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One of the more valuable aspects of YouTube and Google is the unabated ability to get in front of a global audience. Never before could some random user make a product and put it in front of eyes on the other end of the globe... and today it can be done in minutes, for multiple countries and cultures and you don't ever have to have spoken a word of the language you are getting front of.
YouTube offers you the ability to translate your videos into multiple languages so that you can provide value to those whom you normally would not reach and the process for doing so is actually very easy... but there are some tricks and things you need to know in order to do this successfully. I am not only going to show you how to translate your videos for an international audience, but I will also show you how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes that are made when doing so.
Translating your video begins after you have uploaded it. For a variety of reasons I would encourage you to upload your videos as Private or Unlisted (preferably Unlisted). One of the reasons is so that you can do your translations before the video goes public, but it also allows YouTube's Adsense partners to review your video and issue demonitization flags before it goes public. That way you can fix things before they are an issue.
For avid TubeBuddy users you first need to do your keyword research; you want to have your Title and Description totally planned out and packed with keywords before you translate. All of your metadata is going to get translated and you want to match your discovery in different countries as much as you do here. However, one thing to be mindful of is cultural and geographical differences that can render the value of your translation null. An example of this is when you target keyword phrases for locations. If you are targeting terms related to 'fishing on padre island texas' then people in South Korea are not likely to care. It is better in this sense to target something more general, like 'beach fishing on an island.' For the purposes of translations you can actually write two different sets of titles/descriptions. Write the title/description that matches what you want your international audience to see and make your translations, then go back afterwards and enter your original title/description.
Once your metadata is all ready to go you can begin translating. To do so first go to your Video Details page and select 'Subtitles' from the menu at the left or right side of the screen:
The single most important step to translations is to first edit your captions. This can actually be a pretty important step in the video upload process regardless of translations. YouTube automatically captions your videos for you... and it is comical how bad these auto-captions can be. Often do they not only get it wrong but they seem to recognize and change the most mundane statements into curse words... which can directly affect your discovery and monetization. To edit these captions select 'DUPLICATE AND EDIT' in the first set of captions.
On this screen you can either go through the mass amount of text that has been auto-captioned and simply re-write anything that is incorrect. Personally I select 'EDIT TIMINGS' so that I can not only edit the text itself but when it appears on screen. I go through each and every statement making sure that words are spelled correctly. If something appears confusing I will even cut down and simplify the caption. The key here is so that someone watching who can not hear can still get the gist of what is happening. The captions need to be clear and concise and it is important to recognize that any metadata for your video that is mentioned is done so well. YouTube is listening and it is very likely they are looking at keywords in the captions of your videos. I can't confirm this... but I can confirm that YouTube is listening and that we know they are at least listening for curse words and advertiser flags.
Once your captions have been edited hit 'PUBLISH' and the hard part is over. It's time to start adding languages... so go ahead and hit that 'ADD LANGAUGE' button and let's roll!
When you hit add language you are given an option of what language to add. Once you have selected a language it will be added to the list of languages your video is available in. Hit 'ADD' under the Subtitles option for this language and it will open a menu for various translation options. Hit 'Auto-Translate' and YouTube will automatically translate your captions in this language for you.
Note: If you have not edited your captions and published them then the auto-translate feature here will be greyed out. You can not auto-translate generic auto-captions.
Next hit 'ADD' under this languages Title and Description. This opens a screen with your title and description in it's original language on the left and allows you to enter your translated titles/description in the right. You need to have your title and description copied onto a word doc or sticky note. At this stage I open two browser windows to Google Translate and put them side by side. One contains my title and the other contains my description. That way you can go and simply change the language for each translation, copy and paste into the translated section.
Note: TubeBuddy Legend users will have the option to auto-translate here... making this portion of the process far less painstaking. Just hit that TB TRANSLATE button and the title/description get automatically filled out for you.
And that is it, the video has now been translated. After the captions are done it is really an easy process and something that takes about 30 minutes to complete once you get the hang of it. What's fun about this is that you stand a chance for ranking for these translated terms just like anything else. Not only does this put you in front of foreign eyes but you can also hold foreign search ranks. You can't really check that and they are not as important as your regular ranks, but keep an eye on the YouTube Search Traffic Reach under the Reach tab of your video's analytics to see what keywords you are gaining the most traffic from. As you begin to translate videos they will begin to trend in various other languages as well:
Some final notes for translations:
No, they are not perfect. It is important to try and keep those captions simple because YouTube gets translations wrong. But it is a free ay to get in front of a lot more eyes. Having done translations for about four years now I personally see about 17% of my traffic from foreign sources, which is worth it to me. I've had a couple videos pop in different countries for weird reasons I can not describe, but it worked. Be advised that CPM's globally fluctuate and can be vastly different than what you typically see.
