What to Put in a YouTube Description

Many people are confused about what to put in a YouTube description. Putting the right things in the description of a video is very important, as YouTube looks at the description to get information about every video uploaded. Should you put links, large amounts of text, or should you leave them blank? In this article, we'll go over what you should and shouldn't put in the description box of your YouTube videos.

Putting Keywords in YouTube Description - Good or Bad Idea?

Putting keywords in the YouTube description box of every video you upload is a must-do. YouTube scans the description box of every single video you upload to determine the subject matter of each video. The subject matter of each video is determined by the keywords present in the YouTube description.

The biggest mistake people make when inserting keywords into their descriptions is, they start keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is essentially when you insert way too many keywords into your metadata (video descriptions in this case). This causes your metadata to become irrelevant.

This tends to happen a lot in SEO, for instance, many people stuff keywords when creating image alt tags for their websites, with the hopes of getting better rankings.

As you can imagine, this is a bad thing. Why is this? Well, this is due to the fact that it makes it more difficult for YouTube to determine what your videos are about!

When putting keywords in YouTube video description boxes, it should be your goal to use relevant keywords, as naturally as possible. Do not put a list of all your video tags at the bottom of your video descriptions- this is against the YouTube Terms of Service. To make things simple, if you write a 100-word description, use your keyword 1 time to keep things natural. This ratio (1:100) will help you avoid keyword stuffing!

So, is putting keywords in YouTube description boxes a good idea? It most certainly is! Again, just make sure you're inserting them in your descriptions as naturally as possible to avoid keyword stuffing.

How to Put a Link in Your Description on YouTube

Learning how to put a link in your description on YouTube the right way is important for a variety of reasons. If you insert links in your descriptions the wrong way, you will end up getting a low click-through rate on your links. This essentially makes them worthless!

So, how do you put a link in YouTube video descriptions the right way? Well, first you need to figure out which link you want to place in the description. If your primary goal is to gain more subscribers, your link of choice should be a link to your YouTube channel. If your goal is to gain leads for your business, your link of choice should be a link to your website or lead generation page.

After you've figured out your link of choice, I recommend placing your link in the top 2 lines of your description boxes. The reason why I recommend this is, this way your link will be above the "Learn more" section. This will help make it more visible! The goal should be to make it as easy as possible for people to find your link. So, making them do 1 less click is always beneficial.

Next, make sure you add some call-to-action text before your link. Also, make sure it matches the call-to-action you gave in your video (if you did). For example, "Don't forget to subscribe" or "Get our free eBook here" would be good choices for call-to-action text. Whatever your CTA is, make sure it's written, followed by your link of choice.

Overall, using this process will help you effectively put a link in your YouTube description. This will lead to a higher click-through rate for whatever link you selected to use.

Adding Hashtags to YouTube Videos (In the Description Box?)

Recently, adding hashtags to YouTube videos is something that was made possible. The goal of allowing hashtags to be added to videos is to give viewers another opportunity to discover new videos to watch. But how are hashtags added to videos? Well, they are added to the title or description!

Personally, I believe adding hashtags to the title of a video is a bad idea. This is due to the fact that there is a 100 character limit for titles. Also, titles should contain the best keywords possible. However, I think it's a great idea to add hashtags to YouTube description boxes. This is due to the fact that there are a lot more characters that can be used.

To add hashtags to videos in the description box, all you need to do is write a hashtag like you would on any other platform. For example, if you made a video about dogs, you could put #dog in your description- it's that easy! With this said, like with any other metadata, you should make sure that your hashtags are relevant to your videos. If you make a video talking about hockey, do not put #baseball in your description. Also, there is a hashtag limit of 3 for each description, so only use 3 hashtags in each video description.

While hashtags are currently underutilized, they will most likely become more utilized as time goes on. Due to this, it would be a good idea for you to start including relevant hashtags in all your YouTube video descriptions moving forward. It won't hurt your videos, and you'll be beating out your competition who still hasn't started using them!

Conclusion

YouTube descriptions are incredibly underutilized by content creators. Not only do people lose out on views by not providing YouTube with information about their videos, but they also miss out on link-clicks and external traffic opportunities. By including keywords, links, and hashtags in your descriptions, you will give yourself the opportunity to grow your audience on YouTube and also off of YouTube faster than your competitors.

Now that you know what to put in a YouTube description to really reap the benefits that descriptions can provide, make sure you put this information into action! Also, don't let yourself get thrown off track by seeing other channels not utilizing descriptions- they're doing things the wrong way!