Increase Content Reach and Impact through Transcription and Captioning

Whether we are trying to settle an argument, find the answer to a puzzling question, or find the best restaurant near us, it seems we are always coming back to Google for help.

But in order to find something through Google search, or for any search engine for that matter, it must be text. What this means is that audio and video files cannot be found by their content, but only by their title and the description that are entered. However, by transcribing an audio or video file and uploading this to a page connected to file, the entire content of the file can be searchable. In the case of a podcast, every single word spoken during the podcast is now searchable and will be considered by search engines like Google when suggesting websites.

Audio and video transcription also provide unique benefits as it relates to accessibility. It increases the audio and video accessibility to people with hearing and learning disabilities and those who know English as a second language. It also increases the places where the content can be engaged in, such as a sound-sensitive environment.

The increased searchability and accessibility of transcribed audio and video content has been continually demonstrated by podcasts, Youtube channels, and marketing materials.

Transcribing Podcast Case Study

This American Life (TAL) is a public radio show reaching over 2 million listeners each week, and its podcast reaches roughly 1 million each week. In order to increase organic search inbound traffic to their website and make their content more accessible, TAL transcribed all previous podcasts, and transcribed recently released podcasts within 24 hours of release. These transcripts were published on a separate web page linked to the main podcast page.

Transcribing Podcast Results

After transcribing all the podcast episodes, TAL saw several beneficial results that results in a significant ROI. User engagement increases, with 7.23% of unique visitors viewing at least one transcript. New inbound traffic also increased, with 4.18% of all visitors landing on the TAL website via a transcript page. Furthermore, new inbound links to transcript represented a 3.89% increase in inbound links.

Captioning Youtube Videos Case Study

Discovery Digital Networks (DDN) produces original video content and publishes their work on Youtube. While Youtube provides automatic closed captioning to videos, the captions are automatically generated, and not entirely accurate. Furthermore, these auto-generated captions are not used by Youtube outside of the video, which means you cannot search a Youtube video-solely by the audio. DDN decided to caption a portion of their videos, so as to see what the impact would be.

Captioning Youtube Results

DDN confirmed that Youtube Search does indeed index closed captions, which means that their captioned videos can be found by searching phrases that appeared in the transcript of the video but failed to appear in the video title, description or tags.

After controlling other variables, DDN found a 7.32% increase in views of captioned videos compared to uncaptioned videos.

Captioning Social Media Content

In a recent study, Verison Media found that 69% of social media users watch videos without sound on in public spaces. Whether on public transportation, waiting in line, or passing the time, people often do not use sound when engaging with video content.

In the same study, Forbes found that 80% of users are more likely to watch entire videos when captions are available vs when there are no captions, and 50% of people said captions are important because they watch videos often without sound.

This means if video content is not captioned, many people are missing out on the full message.

If you are interested in seeing how transcribing and captioning can maximize the reach of your podcasts, Youtube videos, social media videos, and other content, reach out to us!

Sources:

https://www.3playmedia.com/why-3play/case-studies/this-american-life/

https://www.3playmedia.com/why-3play/case-studies/discovery-digital-networks/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/07/31/verizon-media-says-69-percent-of-consumers-watching-video-with-sound-off/?sh=1e88bb5535d8