FACT: YouTube Indexes Captions

For those of you wondering whether or not YouTube takes your captions into account when ranking your video, wonder no more !

The Test

Just last month I uploaded some of the best video SEO tutorials in the tri-state area (I’m not bragging, I’m just being real). I was also sure to take my own advice and add captions.

In said video I say that “views” and “viral” should be called “empty calories and the one hit wonder band” :



This phrase does not exist in my video’s title, description, or tags. It only exists in the audio/captions of my video.

The Results

So what happens if I search for “empty calories and the one hit wonder band” on YouTube ?





I’m the #1 MF-ing video, that’s what! Click the screen shot to see for yourself. YouTube even displays that particular portion of my captions as the description (with the search keyword bolded). Brilliant !

Granted, nobody but me would ever search for “empty calories and the one hit wonder band”, but I specifically chose a long tail phrase to see if YouTube paid any attention to the captions. They do !

So……………..

Do your videos have optimized scripts and captions ?

I think they should.

Watch the rest of my YouTube Optimization Series on YouTube and prepare to have your face melted.