Youtube Content Best Practices
When creating videos to be published on Youtube, the title of the video, description, and image thumbnail plays a major role in the the engagement and findability for the video. By following some best practices for each part of the text content for videos, you can help increase search results, improve click-through-rates, and increase engagement metrics, all while making the video watching experience better for viewers.
Youtube Title Best Practices
A good video title for Youtube is around 50-60 characters, has one keyword, and has a hook to draw in viewers.
1 - Have one clear keyword.
Don’t keyword stuff your video titles, but make sure to include exactly one topic that you would expect people to search for to find your video. It’s OK if it’s a very specific topic. It’s not OK if you don’t have one because the video is thought to be too broad. Broad and multiple Keywords don’t work for Youtube video titles.
2 - 50-60 character title lengths
In both mobile and desktop, Youtube thumbnails normally cut off around the 60 character count, and videos with the highest engagement hover around 50-60 characters to maximize viewership. Titles longer than 60 characters typically show a lower click through rate than titles 50-60 characters. https://www.topictree.com/blog/how-long-should-my-youtube-title-be-for-optimal-discoverability
Similarly, titles that are too short don’t contain enough information to grab attention and get people interested.
Character counting tool: https://wordcounter.net/character-count
3 - Add a Hook
Why should someone watch this video? What is more interesting about it than everything else on Youtube? How is this going to enrich a viewer more than a compilation video of really cute dogs afraid to go out in the snow?
On average, there are over 20 million videos uploaded to Youtube every day. Source: https://blog.youtube/press/
In order to compete, there needs to be a descriptive, brief, punchy (but not clickbaity) reason in the title to adequately get potential viewers interested enough to click.
Example: “The 2024 Tonys Master Class”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV8NqFt0SQQ
Why is “The 2024 Tonys Master Class” a bad title?
- No clear keyword. “Tonys master class” assumes prior knowledge. It’s good to be specific, but this isn’t specific enough.
- 26 characters. Too short.
- No hook. No why. No action.
Using the above information, a better Title would be: “Theater Education Master Class: Learning from Tony Winners”
Why would this be better?
- One Keyword. Theater education.
- 58 characters.
- Hook. Why watch? The theater education is coming from Tony winners
Bonus - it’s not a clickbait title.
Youtube Description Best Practices
Video descriptions don’t need to be long, but they do need to be there for people who might be skimming through longer videos or looking for quick information.
A good Youtube video description has about two paragraphs, includes chapters/timestamps, and offers 1-3 relevant links at the bottom of the description.
1 - Include Chapters/Timestamps
Unless the video is extremely short, adding timestamps to quickly navigate to relevant video sections drastically increases engagement and SEO opportunities. Helping people get to the right information fast is extremely important for long-term success.
2 - Two paragraphs
There is an 800-word limit on YouTube video descriptions, with the first 25-30 showing up before a “see more” CTA. So think carefully about those first 30 words in case people don’t click to see the rest.
In the first paragraph, include a brief overview of the video. Youtube AI has started also making overviews of videos, so you’ll be competing against that. Describe the full contents of the video and relevant talking points. Aim for 2-3 sentences.
In the second paragraph, offer supplemental information. Even comprehensive videos don’t have all the information, so provide some details that aren’t included in the video, but would be relevant to people watching the video.
3 - Include 1-3 relevant links
After the second paragraph, include 1-3 relevant links, and typically pointing to a CMU.edu address. These shouldn’t be more overviews of the video topic, but deeper, relevant information. Don’t include links at the beginning of videos, keep them at the end. If a viewer is really interested in learning more about whatever the topic of the video is about, send them to a link that goes into greater detail about that information.
Example: “The 2024 Tonys Master Class”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV8NqFt0SQQ
Example text: “https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2025/january/master-classes-offer-self-discovery-through-the-arts
As a winner of the 2024 Excellence in Theatre Education Award, CJay Philip and her students received a master class taught by Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama professors. The class gave the students a glimpse into the rigorous and rewarding training CMU drama students receive.
The Excellence in Theatre Education Award, presented by the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University, recognizes a theatre educator in the U.S. who has demonstrated monumental impact on the lives of students and who embodies the highest standards of the profession.”
Overall, this is a good description, but could be enhanced following some best practices.
- No timestamps. Even though the video is only 4 minutes long, timestamps showing the names of specific professors/CMU alums and what they taught as they were featured could provide more context, as well as supplementary keywords and information for people who might be interested in some of the teachings going on.
- Two paragraphs, with one describing the video and the second providing supplemental information. They’re a good length and well written. No improvements necessary.
- Relevant links. A news story link is linked at the top of this article, but it should really be at the bottom after the two paragraphs. An optional second link could be added as well, linking to the CMU Tony awards page, or even the tony awards educator award page.
Youtube Thumbnail/video image best practices
Youtube thumbnails draw in viewers, and should provide the video context without even having to read the video title. A good Youtube thumbnail ideally has short, styled text in the thumbnail image, explains the video content in a single frame, and includes branding. The standard size for a YouTube Video thumbnail is 1280 × 720 pixels.
1 - Add text to the thumbnail image.
While this is a bad website practice to have text in an image, it’s a proven Youtube video strategy to get more engagement. Search for literally anything on Youtube, and look at how many of the top results have a few words in the thumbnail image. Consider the words as a call to action to get people interested.
