Timestamps- The art of timecodes a beginner’s guide
What are Timestamps & Timecodes?
Timestamps/Timecodes are an easy way to navigate through a video. A way to find a section or chapter to help consumers get a quick overview of what the video will be about and to get to the information they specifically want without any fuss.
The Chapters of life and benefits for SEO
Adding in a timecode, or ‘Chapters’ as YouTube likes to call them, into your videos is a great way to optimise your SEO ranking on Google. Just like the way Google searches for keywords within a blog post to help the user get the most relevant information for them as possible, using ‘Chapters’ in YouTube videos will make your content much easier for consumers to process that information at a glance but also help with getting more interaction and traffic to your video content.
Please note:
- Chapters’ need to start with 0:00
- Chapters’ must be at least 10 seconds apart
- 3 ‘Chapters’ are needed to be enabled
The How to bit…
To set up timecodes in a YouTube video, it’s really simple.
Step 1
Find the video you want to add ‘Chapters’ to and take notes of the specific time you’d like to add as a timestamp.
Step 2
Go to an existing video you’ve created and click the ‘Edit Video’ button:
Step 3
Add your timecodes/timestamps into the description box (preferably towards the bottom, it’s good to stay organised to help the consumer you could add the Timestamps under a title like ‘Timecodes’)
Step 4 (IMPORTANT)
Make sure to press the ‘Save’ button when finished:
Step 5
Enjoy the glorious ‘Chapters’ in your video!
Using timestamps is a brilliant and useful tool that will set your video content above the rest helping with engagement and having a more user-friendly feel. Taking time to research what keywords fit your business and would fit within your video content is important to consider before adding in these different sections to your videos.
