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Two (often overlooked) ways community captions can help your YouTube channel grow.

September 21, 2020
Overlooked benefits of community captions

Since I started working on Captionfy I have learned a lot more about the benefits of having captions on your Youtube videos, especially if these captions were made by your fans.

1. Captions help with SEO

When you upload a video to YouTube, YouTube automatically generates captions for your video. However, these auto-generated captions are often inaccurate and can contain errors. By having accurate captions, either created by you or your community, you're providing YouTube with more accurate information about your video's content.

This means that your video is more likely to show up in search results when people search for specific terms mentioned in your video. Additionally, YouTube's algorithm can better understand the content of your video, potentially leading to more recommendations and views.

2. Captions increase watch time

Watch time is a crucial metric for YouTube's algorithm. Videos with higher watch times are more likely to be recommended to other viewers. Captions can significantly increase watch time in several ways:

  • They make your content accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, expanding your audience.
  • They help viewers who are watching without sound (e.g., in public places or at work) understand your content.
  • They assist non-native speakers in understanding your content, potentially increasing your international audience.

By having community-generated captions, you're not only saving time and resources but also engaging your audience and potentially improving the quality of the captions, as fans who are familiar with your content can provide more accurate and context-appropriate captions.

Conclusion

Incorporating community captions into your YouTube strategy can have significant benefits for your channel's growth. It's not just about accessibility (although that's incredibly important); it's also about improving your SEO, increasing watch time, and engaging your community. By leveraging tools like Captionfy, you can easily manage and implement community captions, helping your channel reach its full potential.