Are you creating a video for your business? If so, you need captions. Many times, people who do not use captions do not think about them, but they offer you a wide variety of benefits. It’s important to link your video with text – doing so offers a wide variety of benefits including better meeting every viewer’s expectation. Specifically, consider the value of how text overlays can help you to reach more people.
Ensure Everyone Has Access
A top reason to use captions is as simple as this. When you use text overlay, you allow anyone who wishes to watch your video an avenue to doing so. Captions are not just for those with audio concerns such as those who are deaf or hard of hearing. They also provide a solution for those who cannot turn on the volume. They work well for those who may not speak English. And, they can ensure that those who just want to read what you have to say can do so.
It Gives you a Boost in Rankings, Too
A nice benefit of using captions is that it turns your visual and audio information into true text format on your website. This is food for search engines. Those videos that have captions tend to rank better in terms of SEO. To achieve these goals, be sure you place your video on its own page, create a full transcript of it, and use long tail keywords that are specific to your content. This will help give your website the SEO boost it needs from captions.
The Legalities
As noted, adding captions helps to increase accessibility to your videos. You may also need to follow some specific laws regarding them. In the United States, you’ll need to make video accessible under three rules. This includes the American Disabilities Act, Federal Communications Commission, and the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Be sure you meet these goals before moving on.
Captioning does not have to be difficult or out of reach. You’ll likely have a basic script for your video anyway. The goal here is to simply incorporate those text words into the video. You can do this with a text overlay within the video, or you can create a full transcript to place on your website (both options can work well here). Be sure that captioning is a key part of your video design process from the beginning. You’ll want to ensure your content is accessible from the start. Plan for it. Your video production team can help you to make that possible.
