12 Awesome Tips for Writing YouTube Titles That Get Views

Do you want to learn how to write YouTube titles that get views? Continue reading for more!

With a global reach of 2 billion logged-in monthly users, it is no surprise that YouTube has become one of the biggest platforms for monetizable content in the world.

Considering that it is also the second most-used search engine following Google, it becomes clear why it presents a huge opportunity for content providers.

However, it is not that easy to get in front of the right audience.

The thing is, you not only have to beat millions of other videos to show up on the users’ feed, but you also have to convince them to click on your video, and not someone else’s.

For this reason, today we will see some of the best tips and tricks for writing YouTube titles that get views. Are you ready? Let’s go?

12 Tips for writing YouTube titles that get views

To write YouTube titles that get views and really attract the attention of your audience, you need to make sure that they are unique, catchy, do not exceed the optimum length of 70 characters, and include key elements such as numbers, keywords, and power words. Avoid using clickbait – users need to receive exactly the content that they were expecting from the title, and some more on top.

So, let’s see how to do that! However, keep in mind that you don’t have to use all of the tips at the same time. Use them to vary your titles and make them more creative and different. Trying to use all of them at once might get a little bit overwhelming!

1. Mind the Title length

The first and most simple tip to write YouTube titles that get views is to make sure that you are working within the perfect length. Titles that are longer than the recommended will get truncated in most search results.

If you take a look at this video title, it gets truncated exactly at the most interesting part – how much they earn per month blogging. Although what “saves” the headline in this case is that the information is clearly displayed in the thumbnail.

On another hand, titles that are way too short are usually not descriptive enough. Or don’t have the needed information for drawing the attention of the user.

Currently, YouTube has a 100-character limit for titles, but try to keep it below 70 characters to make sure that your title is displayed correctly.

However, in my personal opinion, and in a smilar manner to the ideal blog post length, I think that a more “readable” title should be around 60 characters. Of course, if you need more space, you can use up to the 70, but try to not go over that.

2. Capitalize the first letter of each word

The next tip for writing YouTube titles that get views is to capitalize the first letter of each word. Let’s see an example:

This tip is very simple and easy to do, and it will usually draw the attention more than just having everything in lowercase. According to StreamCreative.com, it makes titles much easier to read by the user because they have a stronger call to action.

As someone who consumes a lot of YouTube content, I also see titles that are fully in uppercase. However, I think it can be annoying and harder to read by users. so I wouldn’t abuse with that.

Maybe if you have a very loyal audience and you really want to call their attention for a special video. Otherwise, I would stick to capitalizing the first letter of each word because it is not that aggressive.

3. Use a number within your title

The next technique for writing better YouTube titles that get views is to include a number in your title. This is a technique that I also use for practically all of my blog posts.

There are a number of reasons why this easy trick can draw the attention more than a regular title:

• Substance – it gives a more specific overview of your content;
• Structure – it makes reading the title easier for the user;
• Attention – they stand out among so many letters;
• Content planning – it also helps you plan your content better;

Put simply, numbers are “brain candy” when it comes for processing content. We are automatically attracted by them because they help our brains organize information into a logical order.

They are also perceived as “more rare” among so many letters, which is why they call the attention so much.

4. Include a power word

Next from our bag of tips for YouTube titles that get views is using a power word.

According to Rank Math, power words are words with strong meaning that trigger a psychological or emotional response from the audience. Their goal is to be persuasive, and aim to push people to take action.

For example, let’s take a look at these two titles, and see which one sounds more catchy:

• 10 Ways to Catch a Fish Without a Rod;
• 10 Awesome Ways to Catch a Fish Without a Rod;

As you can see, the change in the title is subtle, but it can make a huge difference when the user has to choose what video to click on. I mean, it is cool to learn some new ways to catch a fish without a rod, but isn’t better if they are also awesome?

You get the idea. Power words aim to make a title more interesting and promising, which as a result makes it more clickable as well.

Apart from awesome, some additional examples of power words include:

• Affordable;
• Amazing;
• Authoritative;
• Convenient;
• Excellent;

And so on. You can click here to find a full list of power words to select from for your YouTube video. By implementing at least one of them in your title, you can significantly increase the Clickthrough Rate (CTR) of your videos.

5. Use keywords

In the beginning of the article, we mentioned that YouTube is the second most-used search engine in the world, right after Google. And practically all search engines work with one simple ingredient: keywords.

Keywords are the most important thing when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And yes, in a similar manner to Google, YouTube also requires SEO to get your videos in front of your target audience.

Keywords serve two essential purposes:

• To let search engines know what your content is about;
• To let users know what your content is about;

As simple as that. So, before writing the title of your YouTube video, you will need to do a keyword research to find the most popular and trending keywords for your topic.

This way, you can position your content for the exact search terms that people are typing in the search bar.

As you can see in the example above, the idea is to discover keywords that people actually search for, and adapt your video title to match them as closely as possible.

If you have great content, but nobody is searching for the keyword that you’ve put in your title, you might miss on a lot of traffic.

How can you discover popular keywords? You could use the Keyword Planner, a free tool provided by Google Ads (you will need to create an account).

