Why Subtitles are Important?
There is more to subtitles than just supporting the video’s audio
One of today’s big video booster elements is subtitles.
Video translators are on the rise.
And with new AI computer technology, it has become possible to auto-generate subtitles with the use of AI subtitling software.
They possess greater importance, and this article will explain to you why.
When No One Listens
Most people watch social videos on mute or with decreased audio volume.
This is happening both in public spaces, as well as at home — to not disturb those around, or simply to keep discreet.
Moreover, it is an outcome of the digital world, where access to videos has become possible wherever you are — on phones and other digital devices.
Therefore, a lot of the spoken words in videos are not being heard or recognized at all.
Which is a pity when we think of all the work we put into creating meaningful videos.
This obstacle is easy to get around though, because by adding subtitles we can unite the spoken content with the visual content, and make sure that our audience “hears” our speech, even when the audio is turned off.
When No One Can Hear
Today, around 466 million people globally live with hearing difficulties — a number expected to increase to 700 million by 2050.
Furthermore, 2.5 billion people are believed to have some kind of hearing impairment.
Yet, another reason why adding subtitles is crucial in order to include everyone.
When No One Understands
When sharing your content on the worldwide internet, you are already on your path to creating international influence.
Your content might be relevant to a wide range of people with different demographics and nationalities, so why not share it as much as you can?
By adding a selection of different subtitle languages to your video, you give everyone the opportunity to understand your content, and you give yourself the opportunity to expand your audience internationally.
Video Performance: Why is Engagement Metrics Important?
What must you consider when setting your video up for a positive outcome? User engagement metrics are one of the important calculations to consider.
They are a measure of how actively involved your viewers are with your content — a measure especially important when it comes to business, as this is what takes your customers from just viewing your product to actually interacting with your product.
The comprehension of your content is a very important factor in achieving good engagement metrics, and therefore subtitles should never be left out.
Market analysis shows that subtitling videos create better comprehension, attention to, and memory of a video.
Perfecting SEO
Videos are mostly overseen by SEO, as search engine crawlers cannot detect the visual and audible parts of a video.
For this reason, video content is not considered in SEO, unless you add a subtitle file to your video with relevant keywords.
The technical term for the kind of subtitles that gives you video SEO is closed caption subtitles.
They must be uploaded as a separate subtitle file in addition to your video to your chosen video platform.
This is also the kind of subtitles that allows you to add a selection of subtitles translated into different languages.
Closed caption subtitles can be turned on and off, as opposed to open caption subtitles, which are burned onto the video, and therefore are permanently visible, and also cannot be read by search engine crawlers.
Always make sure that your video content and keywords are a good match, in order for keyword inquiries to be answered, and to satisfy your viewers’ requests.
This furthermore means that when you are writing your video script you ensure those keywords are strategically placed in it.
This way the keywords will also be in your subtitles and available for crawlers to detect and rank.
Related: How Do Videos Help SEO?
Can You Let AI Software do the Hard Work?
It is no longer necessary to spend hours and hours typing subtitles manually.
Thanks to advanced computer technology and the development of artificial intelligence (AI), it is possible for AI to automatically generate subtitles for your videos.
The process of subtitling your video is now only a matter of minutes.
To give an example, it will take the AI subtitling software around 20 minutes to subtitle a 2-hour-long video.
Even so, you might worry that the AI makes nonsense subtitle text.
This is a valid concern to have since AI software is nowhere near reaching the intelligence of human beings.
However, AI is quite precise when it comes to subtitling.
The AI transcribes speech into text by using speech recognition and neural network algorithms.
Non-AI software translates word by word, whereas AI translation is being performed based on advanced language models that consider composition, structure, syntax, and grammar to compose and translate into the most plausible sentence.
Therefore, AI translation software is more accurate than non-AI translation software.
Furthermore, the AI “learns” with every use, as it “remembers” errors and deviations that might occur.
Related: 160+ AI-powered Content Marketing Tools.
AI translation has not come to replace professional translators but is a very helpful tool in streamlining translators’ work, and for translating subtitles for social media platforms, it is considered a sufficient tool.
