YouTube video titles and thumbnails are main things to get viewers attention. Good video titles help to get users attention and give more clicks in YouTube search results.
80-90% of viewers on YouTube, clicks and watch videos from the results based on video title and thumbnail.
There are also other things which play a role to encourage viewers to take action. For example, video views, channel name etc., but, a video title and thumbnail are more important, as they have more viewability.
So, writing meaningful, catchy and to the point title really gives good results. When users find two or more videos in result and they read titles, then in most cases, users go ahead based on video title.
In this post, you will find the YouTube video title best practices list with detail. By checking these practices, you will get ideas about things that make your video title better to get more clicks.
Now, Let’s check out best practices list,
1. Use main keyword in beginning of title
Add your video’s main keyword at the starting position of the title. Here, you also need to take care that, keyword in the title looks natural. Keyword at beginning means, exact at the beginning or nearer to beginning position.
Main keyword in beginning or after 2-3 words always visible in title. This practice gives good results in SEO and YouTube search.
Video title main keyword:
Here, main keyword means main words that users used to search video and words that describe your video. You can modify the main keyword based on your video content and title requirement. But, at the end, your title needs to explain your video content.
Identify main keyword for your video title:
To identify the main keyword for video, first you need to prepare a phrase that describes your video content. After that, search your phrase in online keyword research tools. These tools give you keyword phrases, which are related to your phrase and search by real users. Now, you can choose a keyword, which describes your video and best fits in the title.
If your video content is relevant to the YouTube search phrase and related keywords exist in your video title, then YouTube search results definitely consider your video.
2. Make your video title natural sentence
You can write video titles in many ways. Some creators stick to keywords and writes a keyword focused title. In such cases sometimes the title does not look natural, it looks like a group of words and does not give clear meaning.
Now, good practice is to write titles in natural language. It means sentences which we speak naturally in day to day communication. So, never put the main keyword forcefully in the video title.
What if the main keyword does not fit in the beginning of the title?
Here, if you created a great title, but the main keyword did not fit in the beginning, then in that case you can add keyword where it best fits in the title. Here, you need to confirm that the main keyword is properly visible in different types of devices.
Main idea here is to write a title, which you like to read and the whole sentence gives some meaning instead of a basket of words.
3. Avoid short title (Use available character limit)
YouTube gives a 100 character limit for a video title. So, you can write titles within 100 character limit. But, as a good practice, you need to include your main keywords within the first 70 characters. By doing this, you will be able to include main keywords in the title’s visible length in the search listing.
Why avoid short video title practice?
Viewers on YouTube search content by writing different queries. And, if your video has a short title with limited words, then there will be possibility that your video will not match for some queries. Opposite to this, if your video has proper title with good length, then there are chances that video comes as a result for different keyword searches.
So, use the available title character limit and write title in detail. Try to cover the details of the video in a meaningful sentence.
4. Use powerful words and numbers in title
This is a very effective strategy. In this practice, you can add powerful words or numbers in your title. These words are not related to video content, but it makes titles more effective and grab users attention.
As these words are not a part of keywords, so, you need to add those words at the end of title. You can add it with brackets, with dash ( – ) or with pipe( | ) sign. Catchy words separated by different signs break the title in two parts and makes title faster to read and digest.
Here, if your video content is about a list of some things, then you can use numbers in the video title. For numbers, you can try odd numbers in the title, as it looks more real compared to round numbers.
Following are some best powerful words, which you can try in your video title.
- Watch This
- Learn more
- Start Today
- Explained for Beginners
- Complete Guide
- for Beginners
- Simple Checklist
- Important Facts
- Watch This First!
- Amazing, Best, Epic
- Questions: How? Why? What? When? Where? Who?
- Tips, DIY
Above are common words which are used in video titles, you can use them in your title or find some new words which add more value to your title. Also, try emotional words, if those types of words match with your content. For example, “Poor YouTuber’s House Tour (Inspiring Video)”.
5. Write video title in Title Case
Write title in title case is practice used to make your title unique from other titles in search results. Normally, video titles are written in lowercase and the first letter capital of the beginning word. So, if you write your title in the title case, then it will look different compared to a normal title.
For example, check the difference between following title sentences.
- How to write youtube video title (best practices)
- How to Write YouTube Video Title (Best Practices)
- This is again normal title with lowercase
Tip: Here with the title case sentence, you can also add one word in uppercase to add more uniqueness to your video title. (For example, This Video Title is With Title Case And UPPERCASE Word)
6. Make your video title advertiser friendly
Main purpose of creating a channel and getting more views is to monetize the channel. So, advertiser friendly titles are also important as much as user friendly.
There are content policies for monetization, where you may not allow some words in content, which do not satisfy policy rules. So, here you need to take care to avoid such words, which are not advertiser policy friendly.
By doing this, you can increase chances to get quality ads with your video content. Quality ads and quality audience, it means more earnings.
7. Video title and thumbnail should be relevant
Title and thumbnail of video works like a team to generate more clicks and views. So, make sure the title and thumbnail explain the same things. These both things should be relevant to video content and each other.
If your video title and video thumbnail explain different things, then users may not get a clear idea about your content. And, this mistake loses your possible viewers.
Now, to make your title and thumbnail relevant, you can prepare your title first and based on the title include things in the thumbnail. By this way, you will prepare the best relevant combo, which gives more views.
8. Take reference from title generator tools and related videos
Taking reference from online title generator tools and related videos on YouTube is a quick process. You can try this practice, if you are not satisfied with your created title or have confusion about the video title.
In this practice, you can get title suggestions from online title generator tools, or search your keyword in YouTube and get reference from popular search result videos. Both sources give good examples of video titles.
These sources give good title ideas based on your keyword. But, do not depend on these tools, try this practice for getting new ideas only. As a beginner, you can try this practice, but after good experience make practice to create a unique title yourself.
Why you should create video titles yourself?
Video title uniqueness is a reason to try less use of online tools. These tools suggest common titles to all users, and if you use those titles, then there is a possibility that other users also use the same or relevant title. But, if you create a title with your style, it will always be unique and stand out from common titles.
9. Avoid clickbait in title
Clickbait title is old and not suggested practice for YouTube videos, because users may click based on title, but they do not watch full videos, as they have not found content which is explained in title.
And,
Such type of continues behaviour of users, sends signals to YouTube that video content is not relevant as per title. Next, you know that your video will go down in results and disappear after some time.
So, avoiding such clickbait practice and avoiding irrelevant words in your video title is good practice. Video title with to-the-point and relevant to content gives good position in search results.
10. Check how your title looks to viewers
YouTube titles have 100 characters limit, but if you create a title very long with a full character limit, then there is a chance that last words in the title are not visible in small screen devices.
There is no issue with long titles, but as a good practice you need to check that your main part of title is properly visible in all devices.
You can check title visibility in video preview. For checking the video title in different devices, you can also publish video as “Unlisted” status. After that you can test video title by private link.
Summary: YouTube video title best practices
Following is a summary of YouTube video title best practices in one paragraph. It will give you an overview of all practices.
To create YouTube video title that gives more clicks and views, add your main keywords in beginning position, make your title sentence natural, don’t write too short title, add powerful words in title’s end, apply Title Case text for title, make sure your title matched with thumbnail, avoid title clickbait, avoid policy violating words and at last double check your title viewability for users.
Note: The practices in this post are suggestions based on experience and analysis. You can take reference of these practices to create the best video title. In the end, your experience and trial & error efforts give you best results.