone of video SEO (search engine optimization).
- They help the YouTube algorithm determine what your content is about, which viewers to recommend it to, and which searches it fits.
- You need to strategically place keywords and key phrases in your YouTube video descriptions.
- If you can, include timestamps, links, and FAQs.
- Add manual timestamps to highlight key moments most relevant to your audience.
- AI YouTube video description generators can give you a good basis, but you have to customize your descriptions. Tailor it to your audience.
- The most efficient way to get optimized video descriptions is to outsource to a professional YouTube channel manager.
Keep reading for the full scoop!
Why Your Video Description for YouTube Is Critical
Writing a killer YouTube video description is crucial for your content to appear in search results and recommendations. It’s the cornerstone of video SEO (search engine optimization).
An on-point video description lets the YouTube algorithm know exactly what your content is about, which target audience it suits best, and which search queries it answers.
To maximize the exposure of your content, your video description on YouTube needs to be keyword-savvy. You need to know which words and phrases your target audience typically uses in searches that lead to your content. The more specific your data, the better. (Check out our guide to keyword research for YouTube!)
Plus, your YouTube video description also plays a major role in audience retention since it gives your viewers an immediate idea what to expect from your video. This is critical, especially for longer content. Always assume that your viewers are pressed for time – they need to assess instantly whether your content fits what they clicked for.. Your video description will help them do just that.
Say you’re looking for a Python coding tutorial for data visualization. Two 20-minute videos appear in your search results. The description of one is minimalistic. You know, two or three sentences and a link to the creator’s website.
The other? Includes extensive information about the existing skills it requires, outlines learning outcomes, and gives you a detailed break-down of its content, with timestamps to jump to individual chapters.
At that point, it’s a bit of a no-brainer which one you’ll invest your time in.
YouTube Video Description: Best Practices
So how exactly do you craft a YouTube video description that will win over both the algorithm and your viewers? Here’s our breakdown of the best practices – drawn from years of experience.
Strategically Place Keywords
Ideally, keyword research comes before content creation. It is well-worth investing the time and effort into learning how to use SEO tools to pinpoint the keywords and phrases that your target audience uses. That means: What do they actually put in the search box?
Comparisons of keyword volume and keyword difficulty can also help you strategize which topics to cover and from which angles.
Even if you’ve already finished your content – and when you’re optimizing the video descriptions of your existing YouTube content – keyword research is vital. Use tools like Google Trends, YouTube’s Research Tab, and Ahrefs to get some numerical insights and make data-backed decisions.
Once you’ve pinpointed the keywords most likely to resonate with your target audience, include them in your video description in strategic places – including its opening sentences, chapter titles, and section headings.
Get Straight to the Point
Your video description needs to answer your viewer’s one central question first and foremost: Is this the right video for me?
The easiest way to do that? Get straight to the point. Tell them what your content is about. Don’t wax lyrical at the start of your description. There’s space for that further down. (Though you have a hard limit of 5,000 characters – so economize space!)
Structure it Properly
Your video description should be no solid wall of text. If your viewers scroll down and see a paragraph straight out of Charles Dickens? They’ll nope right out of there.
Instead, use numbering, headings, and paragraphs to properly organize your information. Structure it into sections like:
- FAQs
- Important external resources you refer to in your video
- Affiliate links or links to your own online store
- Disclosures
- Links to your related videos to help viewers make cross-references
Make it Visually Appealing
In addition to refining the structure of your video description, you should also make sure it’s easy on the reader’s eye. Breaking it up into sections helps, but there’s more you can do here.
Instead of relying only on plain text, use:
✅ Emojis
✅ Bullet points and numbered lists
✅ Formatting options like bold, italicized, and even strikethrough text.
Manually Add Chapters
Finally, you should manually add chapters to your YouTube video.
While YouTube does add chapters automatically in some cases, adding them by hand has the critical advantage that you get to tailor them to your target audience’s interests. And include your keywords in strategic places.
Chapters and timestamps give your viewers a helpful outline of your content. Especially if you’re creating tutorials, your audience will have pre-set expectations and concrete learning objectives. Seeing the structure of your video laid out clearly makes it easy to assess if it’s the right fit. They also can jump to the most relevant sections straight away – instead of closing the video entirely.
How to Add Timestamps to Your YouTube Video Description?
One of the most frequent questions creators find themselves asking is how to add timestamps to your YouTube video description.
The answer is surprisingly straightforward. In YouTube Studio, as you write your video description, type out the time at which each segment starts in hour:minute:second format.
Let’s go back to the example of our data visualization tutorial. An example of chaptering could be:
0:00 Intro: Data Visualization in Pandas
0:15 Importing Libraries for Data Visualization
0:52 Reading in Your Dataset
1:52 Using the Plot() Function in Pandas
3:00 Different Plot Types to Visualize Your Data
3:12 Line Plot
6:00 Bar Plot
7:56 Scatter Plot
Once you publish your video description, YouTube will automatically add links to the timestamps, allowing viewers to click on them and jump to the right point in your video.
Heads up: Start with 0:00 – otherwise this will not work!
You can find more information on manual and automatic chaptering in the YouTube docs.
YouTube Video Description Templates
Enough with the theory. Let’s take a look at three concrete examples of outstanding and highly effective YouTube video descriptions that you can use as templates.
Example 1: Why Brain Cancer Is So Dangerous
In this video, the Institute of Human Anatomy – a cadaver research lab – takes a closer look at brain cancer. The description template is the following:
- Sponsor shout-out
- Two-paragraph video summary with strategic keywords
- Table of contents / manually-added chapters
- Common questions related to the topic (with keywords!)
- Links to external resources
- Information on music and licensing
- Tags
Example 2: EDOF vs. Multifocal vs. Monofocal: Which Cataract Lens is Best for YOU?
In this video, Dr. Marc Shomer compares different cataract lenses. Its description is laser-focused on strategically placed keywords and calls to action to convert viewers into patients.
The structure of this YouTube video description is as follows:
- Main CTA (schedule your appointment)
- Two-paragraph video description with strategic keywords and key-phrases
- Links to related videos with more information on the topic of cataracts
- FAQs
- Chapters with strategic keywords and key-phrases
- A short bio
- CTA and external resources
- Tags
- No-sponsorship declaration (to demonstrate lack of bias)
Example 3: GitHub Basics Made Easy: A Fast Beginner's Tutorial!
Finally, in our third example, we dive into the basics of GitHub, a code sharing repository, with coding creator Eric Wise of Skill Foundry.
The structure of this video description is as follows:
- Link to GitHub course on Skill Foundry (main product)
- Four-paragraph video content description with strategic keywords, broken into intro, content description, and summary
- Calls to action and external resources (company website, contact, Discord, newsletter, social media)
- FAQs with strategic keywords
- Channel introduction with strategic keywords
- Tags
- Chapters with strategic keywords
Should You Use an AI YouTube Video Description Generator?
This wouldn’t be an article about YouTube video SEO without a mention of AI tools. Yes, there are AI Youtube video description generators that help you speed up the process.
But are they helpful?
It depends.
How AI video description generators for YouTube work varies. Some will simply take your video, generate a script, and summarize that into a description. Others require you to add your target keywords as input.
In either case, AI YouTube video description generators are capable of giving you solid drafts.
The key is to resist the temptation to copy and paste.
While the descriptions generated by AI are mostly fine – though watch out for factual errors – they are one thing above all else. Bland.
AI-generated video descriptions do not reflect your unique voice as a creator. They won’t resonate with your target audience.
In addition to that, they’re repetitive. And in most cases, they don’t natively include external links and references to your other videos.
The bottom line? Yes, AI can give you a description draft to work with. But unless you spend some serious energy manually refining it, it will be ineffective.
Streamline Your Workflow: Outsource YouTube Video Description Writing
Sounds like a lot of work? It is. Not gonna lie about that.
Deep-diving into keyword research, writing or refining descriptions, structuring and formatting everything properly, and manually adding chapters? All of that can take hours every week, depending on your content volume.
And if you’re going back through your existing videos with a view to optimizing YouTube SEO? You can easily spend days getting the descriptions right.
The more efficient approach? Outsource YouTube video description writing, along with the rest of your video SEO. Get a YouTube channel manager.
Instead of spending hours crafting video descriptions, delving into analytics, or crunching keyword research numbers, hand all these technical tasks off to a dedicated expert. In addition to your YouTube video descriptions, a channel manager will also optimize your titles and thumbnails, curate your playlists, stay on top of audience engagement, and help you refine your content strategy through data-backed insights.
Overall, this can save you dozens of hours a week, giving you the time and headspace to focus on what you do best – creating more amazing content to scale your channel.
Tasty Edits offers all-round video editing services and YouTube channel management for professional creators. Check out our portfolio – or start your first edit today!
FAQs
Can I edit my YouTube video description after uploading it?
Yes, you can modify the description of a YouTube video after you have uploaded it. To do so, go to YouTube Studio, open the “Your Content” tab, and click on the edit icon next to the video whose description you want to change.
How to edit YouTube video description after upload?
To edit the description of a YouTube video after uploading it, go to YouTube Studio, open the “Your Content” tab, and click on the edit icon next to the video.
What does a good YouTube video description look like?
A good YouTube video description clearly outlines what your content is about. It strategically places keywords and keyphrases that will allow the YouTube algorithm to pinpoint the best target audiences and determine which search queries it answers. It also breaks down exactly what your content contains through chapters and timestamps. Plus, a good video description needs to be well-structured, visually appealing, and comprehensive. It should contain all the links and information your viewers need.
What are YouTube SEO best practices for video descriptions?
Strategically place keywords and key phrases in your video description. Your most important keywords should appear right at the start of your description. Throughout, be sure to place key phrases and related keywords in your section headings and chapters.
Does the description of a YouTube video matter?
Yes, the description of a YouTube video is a key factor in video SEO. It plays a major role in deciding whether your content gets recommended by the YouTube algorithm.
