What Are YouTube Chapters?
Chapters divide your YouTube video into segments, each with its own preview. These chapters make it easier for viewers to navigate your content by providing helpful context and allowing them to revisit specific parts of the video. Video Chapters are automatically generated based on timestamps you enter in the video description and will show in the video progress bar (aka the “video scrubber bar”) below the video. In the following video, Jan Fassbender explains the benefits of chapters and how to add them to your videos:
”Chapters help viewers better navigate and enjoy your videos.” YouTube Creators
YouTube chapter markers also appear in Google Search results on mobile devices, making it easier for viewers to skip to specific sections while on-the-go.
Moreover, YouTube chapters can help your video being displayed as so-called Suggested Clips super-prominently on Google (see below). A Suggested Clip (aka Video Featured Snippet) appears atop of SERPs for How-To search terms with visual user intent. Unlike other video search results on Google, Suggested Clips jump to a specific point in the video where the answer to the search query appears. As you can see from the example below, the search term is included in one of the chapter titles of our video. So this strongly suggests a correlation between the Chapter Title and Suggested Clips.
So how does this work?
How to Add Chapters to YouTube Videos?
To add chapter markers for your YouTube video:
- Sign in to YouTube.
- Go to the video you want to edit.
- Select “Edit Video” under the video.
- In the “Description” box of the “Add details” page, add a list of timestamps and titles.
- Click “Save.”
Chapters will then show up alongside the scrubber bar as segments. You can do this while uploading your video or later when editing it. tubics' YouTube SEO tool can also help you with this. It automatically checks on the proper formatting and gives you additional advice on what to optimize further regarding video title, description, and tags.
YouTube Timestamp Format
A single timestamp technically contains two things that get entered in the description and displayed on Google Search:
- Timecode: the time when a chapter starts
- Chapter Content (or label)
To create YouTube chapters, add a list of timestamps in the following format:
- m:ss - [Chapter Content] for video lengths shorter than 10 minutes
- mm:ss - [Chapter Content] for video lengths between 10 and 59 minutes
- hh:mm:ss - [Chapter Content] for videos longer than 1 hour.
To separate the timestamp from the chapter title, you can use either a dash or a single space. It doesn’t really matter which you choose—YouTube will simply use the text that follows as the chapter title.
"Make sure the first timestamp listed in your video description starts at 0:00, and that your video has at least 3 timestamps or chapters, with each chapter being 10 seconds or longer." YouTube Help
Timestamp changes typically update right away. If they don’t, YouTube says they will be updated within 24 hours. If the update still does not appear, double check that your timestamps are correctly formatted.
YouTube Chapters Not Working?
There can be several reasons why YouTube chapters might not work for your video. Reasons can be:
- You haven't added a 00:00 timestamp
- You have added less than 3 chapters
- One of your chapters has less than 10 seconds
- The timestamps are not listed in chronological order
- You may have entered time codes with . instead of :
- Your channel has active copyright strikes
- Your channel has less than 1k subscribers
- Your video content could be potentially inappropriate to some viewers
How to Display YouTube Chapters
YouTube chapters are available on both desktop and mobile devices. On desktop, you can preview chapters by hovering over the red progress bar. To see the full list, click the chapter title in the video. This will expand the chapter view—displaying all chapters next to the video on desktop or below the video on mobile.
Should All Videos Have Chapter Markers?
The answer is no! For certain types of videos, it simply doesn't make sense to add chapters. If your video is short (i.e., features a length of less than 2 minutes) or relates to the following content categories, I'd advise against adding chapters:
- Film & Animation
- Music
- Comedy
- Entertainment
Chapters here can reduce watch time and audience retention and so let your video rank worse on search engines.
Categories like News & Politics, How-to & Style, Education, and Science & Technology may on the other hand benefit through chapters since users might re-watch certain chapters. I mentioned earlier that longer videos can especially benefit from chapter markers. However, please always consider what works best for your specific content. For instance, if you're uploading an interview and highlighting intriguing or even slightly “clickbaity” topics in the title, chapters can help guide viewers directly to those moments.
How to disable YouTube chapters?
Just change the first timestamp from 00:00 to something else. For example:
00:00 Intro ------> 00:03 Intro
Are chapters available in every country?
According to YouTube, yes, they are. They are available in every country and every language. Warning! The chapter text will only be in the language of the creator. It won't be translated.