How Important Are YouTube Descriptions?

There are many important features that a YouTube creator must pay attention to. If you ignore a feature, it could result in less success for you and your channel. One such feature many creators tend to ignore is YouTube video descriptions. But how important are YouTube descriptions?

Many creators do not take the time to fill out their video descriptions. They put a couple of links to their social media profiles in their description boxes and they move on. The thing is, YouTube descriptions are very important when it comes to video search engine optimization (SEO). It's in your best interest not to ignore descriptions, as doing so could cost you views.

Building a YouTube channel is quite difficult. There are a lot of tasks that you will have to perform if you want to achieve success. Many creators struggle to find the energy to write a solid video description, but their laziness ends up costing them lots of views. If you don't want to lose out on views for your videos, I recommend you read this article.

What Is the Description of a YouTube Video

Before we go any further we must answer the question: What is the description of a YouTube video? While many features have been around for ages on YouTube, some features have gotten less attention. One such feature is the video description box. So, we first must go over what a description is.

The description of a YouTube video is located where information about a video can be provided. In the description box of a video, you have the opportunity to write up to 5000 characters. Most people tend to insert as many URLs as possible into their descriptions, but it's in your best interest to describe the video at hand.

While YouTube might be a video-centric platform, the written word still has value. Algorithms cannot watch videos, so they scan text. If algorithms could scan videos, then the description box would not exist. Always remember, the description box is a place to describe the video at hand- not a place to paste URLs.

Importance of YouTube Description

The importance of YouTube description boxes cannot be stated enough. Descriptions have the power to completely alter the performance of a video. It's for this reason that I stress the importance of filling descriptions with keywords and information about videos. It's in your best interest to put yourself in the position to succeed, and descriptions can help you achieve success.

Many creators believe that descriptions are on YouTube for viewers. While viewers do look at description boxes, the YouTube algorithm looks at them more. You see, the algorithm cannot watch videos. So, it scans text (metadata) to determine what a video is about. One such area the algorithm scans is the description box of a video.

As you may know from reading some of my past articles, the more information the algorithm has about a video, the better. This is why filling out YouTube descriptions with relevant information is so important- it helps the algorithm recognize the subject matter of the video. When the algorithm knows what a video is about, it can promote it more effectively.

There are a lot of tasks you must perform as a content creator. It seems like the list of tasks never ends. While energy might get taken up by different tasks, you mustn't skip over writing YouTube descriptions. You must write solid descriptions so the algorithm can determine what your videos are about. Failure to do so will cost you views.

How to Describe a Video on YouTube

Often, when creators agree that descriptions are important, they wonder how to describe a video on YouTube effectively. After all, that's what you're supposed to do in a video description- describe the video, right? This is only sort-of true. While you are describing the video, you are more-so providing information about the video.

When writing a description, the point isn't to write about what happens in the video. The point is to give information regarding the events or discussions that take place in the video. You don't need to describe the process of someone removing a lid from a jar. You need to explain why the lid was taken off the jar, what the result was, and how it benefits the viewer.

Writing a keyword-rich YouTube description containing tags can be a difficult task initially. When you first start making an effort to fill your descriptions, you will struggle to find words. However, this will not be an issue as you continue to write more descriptions. When I first started writing descriptions, it was a time-consuming process. Now, it's a quick and easy process.

Just remember, you don't need to use up all 5000 characters that you have at your disposal. However, it is best to have a minimum of 1 to 2 paragraphs that contain relevant information about your videos. You want to give lots of relevant information to the YouTube algorithm, and writing a sentence or two won't provide the algorithm with much information.

Conclusion

Before reading this article, you were probably asking yourself: "How important are YouTube descriptions?" Now, you should know the answer to this question. Descriptions are very important as they help the YouTube algorithm determine the subject matter of your videos. If you do not provide the algorithm with information, it cannot promote videos as effectively.

Moving forward, try to fill out all of the description boxes for your videos with relevant information. While large YouTube channels do not utilize descriptions, large channels are completely different than your channel. You need to put yourself in the best position possible to achieve success, and part of doing so is filling out the descriptions of your videos.