While YouTube now allows you to upload long videos (we’re talking about hours!), not everyone has the time, energy, and motivation to watch it. How do you convince these individuals to engage with your work? The answer is adding chapters to a YouTube video.
The video engine channel gives you some tools and techniques to include it manually or automatically. Plus, with an editing tool to help you crop a video online, you can elevate your work, making it more engaging and user-friendly.
Read this step-by-step guide to know more.
Why Should You Add YouTube Chapters?
Before we proceed to the steps, let’s find out why it pays to make an effort:
1. Increases Video Engagement
Most people these days have a very short attention span. In fact, it has been declining over the years. If we work on one screen, we could lose our train of thought in less than a minute.
If that is not bad news, it can take us over 25 minutes to refocus on the task – and that is after doing other things in between.
In other words, even a 10-minute video can feel overwhelming for an average Internet user unless they are obsessed or in deep with the subject. They can easily lose interest in a few minutes and leave your video even before they can reach the best part.
Adding YouTube chapters or segmenting your video into shorter parts can help solve this issue.
They can click on the chapter they want to watch. That way, they don’t have to spend time fast-forwarding the video and searching for their favorite part.
2. Improves User Experience (UX)
In line with the first point, adding chapters to a YouTube video can improve user experience (UX) by giving your audience more control over how they watch it.
Not everyone prefers to watch a long video from start to finish. Some may want to jump in at the middle or go directly to the end. Chapters also make it easier for viewers to identify which part of your video interests them the most.
3. Boost Rankings
This technique benefits not only the users but also you. YouTube is a search engine. Like Google, it also uses algorithms to determine a video’s relevance to the keywords.
For example, if someone searches for “how to make a cake,” YouTube will display videos related to that query. The best matches appear first, and these are the ones that could get the most clicks.
When you add chapters, YouTube can deduce what your video is about and rank it higher among the search results. Good UX also helps bolster your position on the search results.
How to Add a Chapter to a YouTube Video
Now you know the three primary reasons to include a chapter on a YouTube video, it’s time to get to the guide.
You have two options on how to do it:
- Include it automatically, which works for new uploads
- Add timestamps manually, which is ideal for old videos
Let’s begin with the first one.
Include an Automatic YouTube Chapter
Some videos are eligible for automatic YouTube chapters. Usually, these are the ones that do not have any active strikes or do not include prohibited or inappropriate content.
This feature becomes available for new uploads, although you can also turn it on for your existing work. To turn it on:
- Go to YouTube Studio.
- Choose Content from the left menu.
- Choose the video you like to edit.
- Click Chapters available.
- Press Add Chapters.
- Click Save.
You know that you have successfully turned it on when you can see a generated timestamp in your description box.
Add the Timestamps Manually
Sometimes YouTube does not break down your video into various chapters. It could be because it is not eligible for this feature.
In some cases, they divide your work into sections. However, they are inaccurate. Or you might want to have more control over how to add chapters.
If your situation is any of these, follow these steps:
- Choose Content from the left menu.
- Choose the video you like to edit.
- Go to the description box.
- Add your timestamps and titles, starting with 00:00.
- Continue adding at least three timestamps in ascending order, ensuring each is about 10 seconds or more.
- Click Save.
- Check if your video already has the chapters embedded in it.
Crop a Video Using a Third-Party Platform
Do you want to make your video look and feel better and helpful? You can use a third-party tool, such as Wave.video, to create previews or even thumbnails for every chapter.
This platform lets you upload a video, crop sections, and edit them to make them more suitable for your brand or video content. You can also:
- Add text, images, and stickers to your thumbnail.
- Include captions and subtitles.
- Save the video in various formats, such as mp4 and MOV
- Combine royalty-free and original videos and images.
These abilities allow you to create compelling videos that will help attract more viewers and boost your video’s ranking.
Conclusion
Adding chapters to a YouTube video can be the difference between making or breaking it. It helps your audience find what they are looking for, improves user experience (UX), and increases rankings on the search engine.
You can include chapters automatically or manually depending on the video’s quality. You can also use a third-party platform to crop and improve visuals for each chapter. Either way, it’s worth looking into adding them to your existing and new video content.
