Social Media Advertising has its pros and cons. So, utilizing social media in digital marketing is one critical strategy in gaining visibility among your audience. Social media platforms that focus on visuals shouldn’t be left out, as “90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.” Of course, one of the more popular platforms with a visual focus is YouTube. YouTube now has Auto-generated Chapters.
One of YouTube’s more recent (and helpful) features is including Chapters in some of the videos on their platform. In addition, The Chapters are a source for metadata, making searches more accessible than ever! Now, speaking of searches, Youtube’s Auto-generated Chapters are a source for metadata. It could help you become more noticeable for Google’s Indexing processes, too! Thus, there’s a need to double SEO efforts for YouTube videos.
YouTube’s (Auto-generated) Chapters
If you love reading books, you know that chapters help divide books. They make it easy for readers to pick out favorite chapters or favorite moments with chapters! But did you realize that YouTube videos, too, have chapters?
Well, if you’re like YouTube’s 2 billion active users who spend an average of 11 minutes and 24 seconds, you’ve most likely noticed some pale lines on the video. Above the video’s progress bar, there are lightly-hued broken lines. Most times, when you hover your cursor above those lines, you see a bit of text that describes the part of the video that corresponds to that line! That’s what a YouTube Chapter is.
Additionally, there are also Automatically-generated Chapters. They weren’t generated by the creator but instead by YouTube!
How Chapters are made
YouTube Chapters can be created manually by the creator! Well, if the creator wants to make Chapters. In terms of creating the video, manually creating Chapters for various parts might be asking too much, and creators are free to opt out of doing so. However, if this is the case, YouTube can create the Chapters for you. Talk about coming in clutch!
Also, how YouTube makes its chapters depends on its systems. In Search Engine Journal’s words, “YouTube will look at what its systems identify as significant moments in a video.”
The video social media platform’s search algorithm can see and use the metadata for search results regardless of the Chapters’ origin.
Metadata for Searches: a boost for your SEO efforts!
Metadata is “describes and gives information about other data.” So, it explains or describes the data of a particular asset such as web pages or files and the like. Thus, by nature, metadata can significantly assist your SEO efforts!
One example of metadata is “a collection of information” on a document which includes:
- the author of the document;
- the document’s file size;
- keywords to describe the document; and
- the date of its creation.
In terms of SEO, Metadata works with YouTube’s video Chapters — both manually- and automatically-generated ones.
YouTube Chapters Auto-generated and not, plus Metadata: How do they all connect?
YouTube would utilize Chapters (those manually defined by the video creator) to rank search results. But now, YouTube has added auto-generated Chapters into the mix! This means that all Chapters, regardless of their origin, are now Google’s sources for metadata.
So, businesses advertising their products or services via YouTube should focus their SEO efforts on catering to metadata for searches! After all, you’ve got to hop onto current trends to get ahead of your competitors, especially in SEO. So, take advantage of Youtube Chapters metadata, and you can take control of search results!
Additional concerns on Auto Chapters
However, when it comes to Automatically-generated Chapters, there’s one adage you need to remember: ‘if you want something done right, do it yourself.’ Just because YouTube generated the Chapters for you doesn’t necessarily mean that you can continue SEO efforts as usual!
Although it’s great that YouTube considers the metadata in Auto Chapters for searches, you’ve still got to contend with Search Engine Optimization. Additionally, YouTube might not get your desired keywords right. If you allow YouTube to generate the Chapters and not check their work, you might risk losing out on some choice SEO.
So, you’ve got to keep on your toes at all times! Lay claim to the best keywords that describe your brand!
But, you can avoid the Auto Chapters issue entirely if you’re the kind to create manually make Chapters for your videos. Also, there may be times that YouTube’s Automatically-generated Chapters aren’t satisfactory. You can always edit them yourself! Otherwise, you can opt not to have Chapters on your videos at all. Opting out can involve a particular video or the entire channel!
The metadata from the video Chapters is a new goldmine for SEO!
Utilizing YouTube’s Automatically-generated Chapters’ metadata for searches can boost a business’ YouTube SEO! Chapters are a recent feature that can divide a video into parts, depending on who created said parts. The creator of the video can manually create its Chapters. However, if the creator didn’t make Chapters, YouTube can step in and automatically create Chapters.
But, this isn’t a 100% guarantee that the Automatically-generated Chapters will help you with your SEO efforts! YouTube may not have your SEO strategies in mind when creating the Auto Chapters. So, it’s best to check your YouTube videos for Auto Chapters and change them if they’re cramping your style. Then, your business digital marketing strategy will be better for it!
