How to Seamlessly Integrate Captions Into YouTube Videos

How To Add Captions to YouTube Videos

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

By captioning your YouTube videos you help to make them accessible to more potential viewers. Subtitles are useful to viewers who have hearing impairments, whose first language is different from yours, or who are unable to watch your video with sound. Closed captioning can also be useful for you as a YouTuber because it helps with your SEO, or search engine optimization. Practicing better SEO can get your videos ranked higher in search results. Google and YouTube both index subtitles and transcripts much like they do your video’s description, unless you use automated captions.

This article will first explain how you can turn on subtitles for the videos you watch and then walk you through adding captions to your own videos.

How To Turn On Captions on YouTube

In order for you to be able to view subtitles for a YouTube video the uploader of the video will need to have added them, unless you change your account settings to display automatic captions.

To toggle subtitles on and off click on the Closed Captioning icon in the bottom right of your video player.

If the creator of the video has not added captions then you can enable automatic captions by going into your Account Settings and selecting Playback. Check the box next to Always Show Captions, and then check Show Automatic Captions by Speech Recognition. These captions may be flawed, but you will still be able to see the more accurate user submitted captions on videos that have them. The Always Show Captions feature may be useful not only to the hearing impaired, but to users who do not speak the same language as the video producer.

If you want to change the language of the subtitles click on the settings icon (the one that looks like a gear) next to the closed captioning icon and choose your language next to Subtitles/CC . If the language you want is not there select Auto-Translate and then pick a language. Google Translate will be used to generate subtitles in your chosen language.

Adding YouTube Captions in 4 Steps

1. Go to Video Manager in your Creator Studio and then look at your videos. Decide which one you want to add captions to.

2. Click on the drop-down menu next to the video you want to add captions to and choose Subtitles and CC.

3. Select Add New Subtitles or CC.

4. Choose whether to create your captions, upload a file that has them, transcribe your video, use automatic captioning, or use captioning software.

Create Subtitles or Closed Captions will allow you to create your subtitles on YouTube.

Upload A File allows you to upload a pre-made subtitle file from your computer. Supported file types include SubRip (.srt) and SubViewer (.sbv). You cannot use a word or PDF document for your subtitles.

Transcribe and Set Timings is where you can type a transcript of your video and set timings to sync it to your video. This differs from Create Subtitles or Closed Captions in that your transcript is all typed in to one text field.

Use Automatic Captioning will automatically use speech recognition technology to create captions. You can edit these auto-generated captions later if there are mistakes.

Use Captioning Software or Services is what you choose if you want to use a program or service to create the subtitles for your video.

The easiest way to add subtitles to your videos is to use Automatic Captioning. However, Automatic Captioning is imperfect and may result in your viewers getting a sloppy, skewed, interpretation of your video. Automatic captions are also not indexed by YouTube and Google the way subtitles you create or upload are. This means that they will not have any value to your SEO strategy. If you do not input your own captions or transcript you are missing out on an opportunity for better search engine rankings. Automatic Captions are great if you do not have time to input subtitles and need a temporary solution, though.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Unlocking YouTube’s Potential: Subscriber Triumph Tactics

Case Study: How to Grow on YouTube to Have Millions of Subs

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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You’ve probably heard of stories about individuals who managed to find financial success on YouTube. If your dream is to make money on YouTube it’s important to remember that regular people are doing it.

Jesse Ridgway is the owner of the vlog McJuggerNuggets , which has grown to over 3.4 million subscribers. He makes enough money to live off of YouTube alone. Here is a case study of how he made his first $10,000 on YouTube:

Case Study of McJuggerNuggets

Jesse was one of the earliest YouTubers. He started his channel on December 9, 2006. Jesse never guessed that he would make enough money to live off of the videos he was creating. Here are some of the ways that he monetized his channel:

AdSense

Monetization of videos through AdSense is one of the easiest ways that you can start to profit off your videos. Registering for a Google AdSense can earn you between $0.30 and $2.00 per thousand ad impressions (an impression is a click, not a view). How much you make per ad impression depends on a lot of things, including the time of year. There are good months for advertising revenue and bad months. December is usually the hottest month for making money through AdSense because of the holiday shopping season. Some of the other months where you can see huge profits include September for back-to-school, June, and March.

More popular channels get higher paying ads, and it is harder to earn ad revenue in popular vlogging genres (i.e. gaming) than in more obscure niches.

Target the Right Demographic

Some of the largest YouTuber success stories are creators who primarily target younger audiences. Others target men or women specifically. Think about who you want your audience to be and make videos that will appeal to them.

Multichannel Networks

Once you hit a certain level of subscribership and views you will start getting invited to MCMs. In some cases, multichannel network promotions could entitle you to discounts on merchandise and products. Be careful: a multichannel network will always want you to sign a contract, and they will take over your AdSense account.

Social Blade

This site will provide details about your subscription count, which of your videos has the best watch time, and more. It will give you a good impression of what you should be including in your videos and how you can make more money from your channel.

Uploading Your Videos at the Right Time

Uploading videos at the right time will make sure that you are on the front page of recently uploaded videos when people are let out of school or taking a break from work. This will earn you lots of views. Set an upload time for all of your videos each day and stick to that schedule.

Check out Webinars

Looking into webinars and videos of what other popular YouTube experts have done will help you model their success.

Collaborate with Other YouTubers

When you create a collab video you and your partner are each introduced to each other’s subscribers.

Keep Quality Up

Putting time and effort into every upload will ensure that you won’t lose subscribers or viewers because you got a bit lazy.

Do Follow-Up Videos

If you have a particular video that has a lot of views, you may want to consider creating follow-up videos. This can be a great way to generate lots of views.

Complete Regular Research

Regular research into your target market will help you to create the trendiest new content.

Don’t Get Discouraged

Timing and luck are definitely two of the biggest factors in becoming a success on YouTube. If you are willing to keep working and don’t get discouraged you will eventually earn profits.

Edit Your Videos with High-Quality Video Editor

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox