Regardless of your business vertical, you are more than likely using videos in your marketing strategy. If you haven't already started generating video content we recommend you do. Most people prefer watching a video about products or services rather than reading about them. However, due the tremendous number of videos being created it might be difficult to stand out. One thing that can increase the success of your video that many content providers skip out on is closed captions. Let’s talk about how captions can elevate your video.
Google Can Crawl Captions
Regarding the SEO aspect of video in YouTube, there is an indexing SEO process that is linked through title, description, tags, and captions. However captions are optional because Google cannot watch your video content to determine how relevant it is to the title, description and tags. Adding closed captions in your videos allows Google to better rank your video compared to others that do not have captions in them. This gives you the upper hand to rank higher in the search results. So the next time you create a video make sure in your script that you are using keywords that you believe will be searched to find your video.
People Don’t Use Sound On Videos
Did you know on Facebook around 85 percent of all videos that are watched without sound? The reason is that people are scrolling through their new feed and come across the video there. If the video being played isn’t interesting it will more than likely be passed over. However, if you have captions in your video it will more than likely keep the attention of the viewer and allow them to better understand what is happening in the video. Captions will grab the attention of the viewer and help them maintain focus on the video that is being watched. It will also help encourage brand recall and associate brand recognition as you will stay in the viewer’s mind.
Make Social Videos Inclusive with Captions
There are over 37 million Americans that are deaf or hard of hearing, so having videos with only audio eliminates a large percentage of your potential audience. Additionally, around 41 percent of videos are not comprehensible due the lack of closed captioning. When you don't have captions you are missing out on the opportunity to encourage numerous potential viewers to learn about you and your content. It is also the right thing to do to make sure everyone can understand and enjoy your content.
Do Captions on Your Social Media Videos The Right Way
Before you ask yes, there is a wrong way to do captions for a video. There are strict rules you need to follow such as character limit, reading speed and cue-in and out times. If you don’t know the proper guidelines, your captions are worthless because people won't be able to read them. We recommend using the American Translators Association Directory, which has a dubbing/subbing section or you can hire a professional subtitler or captioner to do the work for you. If you have never done it before, stay away from free caption tools on the market and make sure you do it the right way.
If you're spending a lot of time creating social media videos it only makes sense to finish them off the right way and add closed captions. You will be inclusive and allow everyone to enjoy your content. You will rank also higher in YouTube because of Google crawling. Finally, on social sites like Facebook where people don’t automatically use audio, it will attract more attraction and bring more engagement to yoru videos.