Add YouTube subtitles | our practical advice

Adding YouTube subtitles is the finest way to boost the journal of a video. Easy to find, this option is offered by most broadcasting platforms. It gives an undeniable marketing impact to your message and brings added value to your video. We tell you everything about your interest in adding video subtitles. 

Why add subtitles to YouTube?

To expand your audience

We will present some figures later, to expand your audience, video is an essential tool. In addition, in order for people who are hard of hearing to be able to view your video, subtitling is essential. Just like a movie or TV show, a YouTube video is an audiovisual document. You must treat it as such. This is why taking the time to add subtitles to YouTube is crucial. This is not only the way to expand your audience, but also to convey a message of equality and diversity, which will make you friendlier.

Understand the video even without sound thanks to video subtitles

As you have understood, subtitling is not only intended for the hearing impaired, quite the contrary! How many times have you come across a video that is impossible to understand without sound? How many times have you regretted that the dialogues were incomprehensible? 

Whether at the office, on public transport, with the family, or simply at home, alone, in a moment of calm, you can’t turn on the sound? How to get the important information from the video you just found? In this very common situation, subtitles are relevant and essential.

To improve the user experience

Finally, the engines scan everything, even the subtitles of the videos! They will place you in a better position in the search results if, in your optimization strategy, you think about creating dialogues that meet these user comfort requirements.

Also, the videos you post may not always be made by you. The sound may not be of high quality, or the language may be foreign to the language spoken in your geographical area. In this case, subtitles seem essential to improve the user experience.  

How to add subtitles under a video?

Connect to your YouTube channel  

Yes, you have to create your own channel to be able to post your videos. It’s simple, don’t hesitate. Then, go to the page of your video when you have loaded it, then at the bottom right, click on the settings icon (circled in red):

To add captions to a YouTube video:

A drop-down menu appears, put your mouse on subtitles, and click on it. A second menu appears, click on subtitles then again click on add subtitles. A new YouTube page opens, (you enter the Creator studio application), and you arrive on this aspect:

How to add subtitles to YouTube?

Click on the blue rectangle “select a language”, another drop-down menu appears, choose “French”. The following page opens:

Write YouTube subtitles yourself

Are you ready? On the left of the player, in the small frame, you enter your text, where the dialogue starts, or where you want to put your voice-over, or commentary. Press play, reading starts, pause when you want to write. You cue your subtitles that way.

When the Journalist Writing Company has finished writing, click on the blue cross, and your comment will automatically appear in the image. You can correct the text live, the changes are taken into account automatically by YouTube. It’s simple, smooth, and fast. See below, I typed the text, it is displayed directly under the image after clicking on the blue cross.

In the timeline, the subtitles appear in an inset. By stretching it, you can lengthen the duration of the appearance of the subtitles, and by sliding it, perfectly adjust the timing of their start according to the image.

How to add subtitles to YouTube?

When you’re done, click the blue “send to contribution” button. A certain time elapses between the moment of sending and the display of the subtitles. This is YouTube community review time.

If the video was shot before thinking about the texts to display, it is of course impossible to optimize them. But nothing prevents you from adding small interests, to place elements of optimized contents. As here, for a video on shore fishing by the sea, it would be entirely possible to add elements such as “shore fishing coast to coast of Nacre”, or “How to fish on foot by the sea”.

Video, the lethal weapon in web marketing

Create and feed your YouTube channel

Think: what would interest you the most as an Internet user? A feature article on how to clean your car, or several videos showing the different ways to quickly get a shiny vehicle? Without a doubt, the videos, right? They are powerful tools, shared more easily by Internet users than an article.  

To be able to publish videos, you have previously created a YouTube channel (good to know, the platform comes first among the most used social networks, ahead of Facebook, with 40 minutes per day, but in 2nd position in terms of number of users per month – 1500). The game is worth the candle. But it will also be necessary to feed it regularly, to make it live. It takes time, a good web editor can take care of it for you. 

Take the example of a site selling vintage cars. You will be able to post on your blog devoted to vintage vehicles, or as a guest on specialized social networks, videos showing the lifestyle linked to old vehicles. You can also show the possibilities of rides in classic cars, or even videos showing how to protect your vehicle from bad weather, etc. This will have a real impact in terms of audience.

Video explodes in ways to connect

Figures: 1 in 2 French people consult YouTube every day (from 16 to 44 years old), the time spent on YouTube increased by 40% between 2015 and 2016, and more than ⅔ go there with their smartphone. 37 million French people go there every month, i.e. 80% of the connected population. Young people are particularly concerned: 8 out of 10 French people aged 16 to 24 go to YouTube at least once a day.

The 5 most consumed segments, in order of importance, in online video: music, lifestyle, sport, DIY, comedy. On YouTube, in France, the favorite categories are music, humor and tutorials. In terms of daily viewing time, YouTube ranks 5th behind the major DTT channels. Other numbers?

French Internet users search first on YouTube

YouTube is the favorite service of connected French users, 70% of them (under 35) think that it is a source of new trends. 85% of users (18-65) say they usually find a video about anything they search or want to see. Finally, 44% of videos on the internet are watched on mobile.

In 2020, analysts predict that 82% of data on the internet will be video. Currently, video viewing time accounts for 20% of time spent online. Many people watch TV on YouTube, but also YouTube on their TV.

Video, and therefore YouTube, is an essential tool that you must use in your marketing strategy if you really want to reach your target audience.

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