YouTube offers you the ability to translate your videos into multiple languages so that you can provide value to those whom you normally would not reach and the process for doing so is actually very easy... but there are some tricks and things you need to know in order to do this successfully. I am not only going to show you how to translate your videos for an international audience, but I will also show you how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes that are made when doing so.
Translating your video begins after you have uploaded it. For a variety of reasons I would encourage you to upload your videos as Private or Unlisted (preferably Unlisted). One of the reasons is so that you can do your translations before the video goes public, but it also allows YouTube's Adsense partners to review your video and issue demonitization flags before it goes public. That way you can fix things before they are an issue.
For avid TubeBuddy users you first need to do your keyword research; you want to have your Title and Description totally planned out and packed with keywords before you translate. All of your metadata is going to get translated and you want to match your discovery in different countries as much as you do here. However, one thing to be mindful of is cultural and geographical differences that can render the value of your translation null. An example of this is when you target keyword phrases for locations. If you are targeting terms related to 'fishing on padre island texas' then people in South Korea are not likely to care. It is better in this sense to target something more general, like 'beach fishing on an island.' For the purposes of translations you can actually write two different sets of titles/descriptions. Write the title/description that matches what you want your international audience to see and make your translations, then go back afterwards and enter your original title/description.
Once your metadata is all ready to go you can begin translating. To do so first go to your Video Details page and select 'Subtitles' from the menu at the left or right side of the screen:
The single most important step to translations is to first edit your captions. This can actually be a pretty important step in the video upload process regardless of translations. YouTube automatically captions your videos for you... and it is comical how bad these auto-captions can be. Often do they not only get it wrong but they seem to recognize and change the most mundane statements into curse words... which can directly affect your discovery and monetization. To edit these captions select 'DUPLICATE AND EDIT' in the first set of captions.
On this screen you can either go through the mass amount of text that has been auto-captioned and simply re-write anything that is incorrect. Personally I select 'EDIT TIMINGS' so that I can not only edit the text itself but when it appears on screen. I go through each and every statement making sure that words are spelled correctly. If something appears confusing I will even cut down and simplify the caption. The key here is so that someone watching who can not hear can still get the gist of what is happening. The captions need to be clear and concise and it is important to recognize that any metadata for your video that is mentioned is done so well. YouTube is listening and it is very likely they are looking at keywords in the captions of your videos. I can't confirm this... but I can confirm that YouTube is listening and that we know they are at least listening for curse words and advertiser flags.
Once your captions have been edited hit 'PUBLISH' and the hard part is over. It's time to start adding languages... so go ahead and hit that 'ADD LANGAUGE' button and let's roll!
When you hit add language you are given an option of what language to add. Once you have selected a language it will be added to the list of languages your video is available in. Hit 'ADD' under the Subtitles option for this language and it will open a menu for various translation options. Hit 'Auto-Translate' and YouTube will automatically translate your captions in this language for you.
Note: If you have not edited your captions and published them then the auto-translate feature here will be greyed out. You can not auto-translate generic auto-captions.
Next hit 'ADD' under this languages Title and Description. This opens a screen with your title and description in it's original language on the left and allows you to enter your translated titles/description in the right. You need to have your title and description copied onto a word doc or sticky note. At this stage I open two browser windows to Google Translate and put them side by side. One contains my title and the other contains my description. That way you can go and simply change the language for each translation, copy and paste into the translated section.
Note: TubeBuddy Legend users will have the option to auto-translate here... making this portion of the process far less painstaking. Just hit that TB TRANSLATE button and the title/description get automatically filled out for you.
And that is it, the video has now been translated. After the captions are done it is really an easy process and something that takes about 30 minutes to complete once you get the hang of it. What's fun about this is that you stand a chance for ranking for these translated terms just like anything else. Not only does this put you in front of foreign eyes but you can also hold foreign search ranks. You can't really check that and they are not as important as your regular ranks, but keep an eye on the YouTube Search Traffic Reach under the Reach tab of your video's analytics to see what keywords you are gaining the most traffic from. As you begin to translate videos they will begin to trend in various other languages as well:
Some final notes for translations:
No, they are not perfect. It is important to try and keep those captions simple because YouTube gets translations wrong. But it is a free ay to get in front of a lot more eyes. Having done translations for about four years now I personally see about 17% of my traffic from foreign sources, which is worth it to me. I've had a couple videos pop in different countries for weird reasons I can not describe, but it worked. Be advised that CPM's globally fluctuate and can be vastly different than what you typically see.