2 - Ensure the thumbnail image explains the video contents.
If the video is a professor in a lecture, make sure the thumbnail shows the professor talking, and the environment they’re talking in. Don’t show B-roll or an action.
If it’s a talking head video, show the person front and center who’s doing the talking.
3 - (Optional) include branding.
The CMU brand logo can attract viewers looking for information from a trusted source. If a video is going on an official CMU branded Youtube page, adding branding showing this can be extremely helpful to garner more engagement.
Example 1: "The 2024 Tonys Master Class"
The video thumbnail is OK, but could use some improvements
- No text. Without context of what’s going on, this thumbnail could just as easily be a clip from a theater class. Theater kids might watch that, but realistically, even they would rather click on something that’s more spelled out.
- The image itself explains the video contents. When watching the video, there’s a lot of footage of the class in a workshop format, so this is a good single frame of the content a viewer would expect to see.
- There’s some branding, but it’s vague.
Example 2: "Performer Presentation | Carnegie Mellon University | American Theatre Wing's Master Class Series
This example isn’t from a CMU channel, but it’s a slightly better example (though it could still be improved) from ours. Also, it’s 10x longer than the CMU video, came out more recently, and has more views despite a smaller subscribed audience.
- There are words. Too many words, but words.
- The context is there. This is a 30 minute class that’s entirely people talking, and the image in this thumbnail represents that.
- There’s branding. Both the Tony’s and CMU logo are shown, so viewers know immediately who or what this video is about.
Best Practices for Video Series and Linked Campaigns
Videos that are linked together as part of a greater series or campaign should all have consistent, themed thumbnails, typically avoid series numbers unless absolutely necessary, and maintain a strong theme without duplicating content.
1 - Create consistent thumbnail imagery.
In a web series, consistent, replicable (but not identical) helps engage viewers, and build subscribers. Videos with images that look too similar will lose engagement because they will be considered too similar. Thumbnails should display a consistent theme and idea.
2 - Only include numbers if the videos are chronological.
If videos don’t need to be watched in chronological order, don’t include numbers in the titles or in descriptions. Episode/series numbers are shown to lower engagement, as it detracts potential viewers from watching at their leisure. Viewers are more likely to skip on Episode 3 entirely if they haven’t seen episodes 1 and 2. Similarly, even if videos are chronological, so long as they can function as a standalone resource, it’s better to leave the numbers out and link to the other videos in the video description.
3 - Create a strong theme, but don’t duplicate.
Duplicate content severely hurts Youtube’s search engine algorithms, leading to far fewer views and poor engagement. Youtube’s algorithms penalizes similar content and duplicates severely in most instances. Series videos should maintain a strong theme that links the videos together, and can include short, consistent introductions and conclusions within the video itself. Consistent repetition without duplication, just like an episode of Murder She Wrote.
4 - (Optional) Including abbreviated series names in the video title
If you can abbreviate the name of the series to less than 20 characters (and aim for around 12-15) then it’s acceptable and recommended to include the series name in the video title.
If you can’t abbreviate the series name, use branding and imagery within the video thumbnail to show that it’s part of a series, and create a title as if it’s a standalone video.
Example: CMU Experts series
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1HxVG_mcukuoX-TZbt_6c-d12UdLZiyh
- Consistent imagery is present in the thumbnail. There’s no CMU brand, but there’s clear and distinct branding. A+.
- The expert series doesn’t include numbers. Good.
- The series name is in the title, but it is concise. As a bonus, the titles share a consistent theme, (What if questions) but aren’t duplicates of each other. A+.
Diving Deeper: Targeting passive vs active video consumption
In addition to optimizing the title, descriptions, and images; it’s also important to keep in mind how people are engaging with the Youtube platform, and how people are clicking into videos in the first place. Views on Youtube can be described in two ways, active and passive.
Active
Active engagement is when someone is searching for a video. This would be the same idea as searching for something on a search engine like Google. In fact, Youtube is the second largest search engine after Google (and Alphabet owns both of course). Optimizing the Title, description, and thumbnail helps with active search video rankings.
Passive
Passive engagement is when someone is on their youtube homepage, just kind of mindlessly scrolling through, bored and looking for something to watch. Or it’s when you’re watching or just finished one video, and now you’re seeing similar videos in the sidebar or over the video. This would be similar to how we watch things on Netflix or other streaming platforms. Search is there still, but a majority is just scrolling through until something interesting enough to be clicked on comes along.
A majority of current Youtube traffic to CMU videos comes from passive viewing. This is important, because it emphasizes the importance of good titles and good thumbnails.
FAQ
Should you include CMU text branding in your titles or descriptions?
Descriptions, yes. Titles, sparingly but sometimes. Keep in mind that we don’t own our videos on Youtube, and it’s a third party platform that has no obligation to serve us. Don’t assume people know the CMU brand, or know that the video they’re clicking on is or isn’t coming from CMU.
Do I need to follow AP-style?
No. Titles should be in title case, but because Youtube is its own platform, we can bend the rules a little if it fits stylistically.
Can I just have AI write my title and description?
No. Or at least, not yet as of January 2026. It’s just as easy to follow the three point steps as it is to explain what you need to ChatGPT. Further, videos without descriptions are having AI-generated descriptions added in, so you’d be competing against LLM platforms anyway, which helps no one.