You can also discover the full process of researching keywords in my article Keyword Research Methodology: 7 Key Steps for Great SEO. 

6. Place your keyword in the beginning

Now that you know the importance of keywords for YouTube, the next step to writing great YouTube titles that get views is the correct positioning of your keywords.

The rules are actually quite simple:

Rule #1: Keyword in the beginning

Start writing your YouTube title with your keyword first, or as closely as possible to the beginning. In the example above, the keyword is “digital marketing for beginners”, and it is just how the title of the first video starts.

This is great for both algorithms and users to get a quick grasp of your content, and whether it will be relevant for the specific search query of the user.

Rule #2: Use your name last

YouTubers that also want to work on their brand positioning tend to include their name, or the name of their channel, within the video title.

You can absolutely do this without any problem, but make sure that it comes last in your title as it is typically doesn’t provide much information on what the content will be about.

Unless, of course, the YouTuber is so famous that you instantly know what content to expect just by seeing their name. But even in that case, users who don’t know this YouTuber will just be confused from the title.

7. Avod clickbait

When it comes to YouTube titles that get views, one of the most popular techniques that many content providers use is clickbait.

Clickbait titles have the purpose of attracting the attention and encourage visitors to click on the video.

However, they are often misleading because they trick the user into expecting something more exciting, or different, than the actual content of the video. In other words, they are overwhelming but underdelivering. Let’s take a look at some examples:

One YouTuber that users a lot of clickbait (and works great for him in terms of views) is Jake Paul. He always aims at very manipulative and misleading titles.

For example, the video “We got married” gets the user thinking that he actually gets married, while in reality it was a simple stunt to get attention from its audience.

Same with the video “we’re cancelling the wedding” – it gets users emotional and worried about the wedding, when in reality they explain in the video that the wedding almost got cancelled. But it didn’t, which makes the title very misleading.

Another “heavy user” of clickbait techniques is the Ace Family:

In the video called “THIS IS THE END”, it aims to get the audience stressed about the fact that the couple is separating. However, when you actually watch the video, “the end” is simply about them not having any more babies.

The problem with clickbait

While clickbait is indeed a very effective technique for writing YouTube titles that get views, it can be really damaging for your audience in the long run. If overused, it can destroy the trust that they have with you.

Imagine that everytime they click on your YouTube video, they get disappointed becase what you promised in the title doesn’t have anything to do with the actual content. They will simply stop watching your videos because they don’t trust your channel anymore.

For this reason, I definitely recommend avoiding clickbait as much as possible.

It is not a problem to use in one or two videos occasionally, but it is a shady tactic that may bring more harm than good in the long run.

8. Put one word in uppercase

We already discussed that having your whole title in uppercase is not precisely the best idea.

However, highlighting only one of your words in the video headline with uppercase can be a great way for attracting the attention.

In the example above, we can clearly see that Income School really wants to put the focus of the title on “FAST”. In other words, how fast their tips can get traffic to your website.

Which is awesome because people who care about their website traffic usually want to increase it as fast as possible. So, they will inevitably click on the title to see how they can achieve that.

Again, it is not a technique that you should overuse and abuse. If you use it carefully and every once in a while, it is a great way to write YouTube titles that get views.

However, if you use it too often, it can reduce the importance of these highlights for your most frequent audience.

9. Use a Call to Action

Another awesome way to craft YouTube titles that get views is to use a powerful Call to Action (CTA). It means precisely what you would think it means – an invitation for the audience to take action.

Some of the most popular CTAs include:

• Watch this;
• Learn more;
• Start today;
• Check this out;

And so on! You can find a list with 100 Call to Action keywords here.

10. Put words in brackets

The next strategy to write YouTube titles that get views is to put some of the words in brackets. Yes, it may sound weird, but this technique works great with algorithms. The main reason why is because brackets are like a content sneak peak preview.

In fact, according to an industry study conducted by Hubspot, brackets in headlines can increase clicks by nearly 40%.

You can only include one word, or a couple of words – like in the example above,

11. Include the word “Video” in your title

If you want to create catchy YouTube titles that get views, make sure to include the word “video” in them.

This simple, but powerful technique can vastly increase your view page’s relevancy when the queries that users type on YouTube include the word “video”. However, it also works great for Google’s search engine – if you want your video to show up when users make a query on Google.

For example, if you type “how to cook pancakes” on Google, the search engine can return millions of articles, videos, and other types of content. However, if you type “how to cook pancakes video”, Google will make sure to return more videos instead of blog posts.

Which means that you will not only optimize your video titles for YouTube, but also for Google.

 12. Use a headline analyzer

Of course, once you have your title, you will want to know how exactly it’s doing.

You can use a headline analyzer such as this one by Sharethrough to check on the strengths and weaknesses of your YouTube headline.

The tool will also give you some recommendations on what you can do to improve it. As a result, you will gradually learn and gain practice on how to write absolutely awesome YouTube titles that get views.

And that was also from me for today! Thank you for taking the time to read my article on the best techniques for writing YouTube titles that get views. I hope to see you in my next blog post!