Guide to Structuring YouTube Content with Separate Chapters

How to Add Chapters to YouTube Videos

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Top FREE Apps for YouTube Gallery Downloading

10 Free YouTube Thumbnail Downloaders/Savers Online-Download YouTube Thumbnail

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube thumbnails can be required for download for various reasons ranging from personal to professional. Some thumbnails are very attractive, and users might want to download YouTube thumbnail to use as wallpaper or as inspiration. Whereas other times, thumbnails are required to be added to blogs.

In either case, you can take help from a YouTube thumbnail downloader that can save your day. As the name suggests, a YouTube thumbnail saver can let you save any thumbnail you like, and sometimes you can also custom select the quality. For your ease, we have rounded up the best tools to download YouTube thumbnail.

Let’s dive in.

• 10 Free Online YouTube Thumbnail Downloaders/Savers
• Bonus Tip: The Best YouTube Video Editor-Wondershare Filmora

10 Free Online YouTube Thumbnail Downloaders/Savers

There are tons of tools on the web that let you download YouTube thumbnail. But, not all of them are reliable and secure. Choosing the best YouTube thumbnail downloaders that offer all the features you are looking for can be time taking and tedious. So, we are here to save the day by listing the top YouTube thumbnail saver tools.

1. ThumbnailSave

As a free YouTube thumbnail downloader, ThumbnailSave is frequently used by people. It enables users to download YouTube thumbnail without any hassle. There a variety of resolutions available, and you can choose the quality you like, ranging from HD to 360p. The simple interface of this downloader further makes it an excellent tool. All you have to do is enter the URL link and click Save As after the thumbnail is loaded. Also, this versatile YouTube thumbnail downloader works on almost every kind of device. Whether you are using a desktop PC or an iPhone, ThumbnailSave is compatible with all.

2. YouTube Thumbnail Grabber

Another powerful and free YouTube thumbnail downloader is this one, which can download both YouTube and Vimeo thumbnails. After you copy-paste the link of the video whose thumbnail you wish to save, you can press on Get Thumbnail Images. After that, you can choose the quality of the thumbnail as per your requirements. Moreover, you can also get a free extension of this YouTube thumbnail saver on both Chrome and Firefox browsers. This will allow fast and easy use of the YouTube thumbnail downloader. What’s more, unlike other downloaders, this one doesn’t bombard the user with pesky ads.

3. Youthumbnail.com

YouThumbnail, also known as YT YouTube thumbnail downloader, is a robust tool that allows users to quickly download YouTube thumbnail absolutely free of cost. It requires no installation. Three different sizes, namely medium, small, and HD, are available for download. By clicking on the desired quality, you can quickly and safely download YouTube thumbnail. Also, there is no limit to the number of downloads. Better yet, there are multiple languages available. So, a diverse population can use this online YouTube thumbnail saver with great ease.

4. YouTube-thumbnails.com

As a free and open for all YouTube thumbnail saver, this one lets users get the thumbnail of their choice in the quality of their choice. Using this YouTube thumbnail downloader won’t cost a penny, no matter how many thumbnails are downloaded. It also has a very simple user interface. Just enter the YouTube video link and press Find. The qualities of the thumbnail supported by this tool are MQ 320x180, HQ 480x360, SD 640x480, and HD 1280x720 , and will be almost instantly displayed. Click on the quality you wish to save locally, and your download will start immediately.

5. YT Thumbnail Downloader

YT Thumbnail Downloader is an excellent and lightning-fast tool to download YouTube thumbnail. It poses no limitations or charges on the use. Moreover, you can custom select the resolution of the thumbnail before you click to save. This YouTube thumbnail downloader prides itself on being the fastest in the market. The thumbnail processing time is just 2 seconds, after which you can download YouTube thumbnail. Besides, this YouTube thumbnail saver is safe and secure as it doesn’t display tons of ads and also does not save the user’s data.

6. BoingBoing

BoingBoing is also a free and very easy-to-use YouTube thumbnail saver. All you have to do is paste the URL you copied, and this YouTube thumbnail downloader will take care of the rest. There is no button to press to start the process. The thumbnails are almost instantly loaded. However, BoingBoing displays a lot of annoying ads. Also, the different qualities that are displayed don’t mention the size, and you will have to press and hold the image to download. All in all, this YouTube thumbnail saver is worth your time and effort as it is fast at what it does.

7. Get YouTube Thumbnail

Get YouTube Thumbnail is a very simple tool to download YouTube thumbnail. It comes with no extra features. But, it is widely used due to the fact that it is a very straightforward YouTube thumbnail downloader. It doesn’t even display intrusive ads or pop-ups. But, the downside is that the quality options are limited. There are only 2 qualities available for download, and no size is mentioned on them. To download YouTube thumbnail, you will have to right-click and open the image URL created and then save it in the next tab.

8. YouTube Thumbnail Image

A fast and easy way to download YouTube thumbnail is by using this powerful tool available online. Without any hassle of downloading or registering an account, you can easily copy-paste the link of your favorite video and click on Search. You will be displayed with four qualities such as 1920x1080 (HD), 640X480 (SD), 480X360 (HQ), and 320x180 (MQ). This feature makes it a versatile YouTube thumbnail downloader as users can choose the quality depending on the space they have available. Other than this, the YouTube thumbnail saver offers round-the-clock customer support. So, in case you face any technical issue or are unable to download YouTube thumbnail, this tool will be present for prompt assistance.

9. Thumbnail-download.com

Another addition to the list of top YouTube thumbnail downloader tools is this one. Like the other tools, this one is also free for use and is renowned for being super fast. No matter which YouTube video you want to save the thumbnail from, this tool will allow you easy access to download it in HD quality. The website is SSL encrypted, so the user’s data is protected, and thus this is a safe site to download YouTube thumbnail. What’s more, this YouTube thumbnail downloader is robust. Although there a few ads displayed, they aren’t very intrusive and do not disrupt the user experience.

Bonus Tip: The Best YouTube Video Editor- Wondershare Filmora

With Wondershare Filmora, you can create captivating videos by using one-click tools. This powerful yet intuitive video editor is loaded with various high-end editing features that can help you add striking and cinematic effects to your videos. Motion tracking, color matching, and even keyframing are made easy through Filmora.

1.After you download and install Filmora on your PC, launch it. Then, click on File and tap on Import Media Files.

2.The Audio tab of Filmora offers a variety of music. Just click on the plus icon on any audio to add it to your video as background music. Cut the extra audio part to match your video length.

3.From the Titles tab, you can choose a preset template and then personalize it by double-clicking the title you have added to the timeline.

4.The Transition tab also displays multiple types of dynamic transitions; click to add to the timeline and then drag to adjust the duration of the effect.

5.You can also choose an aesthetic filter or overlay from the Effects tab.

6.The Elements tab features numerous categories like Love, Journey, Badges, and many more. You can add these elements to your video and then adjust their size, rotation, opacity, and much more.

7.Lastly, you can click on Export and either save the video locally or share it directly on social media.

Conclusion

Finally, you can download YouTube thumbnail at the site of your choice. Whether you want to download it in HD or in a lower quality, one of the YouTube thumbnail downloaders mentioned above will be able to fulfill your requirements.

No more browsing through unsecured and ad-laden sites to find a reliable YouTube thumbnail downloader. We have hand-picked, tried, and tested all these tools. All you have to do is take your pick of the YouTube thumbnail saver that best fits your needs. Any tool you choose, you will be able to download YouTube thumbnail with ease and security.

Shanoon Cox

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

Follow @Shanoon Cox