YouTube subtitles
YouTube has an automatic caption/transcript generator that uses Google’s speech-to-text algorithm. Its main goal is accessibility, to help people who are hearing impaired or who speak another language to figure out what your video is about. It is also used for search engine indexing and can therefore help with your SEO.
Unfortunately, the software’s ability to automatically generate a meaningful transcription from a video’s soundtrack leaves a bit to be desired. You can check out the transcript it generates for your video, and you’ll see what I mean! In a video I posted about building websites, the automatically generated transcript talked about mining Y Texas! None of these terms were mentioned in my video! If you want to optimize your video effectively, the best thing to do is to create a YouTube transcript file and tailor it to the right keywords that you want search engines to use to index your video. This helps all concerned. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do and does not require any expensive software.
If you haven’t already, upload your video to YouTube, put your keywords in the tag field, and give it a meaningful description as usual. Include a link to your website in the description field.
Step 1 – Keyword Research
As with any search engine optimization technique, you should start with some keyword research on the topic of your video. Identify a primary keyword that you are targeting and two to three secondary keywords.
Step 2 – Create a transcript file
YouTube will allow you to import a simple text document as a transcript file, so you don’t need any complicated software to create it. Just use notepad or similar to create a simple.txt document and write a transcript for your video. Make sure your transcript uses the keywords you identified in Step 1. If your video includes voice, try to include this script as accurately as possible, which will give the software the best chance of syncing the timings with your video.
Just in case, name the file after your main keyword.
Step 3 – Locate your YouTube video
- Sign in to YouTube
- Expand your channel. In the upper right corner, select the My videos option. This will show you a list of all your videos, including the one you want to upload the transcript for.
- Select your uploaded video that you want to optimize and click edit information
- Select the titles and subtitles desk
Step 4 – Upload the YouTube Transcript File
- Select the edit captions/subheadings from the top menu in the middle
- under Add a subtitle track on the right, click Add new subtitles or transcript button
- Use the Sail button to find your txt file on your computer, which you created in Step 2
- Select the checked radio button option transcript file. This is the one that allows you to upload a text file instead of a specialized transcription format
- Click Upload file and give it a name so you will recognize it
Google and the other search engines will now be able to index your video sensibly, using the keywords in your transcript file. It will also make a lot more sense for hard of hearing and foreign language viewers!
