YouTube Question Captions

[GamerKnoobPlays]

So I've heard different things on captions. Some things I read say that captions help out a ton and if you have the ability to add them you should be adding them to every video. Then other things I had read say that they don't matter much and to add them basically if you want to.

My question is are captions worth taking the time to create and add?

 

[BraveStar]

Yes, they are. A lot of people can't watch YouTube with volume and captions or subtitles come in handy in these situations. It's just as important to provide quality content to your biggest fans as it is to provide it with subtitles to your smallest ones. What have you got to lose other than a little bit of time? There are apps and websites that can help create subtitles. YouTube has autocaption but it's extremely flawed.

 

[GamerKnoobPlays]

Great response I saw there was an option on TubeBuddy, I think?, for making captions as well

Thank you

 

[BraveStar]

Great response I saw there was an option on TubeBuddy, I think?, for making captions as well

Thank you

Hmm, not sure about TB having that feature. But I know YT has it and you can edit it after its created.

 

[kalaspuffar]

Hi @GamerKnoobPlays

It all depends on the type of content you create. If you create gaming videos it might not be important if you do it for entertainment. If you on the other hand do tutorials with lots of details that are important then captions can help people with disabilities or that don't have English as a native language.

If you hear a word and then see it as well you might have an easier time to follow along. So I would say it depends.

My hope is that captions could help with searchability and also help everyone. I did a lot of my captions manually and it takes a lot of time.

I hope this helps.

Best regards
Daniel

 

[GamerKnoobPlays]

Hi @GamerKnoobPlays

It all depends on the type of content you create. If you create gaming videos it might not be important if you do it for entertainment. If you on the other hand do tutorials with lots of details that are important then captions can help people with disabilities or that don't have English as a native language.

If you hear a word and then see it as well you might have an easier time to follow along. So I would say it depends.

My hope is that captions could help with searchability and also help everyone. I did a lot of my captions manually and it takes a lot of time.

I hope this helps.

Best regards
Daniel

My only struggle would be that I put out 3 videos every day of the week. So to caption all of those myself would take some serious time. So I'm just weighing the pros and cons!

 

[Midas]

Captions are tough to do but you can always outsource to your viewers. You might find someone that can do it for you. You can also pay some automated services to do them I'm pretty sure. I don't really use them since I do a lot more showing than telling on both of my channels.

 

[Beanie Draws]

So I've heard different things on captions. Some things I read say that captions help out a ton and if you have the ability to add them you should be adding them to every video. Then other things I had read say that they don't matter much and to add them basically if you want to.

My question is are captions worth taking the time to create and add?

Supposedly captions hold some SEO data, but more importantly, they HELP those with hearing problems, or those who can't listen to your videos and want to READ the captions.

So the more important question (and a little bit harsh) how much do you care about your audience? YouTube have a habit of removing features that aren't used much, and community captions is one of them, seemingly pointing towards that those who are deaf or hearing impared aren't important enough for these features to exsist.

I'm captioning my videos now weather they help or not, because I want to give my audience who can't hear, even if that's only 1% of them, the opportunity to enjoy my videos. It's time consuming, but it's better than relying on auto captioning.