You might think that embedding subtitles to your YouTube videos is a completely boring, unnecessary, extra task that you’re too busy to worry about but guess what, you’re not seeing the writing on the wall.
Including subtitles doesn’t just open you up to an audience who is hearing impaired or suffers from broken speakers; it allows Google to accurately index all of the content inside your videos – helping the very words you speak bring new viewers to your channel.
Is it a complete and total pain in the back? Absolutely. But the benefits greatly outweigh the trouble, and Justin Brown from Primal Video is here to run you through his method to make the process a breeze.
Ok take a minute to listen to what I’m saying right now… Hear me? Probably not, right?
I’m sorry, I had to make that joke. It wasn’t very funny, but my point is that you have no more idea what I said just then than Google knows what is inside the content of your videos.
YouTube and Google will automatically index all of the text inside your subtitles, improving your ranking potential, and point viewers to segments in your videos down to the second if you just bite the bullet and include them. Closed captioning used to be a long expensive process, but now it is easier than ever.
Here are some ways to get it done:
YouTube Auto Generated Subtitles
YouTube can automatically generate subtitles for you for free, but the results are usually pretty mixed. Actually, they’re bad; sometimes even down right horrible. They are so awful that there are scores of videos on YouTube making fun of YouTube for the caption fails.
However, from there you can go in and edit them! Downside, this is a time consuming process but it gives you full control and the interface is right there online.
This can also be done manually directly inside Adobe Premiere Pro in the Captions tab, which is a little easier to navigate.
Paid Transcription Services
Your second option is to use a paid transcription service like Rev. Rev uses real people to transcript your videos at a reasonable rate of $1.25/minute and is 99.8% accurate.
You can link them directly to your videos on YouTube, they’re generate the subtitles within 24 hours, and even upload and embed them back to your YouTube video. And as far as transcriptions go, $1.25/minute is pretty darn cheap.
Sit back and relax, you don’t have to do anything now. Money fixed all of your problems. It wasn’t a lot of money, and if you are posting a lot of content and getting a lot of hits on your channel this is definitely the way to go.
Conclusion
If you’re just starting out as a content creator and making short videos, doing it yourself might be the best option. It will seem like a total pain at first, but it gives you the complete flexibility to add the captions to your video, your way.
Obviously if you’re churning out content, the service offered by Rev is definitely valuable. It is quick, accurate, and you can expect to see an uptick in viewership since Google will now make that transcript searchable.
Either way, understanding the importance of including captions with your online content is essential to your success as a YouTuber. Plus, my speakers are broken and I couldn’t hear a thing you were saying anyway.
[source: Primal Video]
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