Writing a YouTube description helps a great deal during marketing. You can organically boost your view counts, watch time, subscription and SEO when the description on your about page and below your posted videos is well written.

To write the best YouTube description, you need to ensure you use keywords that match your content, let viewers know what to expect when watching your videos, and use a compelling summary. You should write all these in a language they’ll understand.

When you write the perfect YouTube description, viewers would easily find your videos and also know what to expect even before watching them. Keep reading and find out how you can write the best YouTube description for your channel.

Types of YouTube Description

There are two places you should write descriptions on your channel. The first is in your “About” page while the other is below each of the videos you post. When you write a full description in your about page, your viewers know the kind of contents to expect from your brand. And when it’s below your videos, they decide if it’s worth watching or not.

Tips for Writing Effective YouTube Description

The first tip for writing a useful YouTube description is:

Using keywords

Keywords are the best tools for content marketing. They are irreplaceable, and the sooner you learn how to use them, the better your online marketing strategy. When writing a description for your videos or channel, it is essential to use keywords that will describe your content.

Using the right keywords helps you beat the YouTube algorithm and leads traffic to your channel and contents. You don’t need lots of keywords in your content; two or three will do the trick. You only need to choose words that accurately describe your channel or content.

Repeat the keywords to increase its relevancy and attract YouTube to your channel. However, don’t stuff your description with keywords as it will make it look unprofessional and probably confuse your viewers.

Use the best keywords relating to your content in the first two to three sentences because YouTube’s algorithm prioritizes the first sentences of your description.

Aside from using the exact keywords that describe your content, you can try using related keywords. For instance, if your channel is about hair treatment, you can include complimentary hair dyes, black hair, and so on. It will make you rank in searches related to those words which increases your brand’s visibility.

Be honest to your viewers

Your viewers should know what to expect from your videos before opening it. Most channels tend to use clickbait titles for their description, and this can be very annoying. Fine, it will get viewers to open it, but they will stop halfway. And they are not going to click on your videos anymore neither will they subscribe to your channel.

It might help with your ranking at first, but along the line, your reputation and search ranking will get damaged in the process because the YouTube algorithm will notice.

Use a comprehensive language

In a bid to stuff their YouTube description with keywords, some channels end up writing incomprehensibly. If you want more viewers, write in words, they will comprehend. Learn to incorporate your keywords in a way that it syncs naturally with the sentence.

Also, let the first sentence summarize the entire description before going into more details in the follow-up sentences. The reason being it’s the first thing that shows up on the watch page, and for the viewers to see all the description, they’ll have to click on the “show more.”

Use hashtags

Hashtags are also known to increase the visibility of your content to allow viewers to find you. But when using hashtags, try not to go overboard. Stick with 15 or less to be in the right standing with YouTube. Also, ensure you only use hashtags relevant to your videos to avoid misleading your viewers.

Include value propositions

Let your viewers know in the about page what they stand to gain from subscribing to your channel. Let them also see how the various videos you upload will be beneficial.

Avoid template description

In a bid to save time, you might get tempted to use YouTube description templates for your videos. That might be the wrong decision! Research has it that using unique description increases your rank than the defaults.

However, you can always use templates known as default description when adding other basic info like social media links, contacts, and metadata to videos you upload.

Add metadata and links

Links and metadata help tell your viewers more about your brand. You should add your social media handles, product links, and metadata to the video description before uploading. You can also add a brief channel description. When including your links, use http:// or https:// to make it clickable.

Model after your competitors

If you are not sure of the keywords to use, you can always search for popular videos and copy their keyword and add to yours.

Use timestamps

Let your viewers know you value their time! Add timestamps to allow them to skip objectionable content to what they want to watch. Use this when posting long tutorial videos or music albums.

Use call to actions

What will you do with all the attention you viewers are giving? Use it to your marketing advantage. Include a call-to-action informing them of the need to subscribe to your channel, watch other related videos, comment, or read more. Add links to your associated videos to make it easy for them to decide to watch.

Use multiple devices to test the description

If you have used a pc to write your YouTube description, check how it looks like using a phone or tablet. See if the description is visible enough and well-formatted for the viewers to understand.

Watch your videos using search and videos. It will help you know if your keywords got omitted through system error.

Help your audience

You can do this by adding links to resources you have mentioned in your video that you feel may help them in your video description. For example, if you are doing a tutorial on web design, you can add links to tools that can help with their designs.