How can your YouTube channel benefit from video transcription
The world of video is fast-paced and dynamic.
Statistically speaking, video content is one of the fastest growing types of media on the internet today, with nearly 78% of people watching online video content every week.
The benefits of creating and uploading videos to your own YouTube channel are numerous
You can use it as a medium to connect with your existing audience, attract new fans or clients, and grow your business.
You can create a great first impression for potential viewers by creating a professional looking video with high-quality audio and visuals.
However, when you upload the video to YouTube or another platform for viewing, many users will not watch it because they cannot understand what is being said. Or, there are many other reasons as well they can stop watching your content.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way to fix these problems—Video Transcription.
Video transcription lets your viewers simply read the transcript instead of listening. They can be of great benefit to your YouTube channel.
This article explains how your Youtube channel can benefit from video transcription.
Before that, let’s have a sneak peek at what video transcription is and how to create one.
Let’s get started:
What is video transcription?
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Video transcription is the process of creating a written version of a video’s audio.
The advantage of creating a video transcription is that viewers read the transcript and watch the video at the same time.
When viewers read the transcript, they can pause the video and reread phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs, if they don’t understand what is being said.
They can also skim through the video transcript, reading only the parts they really want to know about.
Video transcription is helpful for people:
- Who are deaf or hard of hearing
- Whose first language is not the language being spoken in the video, or
- Who have a disability that makes it difficult for them to watch a video
People who are driving or working at their computer may also find it helpful to read a transcript.
How to create a video transcript? Utilize a video to text tool
There are multiple ways you can create transcripts of your YouTube videos. Some of them are as under:
Use a video to text tool: there are AI-based online tools that transcribe YouTube videos to text in a few minutes. They offer transcription accuracy of 80-90% but save a lot of your time and money.
Hire an individual: you can go to freelance marketplaces such as Upwork and Fiverr to find an ideal individual to create transcriptions for your videos manually. However, be sure to check their reviews and ask for their portfolios. Also, compare their charges and filter out the best for you.
Hire a transcription agency: there are agencies who provide transcription services. Go for the one that has happy clients, testimonials, and is into this business for years.
Out of these options, the best and most convenient way to create a transcript for your YouTube video is to use a video to text tool.
Lastly, if you want to save some money, you can also do it yourself manually.
7 benefits of video transcription to your YouTube channel
1. It helps watching videos in sound-sensitive environments
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Sometimes, you’re watching a video in a situation where you need to be silent—at the library, for example, or in a meeting.
In these cases, you might have to turn off the sound completely. This can be frustrating when you’re trying to understand the video, since you’ve lost a lot of the information at that point.
A transcript, on the other hand, is completely silent, so you can read along and understand the video when the sound is off.
No matter where you are, you’ll be able to pick up the important information from the transcript.
2. Boosts up your SEO
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Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of online marketing.
The more people who can find your content, the more customers you’ll be able to reach.
Fortunately, video content is one of the best ways to increase your SEO. Video content is 50x more likely than textual content to organically rank up on Google.
That’s why It’s a very effective way to get your information in front of as many people as possible.
However, video alone isn’t enough to make your content as effective as it can be.
The best way to make sure that search engines can properly interpret your video information is to add a transcript.
3. Enhances user experience
It’s completely a user’s personal preference if they want to consume your content in visuals or in text.
If you’re only providing them one option—video content without transcripts—when they just want to skim your content in textual form, you’re ruining their experience.
You don’t want to ruin that, right? You want to enhance user experience; otherwise, more than 30% of your customers can leave you for poor user experience.
So, by including a transcript, you’re making your content more accessible to impatient readers, enhancing their experience with your YouTube videos.
4. Convenient translation into foreign languages
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YouTube is all around the world, and your audience can come from any place especially if you’re well-recognized.
So, people who don’t speak your language might watch your videos, but without a transcript, they don’t understand what your video is about.
This way, unfortunately, you’re losing the audience; why would they even come back if they didn’t understand your content?
The best way is to have a video transcription for your YouTube content. Even better, you can create multiple versions of your video transcription in different languages and add subtitles.
Just a video transcription also works because they can just copy and paste it into an online translator to change its language but if you want to go above and beyond for your audience, have your video transcriptions already translated and subtitles added.
A transcription is an easy way to make sure that anyone who wants to understand your video has the opportunity to do so.
5. Algorithm-friendly information
The more information your video has, the more likely it is to rank well on Google.
Use the transcript as the script of your YouTube video, or add the transcript as extra text on the screen.
Either way, you’ll give Google more information to help your video rank higher.
This also helps you avoid the “too thin” content issue. Since you’re adding more information, your video will rank higher without requiring a lot of extra effort on your part.
6. Improves your content’s quality
Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash
For some people, the easiest way to watch a video is to read the transcript instead.
You might have customers who prefer to read the transcript rather than watch the actual video.
This can occur for a variety of reasons, such as a desire to multitask or a preference for reading.
When you provide a transcript for your video, you’re giving these customers the information they need, even if they can’t watch the video.
You’ll also be able to improve the quality of your content, since you’ll be able to make sure that every piece of information in your video actually needs to be there.
You can remove any extra fluff or redundancy, and replace it with useful information from the transcript.
7. Make better video tutorials
Does your YouTube content include video tutorials, or are you planning to create some?
Do they have video transcriptions as well? If not, here’s an opportunity you must take advantage of.
Video tutorials, as the name suggests, are instructional videos created to educate your audience about some topic. It can be about your product, service, or any other topic intended to educate your audience.
While watching it, the audience may want to create notes of important points. So, you can facilitate them by including video transcriptions. It helps them create notes.
Especially if your audience is students and learners who are consuming your content to prepare for their upcoming tests, you’re helping them achieve 13% more grades by facilitating notetaking with video transcriptions.
The final words: should you use video transcription?
Video transcription helps improve the overall experience of your viewers.
It ensures that everyone, regardless of their ability or circumstance, is able to understand the content of your video. This results in more views and higher engagement.
It is important to remember, though, that video transcription is not a substitute for the video itself.
It is purely an enhancement that can help enhance the viewing experience.
Yet, video transcription is the best way to connect with your viewers and to boost your YouTube channel’s engagement.
With all the benefits and advantages it has, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use video transcription to its fullest potential.
Author’s bio
Saifullah Napar is a content writer working in this field for the past three years. He has been writing on topics such as business technology, blockchain, fintech, and digital marketing. (LinkedIn)
