Always plant yourself 'scrubbing' through a YouTube video trying to observe the bit you lot're interested in?

I'one thousand under no illusion – most people who watch my videos don't picket them for the unabridged duration. In fact, the average viewing elapsing over the last three months on my channel is five minutes, 31 seconds (well-nigh of my videos are 9 minutes or longer).

This ways that, oftentimes, only around 20% of the viewers remain by the time I accomplish the wrap upwards section. Information technology's pretty normal, and nothing to be worried almost, but it does reveal why chapters are so important on YouTube.

Why add chapters to YouTube videos?

As noted above, near people won't hang around for your entire video. But your die-hard fans and those who fall for your storytelling abilities will exist there from the moment the piddling ruby-red dot starts to the moment it hits the buffer.

The reason for this is elementary. Think almost your own YouTube viewing habits; practise you watch 100% of every video, or practice y'all digest what you need and head elsewhere?

Unless you're watching one of your accented favourite YouTubers, it'due south probably the latter. But, ofttimes, finding that single piece of information you need isn't peculiarly like shooting fish in a barrel.

That is, unless the YouTuber in question has added chapters to their video!

What are YouTube chapters?

YouTube capacity do what they say on the tin can, but they're not always that obvious if you oasis't encountered them before.

A YouTube chapter is simply a section of a video that has been timestamped in the video description. If the YouTuber adds several of these timestamps, each chapter is signified on the video'due south progress bar with a nighttime vertical line (otherwise known as a chapter marking).

Chapter names too appear to the correct of the time on the video itself, and if the user clicks the name, information technology'll reveal a handy list of the chapters to the right-hand side of the video.

You can come across an example of chapters in action in this video:

YouTube chapters essentially 'chop upward' a video into sections that can be easily navigated and skipped-to past the viewer. This can exist done past clicking or pressing the affiliate marker, or selecting the timestamp in the video description.

At that place's no congenital-in tool for it

Weirdly, YouTube doesn't currently offer a built-in tool for marker chapters in your videos. The method for doing then feels similar an odd workaround which is crying out for an official feature.

There have been rumours about automatic affiliate creation (I hate the sound of that), and, indeed, a more foolproof way of doing it, but until then, you're stuck with the following method.

How to add YouTube video capacity

To add together chapters to your video, you only need to add together timestamps somewhere in your description.

Information technology doesn't matter where you place the timestamps – they just need to be present and in the correct format.

The expert news is that information technology's super easy, and I'yard going to provide a template for your ain YouTube chapters. Only add this to a note somewhere (or to your YouTube description template ,if you have one):

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Intro

00:00 – Chapter 1

00:00 – Chapter 2

00:00 – Chapter 3

00:00 – Chapter 4

00:00 – Chapter v

00:00 – Wrap up

Copy and paste the higher up text into your video clarification, and only modify the '00:00' to whatever time each affiliate starts (the format is mm:ss). Go out the intro at 00:00, requite your capacity short names (and add more if you need to), and you're washed.

Hither's what the chapters wait like for the video above:

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Intro

01:22 – If you're worried, buy it

03:00 – Detect people like you

05:39 – Attempt information technology

07:26 – Don't look

09:21 – Wrap up

Simple, right?

How to place chapters

The chapters for each YouTube video are a artistic decision. The thought is to 'chop up' the video into sections to which people may want to skip.

For instance, if it's a review, information technology might exist the individual features of a product you cover. Or if your video is a tutorial, the chapters may signify each step, thus enabling people to revisit specific steps if they need a reminder.

I make note of the capacity in my videos during the final polish of the edit. While I'm watching it (before exporting), I note down the chapter markers in my description template, so that when I upload it to YouTube, they can simply exist pasted in. This method saves a massive amount of time.

Does adding chapters to YouTube videos damage engagement?

No.

If yous're worried that adding chapters to your videos is going to somehow reduce overall watch time and dissuade people to subscribe, think once more. You tin't fool people into watching your entire video simply because they can't easily find what they desire (in fact, they'll be far more probable to head off elsewhere).

Every single video I've published on YouTube has chapter markers, and it hasn't harmed the channel'southward growth at all. In fact, it has often resulted in some very lovely comments. People like it; the presence of capacity on your video helps them detect the stuff they came for.

I'd honey to come across YouTube add a more than 'official' way to include chapters in videos, but until then, we're stuck with this workaround.

Just don't allow that put yous off – it's one of the near important processes you'll go through for each video.

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