In this day and age, standing out from the crowd is vital to becoming a successful content creator. One of the ways you can do this is by web closed captioning. They’re more than just subtitles on your content – they can attract more viewers to your channel and boost your engagement rate. Here are 5 reasons why it’s a must to add closed captions to your content.
1. It can expand your audience
Adding closed captions makes your video content accessible to a larger audience. Not all of your viewers speak the same language as fluently as you do in your videos. Closed captions will make your videos more understandable to more viewers and get them to look forward to your next upload.
People who are hearing-impaired will also enjoy closed captions. This is especially since many videos online aren’t created with them in mind. Adding closed captions to your content makes it accessible to them, and they’ll appreciate you as a content creator for making your content enjoyable for them.
2. You can tip the algorithm to your favor
The algorithm isn’t advanced enough to understand what you’re saying in a video, but it does factor in text to rank your content. Usually, you put keywords in your blogs, image captions, and video descriptions to attract the algorithm to your content.
The magic here is that closed captions are included in their indexing, too. Adding closed captions to your content gives the algorithm a lot more to work on to rank your content. Coupled with precise keyword research and SEO best practices, your closed captions can rake in more organic traffic for your content.
3. It can multiply your viewer count
Viewership increases exponentially. In many platforms, the algorithm tends to favor those with the highest views (“Trending Right Now,” etc). What this means for you is that if you have a good number of views, expect to have even more views over time.
Closed captions can help you multiply your viewer count. Not only does It increase the accessibility of your content to a wider audience; it also makes it stand out from other content. If you’re consistent in adding closed captions to your content, you can expect to get more and more viewers over time.
4. It will make your content accessible anywhere
Not all your viewers can consume your content with the sound turned on. Some of them may be traveling on a train or bus or staying at a library or the office where they can’t be noisy to the people around them. Some may also not have earphones with them to watch your content.
Adding closed captions to your content makes it accessible to viewers wherever they are. Your viewers can finally watch your videos while still understanding what’s going on in them. This also makes it convenient for them because they don’t have to worry about bringing their earphones to enjoy your content.
5. You can capitalize on the “silent watching” trend
Sometimes, people watch content without sound not out of need, but out of want. “Silent watching” is becoming a trend where users watch videos with the sound turned off. They judge if they want to continue watching by the first few seconds of the video preview without the sound.
The best way to cash in this trend is by using closed captions. This will make your content a lot more attractive to silent watchers. Not only does it give them more information in the short moment they look at the video preview; they’ll look forward to your next upload because they know that your content is enjoyable even with the sound turned off.
Adding closed captions to your content has a lot of benefits at the cost of being laborious to do. If you want to caption your videos without the hassle, consider using FreeTranscriptions for your transcribing needs and get your first 300 minutes of transcription for free.