4 reasons captioning your videos is a smart move

Creating videos used to be quite a laborious and expensive task, but with the invention of modern smartphones, pretty much anyone can make high-quality videos for next to nothing.

Add to that the platforms to showcase them, like YouTube or Facebook, and suddenly videos are playing a pivotal role in today’s marketing.

If you or your business use videos, no matter how good they are, there’s still one thing many people overlook; captions.

Here are 4 reasons why captioning your videos is a good idea.

Captions boost SEO

If you make videos for your business and put them online, then captioning your videos can give you a huge boost when it comes to ranking on Google.

Google seems to know everything, but it can’t hear what’s being said in videos, so captions are a way for the algorithms to see what your videos are about.

This helps Google rank you higher in their search results.

Captioning your videos is a clever way to add an extra SEO string to your bow, giving you an advantage over competitors.

And of course, the more accessible your video is, the more people will watch it, and the more people who watch, the further your business will reach.

People remember you more

Studies have shown people tend to remember videos more clearly if they read captions along with what’s being said.

People also tend to watch longer, with research by Facebook showing an additional 12% in viewing time when subtitles are used.

As well as an advantage to your business, captions also help maintain concentration, especially for viewers with learning difficulties, autism, or attention deficits.

When it comes to educational recording, captioning your videos helps to retain information easier, improving test scores and reading comprehension.

They help children learn faster and pick up more

Speaking of educational videos, captions have been proven to help children build their foundational reading skills.

Studies have shown time and time again that closed captions can help boost word recognition, phonics, and fluency, no matter what level they are at.

And it’s not just native languages.

For people trying to learn English, subtitles are a very common and cheap way to improve their skills.

People are simply more engaged when they are reading along with what’s happening, no matter what their native language is.

Accessible to everyone

Last but certainly not least, captioning your videos gives access to the deaf and hard of hearing.

One study by Facebook found that 41% of videos were basically meaningless without sound.

A video without captions immediately excludes the 1-in-6 people in the UK who have hearing difficulties.

Captioning allows the deaf and hard of hearing to engage with what’s going on, communicating your message, brand, or product to a wider audience.

This is not only good for business, but from an ethical point of view, is simply the right thing to do.

121 are experts at captioning your videos

If you’re thinking about captioning your videos, then we can help.

As well as offline captioning services we offer audio description and audio-visual translation services, including:

• Audio transcription / time-coding scripts
  transcribing and time-coding English or foreign audio for reference, voice-over use (with partial time-codes) or subtitle use (with full time-codes). The transcription is provided ready for your translation team or we can produce the translation for you in over 80 languages.
• English and foreign audio description
  either as scriptwriting alone or including scriptwriting and narration.
• BSL Sign Language interpreting
  transcription and adaptation of the script for a signer to use; filming on green screen, video edit and final encoding. The signer can be edited into your video or delivered to you as an h264 .MOV file on an alpha channel (transparent background) for your own use.

To find out more about any of services, including subtitles, please don’t hesitate to contact us.