Are closed captions really worth it?

magnamious

magnamious

YTtalk Mad
So I heard that if you do closed captions, it helps when people search for your videos? Is this really true? Is it worth going through all that trouble or does it not really matter?
 
If your videos have a dedicated script, I would recommend it. It doesn't take but 3-5 minutes to save the script as a txt file and upload it.
Otherwise, I would take the time needed to type out subtitles and just use it to make more content.
Depends on your audience though. Do what they want.
 
I've had videos found because of single words in the captions. The words didn't have anything to do with the videos' topics, but yeah, theoretically it works. Also, if you do this you can reach all the people who have trouble understanding English and rely on captions. And more importantly, don't exclude people who are hard of hearing. I literally got a comment from someone thanking me for captioning.
 
I used to close caption my videos, they are all about space and science. I would often I would discuss a topic briefly but it wouldn't be in the description or tags and it helped being in the the closed captions. So I guess it would help but it does depend on how long it takes you so if it takes you ages just for a few more views then it's not worth it.
Plus I found that literally no one read my captions :(
 
Every where I read says it helps. I've been subtitling my videos for around 10 months now. Do I see any significant increase anywhere? I'm not sure, maybe there is but I just didn't notice much. Now from my analytics, it always says the views with subtitles are 7-8% of my total views.

As an example, this is from my lifetime analytics:
upload_2016-6-15_19-21-57.png
It shows 7.9% viewed with CC on.

Edit to add this: I guess its better to have that 8 percent than not having it at all. So just add it to get that extra few views that you might lose out from not having any CC. :)
 
Of course they are! It not only benefits search and SEO, it also has so many other benefits. First and foremost it is a civic right for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to be able to access any content on the Internet. Captions can also help people who know English as a second language, people who may be in a space where they are unable to play sound (work, library) or even a loud place where they can't hear. Rikki Poynter has a great video that explains why YouTubers must caption their videos (its called YouTubers, You Need to Closed Caption Your Videos! | closed captioned)
. And don't use the auto captions! They're terrible. Just write a script for the videos you make and it shouldn't take too much time to add captions. There are also services that will create captions for you for $1-$3 per minute of video. Pretty cheap.
 
SabrinaKom said:
I've had videos found because of single words in the captions. The words didn't have anything to do with the videos' topics, but yeah, theoretically it works. Also, if you do this you can reach all the people who have trouble understanding English and rely on captions. And more importantly, don't exclude people who are hard of hearing. I literally got a comment from someone thanking me for captioning.
Click to expand...
Automatic Sync said:
Of course they are! It not only benefits search and SEO, it also has so many other benefits. First and foremost it is a civic right for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to be able to access any content on the Internet. Captions can also help people who know English as a second language, people who may be in a space where they are unable to play sound (work, library) or even a loud place where they can't hear. Rikki Poynter has a great video that explains why YouTubers must caption their videos (its called YouTubers, You Need to Closed Caption Your Videos! | closed captioned)
. And don't use the auto captions! They're terrible. Just write a script for the videos you make and it shouldn't take too much time to add captions. There are also services that will create captions for you for $1-$3 per minute of video. Pretty cheap.
Click to expand...
Thank you all so much for you help! Now I know I'll do CC!
wasabiroots said:
Every where I read says it helps. I've been subtitling my videos for around 10 months now. Do I see any significant increase anywhere? I'm not sure, maybe there is but I just didn't notice much. Now from my analytics, it always says the views with subtitles are 7-8% of my total views.

As an example, this is from my lifetime analytics:
View attachment 35887
It shows 7.9% viewed with CC on.

Edit to add this: I guess its better to have that 8 percent than not having it at all. So just add it to get that extra few views that you might lose out from not having any CC. :)
Click to expand...
So how do you view the amount of people watching your video with CC?
 
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