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The good news is you can let YouTube do the initial heavy lifting with its auto-generated captions. You will also want to add non-verbal subtitles to indicate other sounds such as foley, music and SFX. While using this service can be a jumping-off point, its disadvantages make writing your own subtitles absolutely necessary.
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It’s likely that words will be misread – sometimes to comic levels – and it often misses vital punctuation. YouTube uses Google’s voice recognition software to write captions, but if you’ve ever tried it, you know it’s not an exact science.
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Take a look at your own video analytics in YouTube Studio to see how your viewers are watching your videos.
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But just how many watch an entire video when captions are available? Some 80%! This is a compelling reason to not only include subtitles but to write your own. According to a Verizon study, 69% of viewers watch videos with the sound muted in public places. You may be surprised by just how many users watch videos with subtitles on and audio off. So now that you are convinced why subtitles are so vital, read on to learn how to add captions to your YouTube videos. Adding subtitles can actually help your YouTube rankings! In fact, 80% of those who watch videos with captions are neither hearing impaired nor deaf! And fourth, the metadata in your closed captions is indexed by YouTube and shows up in search results, which allows you to reach wider audiences. Third, many users watch videos with the sound off and may miss vital dialogue if you don’t provide captions. Secondly, captions will enable you to reach deaf and hearing-impaired viewers who require on-screen text. YouTube translates closed captions to respective audiences through Google Translate. First, they allow you to reach more viewers, such as those who speak another language. Closed captions are important additions to your YouTube videos for several reasons.
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