You’ve got a great video and you’ve got the right format. You’re ready to go, right?
Not so fast. What good is a video if people don’t watch it? And to get viewers, first you’ll have to be found. The Video Content Template collects all of the text your video needs. Learn more.
- Download the Video Content Template
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Download the template
Before You Write:
It’s All about the Text
YouTube search doesn’t really search videos. It searches the text associated with those videos.
Where does that text (often called metadata) come from? From you. YouTube does its best to understand what’s being said inside your video, but it's far from perfect.
If you want people to find your video, you need to take some time to create useful text to go with your video.
Choose Your Keywords
Keywords are the terms people use when they search YouTube or Google.
True, keywords aren’t the only thing that gets a video found. But if a user searches for elephant, she won’t find your elephant video unless the word elephant appears in the text associated with your video.
If you choose your keywords before you write, you can make sure those keywords appear throughout your text and increase your chances of getting found.
What should your keywords be? Fill in the blank:
“When people search for ______ they should find my video.”
If you need help choosing keywords, the Google Trends Tool can help you get ideas.
Fill Out the Video Content Template
The Video Content Template is an Excel document that collects all the text you need to get your video found. You can download it here or at the top of this page. It includes advice on what to put for each piece of text. Fill out the template for all of the videos you want to upload, then return the template to web-team@iup.edu.
Along with the template, let us know that your video is ready. You can either share the video file with the Digital Team via OneDrive, or upload the file to X:\Temporary\(your folder).
Here’s a bit of additional advice for the template:
Video Title
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No more than 10 words
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The first 27 characters really count, because that is all that’s visible in search results
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Most be unique for each video
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Use your keywords
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For YouTube, the term IUP should always be used in the title, even if just in parentheses at the end.
Video Summary (Description)
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Minimum: about 25–50 words
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You can go up to 1,000 words (longer summaries may help your video get found)
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Only the first line will be visible unless someone clicks on the description, so make it count
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Use all your keywords, but don’t overuse them. (In other words, “elephant elephant elephant elephant” will not make your video any easier to find. But using the word elephant naturally—maybe once in the title, three or four times in the description, and once in the tags—will help a lot.)
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The description must be unique for each video
Tags
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Include as many as you want
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When the Digital Team uploads the video, YouTube may suggest more tags. We’ll add those, too, if they fit the video.
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One tag must be IUP
Some ideas for tags:
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IUP
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Topic(s) of the video
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Names of people in the video
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Name of the department, program, and college
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Places mentioned in the video
Don't add tags that don’t apply to your video in hopes that they will make your video more popular. That is, don’t use tiger moms as a tag unless your video is actually about tiger moms. (Using misleading tags and terms is known as keyword spamming.)
Location
Provide an address to associate with your video. This could be:
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The location of the filming (if off campus)
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The location of your department office (if on campus)
Location-based searches of videos is already happening via services like Google Earth, and providing this information will help your videos get found in the future.
Date
Use the production date. In other words, if the video was produced in 2021, give us that date.
URLs
List any pages we should link to. We’ll add this link to the bottom of your description.
Transcripts
If available, a transcript can really help your video get found. The Digital Team can provide it to Google for use as captions, which not only helps the hearing impaired—it also makes every word of your video available for searching.
For a transcript, provide us with a plain text file with the words said in the video.
Tips for creating a transcript file
—from YouTube Help, August 17, 2022
Transcripts are a simple way of creating captions. They only contain the text of what is said in the video. You can enter a transcript directly in your video or follow the steps below to create a transcript file.
Transcripts work best with videos that are less than an hour long with good sound quality and clear speech. The transcript file should be in the same language as the dialogue in the video. After you've created your file, follow the instructions to upload it to your video.
Format your transcript file
Type the text of what was said in your video and save it as a plain text file (.txt). You can convert other formats (like Microsoft Word, HTML) into a plain text file or you can use native programs on your computer like Notepad.
To get the best results, use these formatting tips:
- To force the start of a new caption, use a blank line.
- To designate background sounds, use square brackets. For example, [music] or [laughter].
- Add >> to identify speakers or change of speaker.
Here's an example of what your transcript file might look like:
>> ALICE: Hi, my name is Alice Miller and this is John Brown
>> JOHN: and we're the owners of Miller Bakery.
>> ALICE: Today we'll be teaching you how to make our famous chocolate chip cookies!
[intro music]
Okay, so we have all the ingredients laid out here
Wrong
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE:
What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS:
What mean you, sir? For God's sake, hold your hands!
Nay, and you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.
Right
What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.
>> DROMIO: What mean you, sir? For God's sake, hold your hands!
Nay, and you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.
Video Series (Playlists)
A group of related videos can be grouped into a playlist. For instance, here’s a playlist of videos of alumni accomplishments.
If you have a series of videos you’d like to have appear as a playlist, you’ll need to provide with some information on the whole series:
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Episode Number: Provide for each video. We will arrange them in the order you specify.
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Series Title: Same guidelines as the video title
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Series Description: Same guidelines as the video description
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Series Tags: Same guidelines as the video tags. (You might collect all the tags from all your videos together.)
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Season Number: If it is a standalone playlist, you can omit this. But if it’s one playlist in a series, let us know what order the playlist should go in.