How to Add Chapter Markers to Your YouTube Video?

Mon. 21 Mar. 2022 5863 3 mins

In this age of digital consumption, YouTube is one of the most popular platforms that’s used by everyone. Most people must have noticed that lots of YouTube videos have added chapter markers. With chapters, you can jump forward to a specific part of the video or rewatch a certain part again without scrolling through the bottom slider that you might usually do. 


You might be wondering how to add chapter markers to your own videos? Is it difficult for me to mark the parts of the videos? Don’t worry, in this article, we will introduce everything about YouTube chapters that you want to know. Let’s start! 



1. What Are YouTube Chapters?

2. Why You Should Add Chapters to Your YouTube Videos?

3. How to Add Chapter Markers to YouTube Videos?

4. Tips for Adding Effective Chapter Markers to YouTube Videos.

 

1. What Are YouTube Chapters?

Video chapters are an excellent way to organize your YouTube contents. Chapters break up a video into several sections, each with an individual preview. Video chapters add info and context to each portion of the video and let the audience easily rewatch different parts of the video, which will lead to better engagement. 


2. Why You Should Add Chapters to Your YouTube Videos?


Better Viewer Experience

YouTube chapters help viewers find the contents they are really interested in and get straight to the main section of the video. Especially for the long videos, people can jump forward to a specific part of the video without watching it completely, the reason is simple, think about your own YouTube viewing habits, do you watch every video completely? Or you only watch the parts which you are truly focused on?

So adding chapters on your videos, not only help viewers find the contents they like much easier, but also increase your video views and ranking. 


For YouTubers: Increased Visibility

Besides helping viewers to get a better viewing experience, adding chapters to your video will also encourage Google to display it prominently in search engine results. 

As you can see the picture below, it is a great example of how chapters played an important role in helping a video win the top search result position. 


youtube chapter


While adding chapters, it’s more likely to make it clear, descriptive, and labeled with keywords. It will let Google understand the content better and help your videos to gain more search traffic. 


3. How to Add Chapters Markers to YouTube Videos? 

Adding chapters is simple. Just follow these steps:

Step1: Sign in to your YouTube account

Step2: From the left menu, find “Content” and select the video you want to edit and add chapters.

Step3: Click on the edit video option.

Step4: In the details page, you will see the description bar, then you need to add a list of timestamps and titles.


youtube chapters


Please make sure that there has three basic requirements while adding timestamps:

  • The first timestamp you list starts with 0:00.

  • Your video should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order.

  • The minimum length for video chapters is 10 seconds.  

Step5: Don’t forget to save your video


4. Tips for Adding Effective Chapter Markers to YouTube Videos. 

There don't exactly have the same videos on YouTube, and that's why there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. In some cases, you may not need to add chapters, such as really short videos, highly-engaging, or entertainment-focused videos might not benefit from chapters. In other cases, if you do How-to videos, educational videos or other long videos, chapters will help a lot to gain engagement.

Here are some useful tips that will help you.


Do Some Testing  

If you are not sure whether adding YouTube chapters will benefit your new video, just do a testing! Try to add chapters to existing videos which you have uploaded before, and see what will happen to the video’s average view duration and the average percentage view. Has it increased? According to these metrics (which you can find on your YouTube dashboard), you will know whether you should add chapters to your upcoming videos or not. 


Using Keywords to Label Your Chapters 

If you want to get a higher ranking and view than other videos on YouTube or Google, the essential method is using keywords on your chapters’ name. What keywords will people use to search for content? Which keywords are relevant to your video content? Adding these keywords to your chapters’ name to better optimize search volume and video rank.


Using Filmage Editor to Add Chapter Markers While Editing Video

Some people will forget where I need to add chapters, as you have already planned every chapter while editing videos. Don’t worry, Filmage Editor’s latest version 1.2.0 supports adding markers while editing videos now! By using markers to locate and identify specific sections, which makes your editing program more clear and manageable.   


Conclusion

Adding chapter markers to YouTube videos is easier than you think, just follow the steps and tips we shared on this article, your YouTube videos will gain more views and engagement than others. Try these out now and see the impact they can have on your videos! 



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