How to Write a Better YouTube Description
The YouTube description is easily overlooked it's often written once, rushed, and forgotten. But it can be critical to get right. With a good description, you can signal to YouTube what your video is about (helping it appear in searches), provide context and value to your viewers, and even influence the likelihood that a viewer will engage with your content.
Begin with a summary
Write the first few lines of your description so that they clearly describe the content of the video. This is important both to viewers (so they know what the video covers or provides) and to YouTube, since it needs context in order to associate videos with search terms. Avoid introductory formulas that don't describe the video's contents, such as Welcome to my channel! since that doesn't communicate anything about the video's contents to either YouTube or your viewers.
Offer context to viewers and keywords to YouTube
As mentioned above, viewers need context so that they know what a video is about, and YouTube uses the description to determine what keywords to associate with a video. However, simply pasting keywords into the description will not get you the keywords that you want; it will turn off viewers, who will see a description that looks like spam. Write the description as you would write it for a friend, providing context on what the video covers, what it is about, or what the viewer will take away from watching the video. This approach will yield far better keywords than stuffing the description with keywords.
Consider adding timestamps to long videos
Timestamps in your description can benefit both viewers (who need to know where to go to get the information they want) and YouTube (which rewards longer watch time). Timestamps are useful for any lengthy video that covers more than one topic or has specific sections (e.g., a tutorial, a book summary, a product review).
Add links to information or related videos
Links are a great way to provide value and context to your viewers, as well as to signal to YouTube what related videos or content your video should be associated with.
Avoid generic filler text
Some people fall into the trap of writing generic filler text for their description because they assume that a long description is better for SEO. A longer description that simply fills space is far worse than a shorter one that provides substance. Remember that filler text often includes repetitive keywords that can turn viewers off, and that using keyword-rich filler text is spammy and can get your account penalized. Write a description of the appropriate length that provides the necessary information; sometimes that means four sentences, but sometimes it means a few paragraphs and timestamps.
Keep it consistent, but not repetitive
Many people like to keep a small set of filler statements at the end of every description, such as a reminder to subscribe or to visit a link. This is fine as long as the body of the description provides value and is not repetitive. You should always prioritize the unique description text for your videos, since that is what viewers are going to see first and what will affect your SEO the most.