What Is a Channel Description?
A YouTube channel description (also known as a “YouTube About Page”) is a brief overview of your channel that appears on your channel page and in search results. It’s a great opportunity to tell potential viewers what your channel is about and why they should subscribe.
Why Is Your Channel Description Important?
Your Channel Description is a way for visitors to learn more about you and the type of videos you create. And a well-written Channel Description can also convert visitors into subscribers. Also, using keywords in your Channel Description can help your channel’s YouTube SEO.
Best Practices
Start Strong
The first 100-150 characters of your channel description is super important.
Why?
First off, YouTube shows that 100-150 character snippet next to your channel in the search results:
Also, this is the first part of your description that people will read. So you want to communicate your channel’s positioning right off the bat.
For example Unbox Therapy includes their tagline (“Where products get naked”) along with a brief description of what’s unique about their channel:
Keep Your Viewer in Mind
Many YouTubers make their Channel Description about them. For example, their description might sound something like: “My channel is all about my favorite TV shows. I tell you what I think of each and every episode”.
For some personal brands with a large following, this approach makes sense.
However, for most channels, it’s important to demonstrate the benefit someone will get from watching your videos.
For example, the first sentence of the Vox YouTube channel description clearly communicates what watching their videos will do for you.
Use Keywords
A well-optimized channel can rank in YouTube search. For example, when you search for “bodybuilding” in YouTube, the BodyBuilding.com channel is the #1 result:
YouTube uses several different ranking factors to rank videos and channels. But when it comes to ranking your channel in YouTube, YouTube puts a lot of weight on the terms you use in your Channel Description.
So think of terms that people would type into YouTube to find your channel. Then, sprinkle those into your Channel Description.
For example, The Backlinko YouTube Channel uses several different terms that people might use to find channels related to SEO and content marketing.
That said, you want to avoid “keyword stuffing”. This can make your description sound robotic and unnatural (keyword stuffing also looks spammy to YouTube and Google).
Instead, write a compelling description that would entice someone to subscribe. Then, include a handful of keywords where it makes sense.
Schedule (Optional)
Your description is the perfect place to highlight your upload schedule.
For example, Clevver Style provides a detailed schedule in their Channel Description:
Call To Action
Don’t be afraid to end your description with a clear call-to-action to subscribe. This encourages people to subscribe while they have your channel page open.
For example, Jared Polin caps off his Channel Description by asking you to subscribe to his channel:
Tips for Writing a Great YouTube Channel Description
Here are some tips for writing a great YouTube channel description:
- Keep it short and sweet: Aim for a description that is no more than 150 characters long.
- Use keywords: Incorporate relevant keywords into your description so that your channel can be found in search results.
- Be personal: Let your personality shine through in your description.
- Use strong verbs: Use strong verbs to make your description more engaging.
- Proofread carefully: Make sure your description is free of errors.
Examples of Good YouTube Channel Descriptions
Here are some examples of good YouTube channel descriptions:
- Mark Rober: “Mark Rober combines science and engineering to create amazing DIY projects that will blow your mind.”
- Crash Course: “At Crash Course, we believe that high-quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free!”
- The B1M: “We love construction and we want the whole world to love it too!”
- Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell: “Animation videos explaining things with optimistic nihilism since 12,013.”
- Smarter Every Day: “I explore the world using science. That’s pretty much all there is to it. Watch 2 videos. If you learn something AWESOME, please subscribe if you feel like I earned it.“
Learn More
Video SEO Guide (Channel Authority): A chapter from The Definitive Guide to Video SEO that shows you how to create an attractive and SEO-optimized channel page.