Today we want to talk about why you should be using closed captions in your videos. And how best to go about doing that.
What are closed captions?
Closed captions are on-screen text that display any dialogue or audio sounds and other non-speech elements.
They differ from subtitles in that they can not only provide on-screen text and translated text, but also include sound effects.
If you’ve been in an airport, bar, or generally loud environment, it’s common to see closed captions scrolling across on the TV screen.
Why closed captions?
Their main purpose is aiding the deaf or hard-of-hearing in providing an optimal viewing experience.
The United States requires closed captions under law for most video content being aired to television. However, content produced for home videos, much online content, DVDs or video games are excluded from this law.
Although not always required, it can still be a good idea to add them to your videos.
Besides the legality requirements, closed captions have a profound impact on your SEO strategy. They provide broader range in viewership. Get you higher rankings in google search engines. And afford longer watch-times for videos.
How to best add them
There are various ways to add closed captions to your videos but all accomplish the same goal.
Here is a video tutorial on how to incorporate automated closed captions on your next YouTube video.
Also, the majority of video websites like YouTube or Vimeo, and social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, provide in-house tools for adding closed captions.
However, you can also choose a less automated approach using video editing software. For instance, Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro have the capability to add closed captions and manipulate them. This allows for greater customization such as: position, font, size, color, and transition times.
Whichever way you choose to close caption your videos, remember that they can only help their performance.