Titles too long?

AllVisuals4U

Loving YTtalk
Joined
Nov 5, 2016
Messages
257
Reaction score
69
Location
Netherlands
Website
www.youtube.com
Channel Type
Designer, Other
Can video titles be too long? Or does this make little difference..

Example:

is:

'SOFTWARE' - 'SUBCATEGORY' - HOW TO ...?

much better than:

TUTORIALS - 'SOFTWARE' - 'SUBCATEGORY' - HOW TO ...?

The second title is a bit longer. Thanks in advance!
 

Jack Swish

I've Got It
Joined
Oct 17, 2016
Messages
179
Reaction score
36
Age
29
Location
Milton Keynes
Channel Type
Youtuber
Hey,

Keep your titles within 70 characters (including spaces). Though YouTube has a 100-character limit for titles, anything longer than 70 will be truncated.

If you want to see what it will look like on Google SERPS type in "google snippet tool title"
:)
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U

SandMan

YTtalk Mad
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
335
Reaction score
128
Age
30
Channel Type
Youtuber
Can video titles be too long? Or does this make little difference..

Example:

is:

'SOFTWARE' - 'SUBCATEGORY' - HOW TO ...?

much better than:

TUTORIALS - 'SOFTWARE' - 'SUBCATEGORY' - HOW TO ...?

The second title is a bit longer. Thanks in advance!
Yes and No, depends if the long title is catchy but try and keep them short. The shorter the title the more curious you make your viewer. Think of it like this. "i failed" against "I failed to do a back flip in the pool while holding a noodle". I would personally click on option A since I already saw a lot of fails where people do back flips and failed especially in pools.

Try and keep your titles short unless you can make a longer one seem more interesting
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U

Crown

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Joined
Sep 5, 2013
Messages
22,408
Reaction score
20,367
Channel Type
Guru
Hi and welcome to YTtalk.

I've moved your thread to the strategy / technique forum. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U

MrDooney

Loving YTtalk
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
259
Reaction score
86
Location
Massachusetts
Channel Type
Gamer
I title my videos a short title what goes on in the video, then what i do, then the game so it would look like
"Killer Clowns In Los Santos | Grand Theft Auto 5 Skit | GTA V"
Or something like that, I think having a title too long including too many keywords are easily looked away from, but I don't really use keywords in an abusive way :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U

Kush Patel

Posting Mad!
Joined
Oct 31, 2016
Messages
420
Reaction score
131
Age
25
Location
Chicago, IL
Channel Type
Reviewer
You can have a long title, but seperate portions. It will make it easier to read. Also, I would keep the title short, and put more info into the desc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U

OrbitGuy

Loving YTtalk
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
262
Reaction score
158
Channel Type
Gamer
From the perspective of getting ranked on video tags longer titles can sometimes be better. It does make a difference in getting ranked on more tags if you can fit more keywords in, and sometimes this makes me want to make the titles longer. I've changed some video titles and got ranked on tags that I wasn't previously ranked on just by putting different words into the title or more keywords. So I would choose your title carefully based on which tags you are trying to specifically target. At the same time you obviously don't want to turn people off with odd titles so you have to word it so the keywords seem natural.

For example the titles you have, I would choose the bottom one if you were trying to rank on the tag "software tutorial". (that's probably not a doable one because I imagine it would have a lot of competition but just as an example) It would be much harder to rank on that tag with the other title. If you're trying to rank on any tag with the word "tutorial" in it, you probably want "tutorial" in the title.

Longer titles can be confusing but I think if you word them right they are very useful for getting your video ranked well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U

Jack Swish

I've Got It
Joined
Oct 17, 2016
Messages
179
Reaction score
36
Age
29
Location
Milton Keynes
Channel Type
Youtuber
You need to be smart with your titles SEO is a big stream for smaller YouTubers to get traction if you target particular keywords that have less competition- if you have it in your title you are more likely to rank for it in the YouTube search rankings.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U

GucciCarry

I Love YTtalk
Joined
Sep 15, 2016
Messages
856
Reaction score
242
Channel Type
Gamer
It's probably the best if you have long titles. You end up with better rankings usually and people can find your videos easier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AllVisuals4U