YouTube Question Am I allowed to advertise my t-shirts in the video description?

[Inka Bazinka ASMR]

Hello, is it ok to post a link in the description of all my videos directing people to buy a t-shirt I’ve designed? I know that I’ve seen people sell all kinds of things in the description box, but given the recent changes with YouTube, I though I’d ask.
All the best,
Inga

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Absolutely you can. Be advised; you do not want to do so in the beginning of your description... in particular the first 200 characters. These are weighted heavily for discovery and a link can throw off YouTube's desire to share your video out (not to mention it is a waste of good real estate for metadata).

YouTube's Search and Discovery Systems (the 'Algorithm') is a little unclear on links... I have seen channels with big issues resulting from links in their description. They don't have an issue with links in general... but if you lead too much traffic away from YouTube it is possible that can affect how much YouTube shares our your video. They don't want to lose viewers because of your links. This is rare though, I don't know the particulars other than I know it takes a LOT of link traffic to cause issues but generally speaking I wouldn't worry about it too much. Especially not for one link to some shirts.

 

[Inka Bazinka ASMR]

Absolutely you can. Be advised; you do not want to do so in the beginning of your description... in particular the first 200 characters. These are weighted heavily for discovery and a link can throw off YouTube's desire to share your video out (not to mention it is a waste of good real estate for metadata).

YouTube's Search and Discovery Systems (the 'Algorithm') is a little unclear on links... I have seen channels with big issues resulting from links in their description. They don't have an issue with links in general... but if you lead too much traffic away from YouTube it is possible that can affect how much YouTube shares our your video. They don't want to lose viewers because of your links. This is rare though, I don't know the particulars other than I know it takes a LOT of link traffic to cause issues but generally speaking I wouldn't worry about it too much. Especially not for one link to some shirts.

Well thank you so much for the reply. I have another question then. I currently use the Vid2Vid feature of TubeBuddy. This inserts a YouTube link to my other videos in the first 200 characters of the description. Can this also get me in trouble, or are YouTube links ok, and only external links should be at the bottom?Thank you!
Inga

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Whew! That is a good question! And not one that I can give you a direct, affirmative answer to. You are not going to get in trouble for posting links to other on-platform content. In fact YouTube rewards you for doing so, though you don't get to see this. We all worry about watch time, right? What you don't see is studio watch time. For example, if you make a five minute video with an end screen that leads to another five minute video and both get 100% AVD then that first video gets an AVD of 5 minutes... but it gets credit for 10 minutes worth of studio watch time. This is a VERY generic representation of how that works, but it explains the importance of getting viewers to watch until the end of the video.

So a YouTube link is not going to hurt you. What does hurt you is that those first 200 characters are prime real estate for meta data... you really want to put as many of your most high-value keywords in there as you can fit naturally. A YT link takes up a lot of room... room that could go to keywords. The link is much better placed after the initial video description.

Unless...

Ok so there is one other thing that creators will do which throws this off but is worth mentioning. You can put a YouTube link in the very top of the description. I don't like this idea, but there is some reason for it. The majority of viewers do not click on the description to read it, they simply see the first 140 characters which are shown just beneath the actual video (when viewed on mobile). That being the case this gives them a change to click that link because it is right there in their face. It's a link that they must pass in order to write a comment (and you should also have a pinned comment with a link to another video). The idea here is that you want to get as many opportunities for these viewers to click on a link and watch another video as possible.

 

[Inka Bazinka ASMR]

Whew! That is a good question! And not one that I can give you a direct, affirmative answer to. You are not going to get in trouble for posting links to other on-platform content. In fact YouTube rewards you for doing so, though you don't get to see this. We all worry about watch time, right? What you don't see is studio watch time. For example, if you make a five minute video with an end screen that leads to another five minute video and both get 100% AVD then that first video gets an AVD of 5 minutes... but it gets credit for 10 minutes worth of studio watch time. This is a VERY generic representation of how that works, but it explains the importance of getting viewers to watch until the end of the video.

So a YouTube link is not going to hurt you. What does hurt you is that those first 200 characters are prime real estate for meta data... you really want to put as many of your most high-value keywords in there as you can fit naturally. A YT link takes up a lot of room... room that could go to keywords. The link is much better placed after the initial video description.

Unless...

Ok so there is one other thing that creators will do which throws this off but is worth mentioning. You can put a YouTube link in the very top of the description. I don't like this idea, but there is some reason for it. The majority of viewers do not click on the description to read it, they simply see the first 140 characters which are shown just beneath the actual video (when viewed on mobile). That being the case this gives them a change to click that link because it is right there in their face. It's a link that they must pass in order to write a comment (and you should also have a pinned comment with a link to another video). The idea here is that you want to get as many opportunities for these viewers to click on a link and watch another video as possible.

Ok, that all makes sense. I think if the first 200 characters are so relevant then they should be a combination of meta data and the link to a different YouTube video.

And then I have another question, today I made a #short and I’m not quite sure if the description box of a short should be similar to that of regular YouTube videos?
Thank you so much! This helps me out a lot.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Ok, that all makes sense. I think if the first 200 characters are so relevant then they should be a combination of meta data and the link to a different YouTube video.

And then I have another question, today I made a #short and I’m not quite sure if the description box of a short should be similar to that of regular YouTube videos?
Thank you so much! This helps me out a lot.

A Shorts video has a life as a regular video once it is no longer on the Shorts Shelf. For that reason it is a good practice to go ahead and treat it like a regular video; custom thumbnails, descriptions etc are a good practice.

 

[Inka Bazinka ASMR]

A Shorts video has a life as a regular video once it is no longer on the Shorts Shelf. For that reason it is a good practice to go ahead and treat it like a regular video; custom thumbnails, descriptions etc are a good practice.

Thank you so much! This is very helpful!