Need Advice What is the most effective technique to write YouTube descriptions? If you have any instances, kindly share them.

[lbsnaa_caling]

What is the most effective technique to write YouTube descriptions? If you have any instances, kindly share them.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Like in News writing YouTube understands that it is unlikely many viewers reading the description of your video are going to actually go down and ready the entire thing. They want the meat of the story and then they will move on. As such YouTube gives a weighted priority to the first 200 characters. The idea being that the first 200 characters most encompass what this video is going to be about. There is still value in the rest of your description, but it is really that first 200 characters which hold the majority of influence for how you feel your video needs to be indexed for viewers to find. So here's what I do:
First, I do my keyword research. I figure out exactly the 10-15 keyword phrases that I am going to target and in most circumstances the best one is going to be the beginning of my title for the video. Then I make sure to mention that same keyword phrase as the beginning of my description. But this is included as a sentence, so here is an example of a title/description using the keyword phrase Padre Island Surf Fishing.

Title: The BEST Padre Island Surf Fishing I've EVER SEEN!!!
Description: Today I am going to show you some of the best Padre Island surf fishing. At the beach along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico we find some of the world's best saltwater fishing ...

Notice that the description is a very natural sentence; YouTube can tell when you are simply listing tags in your description and you will get flagged for that. They want the description to be something a human being can read. But also notice that I managed to cram in a ton of keyword phrases into this very small section of description. Here are the tags that I would use:

Tags: padre island, padre island surf fishing, best padre island surf fishing, surf fishing, surf fishing at the beach

Did you see that last one? Surf fishing at the beach isn't even a phrase I use in the description... except that it is. YouTube doesn't take into account punctuation (mostly) so this is actually a phrase that exists. Not only can you take keyword phrases from the core of larger keyword phrases (like how I use 'Padre Island' as a tag as well as 'Padre Island Surf Fishing') but you can combine the beginning and end of sentences into one keyword phrase as well.

You have a limited amount of real estate available to maximize the value of your title and description. Hopefully these tips will help you in making the most out of the room you are provided!

 

[MediaMan]

fwiw..I'm finding out it's a mix of getting the attention of the YT algorithm and the viewing audience.

So this...."Check out my latest cooking video, I think it's my best one yet!"
becomes...

"This #cooking #video might just be my #best one yet!"

So something like that in the first sentence or 2 and from there on out you can add as much detail as you want. But I've definitely found out the first few sentences (and the title obviously) are vital for organic discovery. The number of hashtags can seem to influence how YT handles your content as well. I would error on the side of less rather than more.

 

[lbsnaa_caling]

Like in News writing YouTube understands that it is unlikely many viewers reading the description of your video are going to actually go down and ready the entire thing. They want the meat of the story and then they will move on. As such YouTube gives a weighted priority to the first 200 characters. The idea being that the first 200 characters most encompass what this video is going to be about. There is still value in the rest of your description, but it is really that first 200 characters which hold the majority of influence for how you feel your video needs to be indexed for viewers to find. So here's what I do:
First, I do my keyword research. I figure out exactly the 10-15 keyword phrases that I am going to target and in most circumstances the best one is going to be the beginning of my title for the video. Then I make sure to mention that same keyword phrase as the beginning of my description. But this is included as a sentence, so here is an example of a title/description using the keyword phrase Padre Island Surf Fishing.

Title: The BEST Padre Island Surf Fishing I've EVER SEEN!!!
Description: Today I am going to show you some of the best Padre Island surf fishing. At the beach along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico we find some of the world's best saltwater fishing ...

Notice that the description is a very natural sentence; YouTube can tell when you are simply listing tags in your description and you will get flagged for that. They want the description to be something a human being can read. But also notice that I managed to cram in a ton of keyword phrases into this very small section of description. Here are the tags that I would use:

Tags: padre island, padre island surf fishing, best padre island surf fishing, surf fishing, surf fishing at the beach

Did you see that last one? Surf fishing at the beach isn't even a phrase I use in the description... except that it is. YouTube doesn't take into account punctuation (mostly) so this is actually a phrase that exists. Not only can you take keyword phrases from the core of larger keyword phrases (like how I use 'Padre Island' as a tag as well as 'Padre Island Surf Fishing') but you can combine the beginning and end of sentences into one keyword phrase as well.

You have a limited amount of real estate available to maximize the value of your title and description. Hopefully these tips will help you in making the most out of the room you are provided!

Hey, Stanley thank you for this wonderful reply

 

[dbbc96]

amazing how much this tool has helped me with getting these nailed down. I didn't even realize how much actually goes into it even before uploading the content.