How To Add Chapters To YouTube Videos

Benefits Of Using YouTube Chapters

I would recommend using YouTube chapters in your videos because of these benefits:

1. They enhance the viewer’s experience

I find it useful when long YouTube videos have chapters. I can skip to the segment I want to watch.

That’s why they are so beneficial to your viewers and they’ll thank you for it.

2. They improve user engagement

Your viewers will watch more of your videos when they have chapters. They can watch only the segments relevant to them.

This gives a boost to your video engagement metrics in the YouTube algorithm.

3. You can use them to boost YouTube SEO

You get the chance to add awesome titles to each of the chapters in the video.

Of course, these are useful to the viewers to understand the context. But they are also beneficial to the YouTube algorithm.

These chapter titles will help the algorithm understand what the segment and video are about. And improve chances of better viewership.

4. They are beneficial to rank in Google search results

We know Google loves to show YouTube videos in search. You’ll see many videos ranking in the top results.

Adding chapters will help the Google search algorithm figure out where it can rank your videos.

I think this is a really important benefit if you want to get a boost in views of your YouTube videos.

Preconditions For Using YouTube Chapters

It’s simple to set up and use YouTube chapters for your videos. But you need to follow certain conditions before you can.

1. Make sure that the first timestamp your list starts with is 00:00. 
2. Your video should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order.
3. The minimum length for video chapters is 10 seconds.
   

Create Chapters By Watching The Video

This is what I did when I started uploading videos on YouTube.

After I had uploaded the video, I played the video. Then paused at an important point. I noted the timestamp and wrote the title for it.

I used the trusty old Notepad app on my computer to note down the timestamp and the title.

The pros are this is the simplest way to create chapters. The cons are this is time-consuming, especially if you have long videos that will have a lot of timestamps.

You can optimize your process by moving fast when watching your video. But it will still take you some time to note down the timestamps.

Create Chapters Using ChatGPT

You can use ChatGPT to avoid manual work and speed up the process of adding timestamps.

You’ll need to train the AI on the input you’ll give and the output you expect. So, the input will be a transcript of the YouTube video. And the output will be a set of timestamps.

Get the Video Transcript

You’ll need the transcript of the video. This is the text that YouTube extracts from the video.

You can get the transcript by the following steps:

1. Open the video for which you want to create the timestamps.
2. You’ll find the “Show transcript” option at the bottom-left side of the video description.

3. 3. Click on the “Show transcript” and you’ll see the text version of your video.

Prepare the Transcript

You’ll need to copy the entire transcript to use with ChatGPT.

Click and hold down the mouse button to highlight the text. Scroll until the end, so you select all the text. Then copy the entire thing and paste it into the Notepad app on your computer.

I find that the YouTube transcripts can have errors or omissions. So I suggest going through the entire transcript, checking and correcting issues you find.

Later, I’ll show you a method that will give you high-quality chapters. Without having to do all this copy paste and much error checking.

Set Up the Prompt

Create the ChatGPT prompt that will generate the accurate timestamps for you.

You can use the concept of multi-shot prompting to get the best results. This is a method where you give the AI multiple examples of the desired output format, along with the input and train it.

So, the next time you give ChatGPT an input, it will generate an output with the best quality based on the pattern you trained it on.

Here’s an example of how I used multi-shot prompting with ChatGPT:

Prompt: I want you to become the best YouTube video timestamp and chapters creator assistant for me. I will give you the YouTube transcript and you will provide me with the YouTube chapters that will have the timestamp and title based on the most important parts of the video. I will train you with some existing YouTube transcripts and the expected output timestamps and chapters. Do you understand what I need? If yes, I’ll send you 3 examples of the input and output that I expect. And you can train yourself with that. Here’s the first example: Transcript #1: 0:00 according to EC consultancy slow loading 0:02 websites cost retailers 2.6 billion in 0:05 Lost sales each year and according to 0:07 google 53% of visits are abandoned if a 0:10 mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds 0:12 to load in this video I’ll show you how 0:15 I boosted my WordPress website speed so 0:17 it loads under 1 second and it’s done 0:19 completely for free so you can get 0:21 results like this with your website so 0:24 let’s get started there are two tools Speed Checking Tools … … …

Once the AI is trained on the three examples, I gave it a transcript as an input.

Transcript: 0:00 are you struggling to find ideas for 0:01 your lead magnet do you spend time 0:03 thinking about what lead magnet you 0:05 should create for your website in this 0:07 video I’ll show you how to create a 0:09 super simple lead magnet in just under 0:11 10 minutes and we’ll do this completely 0:13 for free using tools like Cana and open 0:16 J GPT let’s get started so what kind of Type of Lead Magnet 0:19 lead magnet can we create the lead 0:21 magnet that we need should be very 0:23 simple we don’t need an ebook of 50 0:25 pages no one today has that sort of 0:27 attention span we need a super simple 0:30 checklist that people can refer to this 0:32 checklist should solve a reader’s 0:33 problem it should be super actionable so 0:35 the reader gets the most value from it 0:37 it should have maximum 10 entries you 0:39 … … …

And here are the output chapters I got with the timestamps and the titles.

Chapters: 0:00 – Introduction 0:19 – Type of Lead Magnet 0:48 – Find Lead Magnet Ideas 2:06 – Generate Lead Magnet 3:22 – Lead Magnet With Canva 5:53 – Outro

Review the Output

You’ll get a decent output of chapters from ChatGPT if you use a good prompt as I showed you.

But it can still have errors and omissions. It might miss some timestamps and titles. Or might give some incorrect ones.

That’s why I suggest going through the generated chapters and editing them for corrections.

1. Check that the timestamp aligns correctly with the key points in your video.
2. Proofread the titles and check that they give the right context.
3. Make manual adjustments to better reflect the flow and structure of the video.

Create Chapters Using Toasty AI’s Automatic Feature

Toasty AI makes it super easy to get good quality chapters from your YouTube video.

I like it because of the time it saves me instead of having to watch the entire video and create them. Or having to run ChatGPT prompts and then optimize the results.

Let’s look at how to use Toasty AI to get our YouTube video chapters.

1. Upload your YouTube video to Toasty by selecting the New Upload button.

You’ll see three options as below and you need to pick the By YouTube URL option. Add the URL in the field provided. And click Upload.

2. Give the Show Name, the language of the video (default English), and the speaker’s name.

If there is more than one speaker, add them in the order they appear in the video.

Click the Review Your Episode Details button.

3. You’ll see the overall summary of the video showing the Show Name, Speakers, and Filename. Hit the Submit button.

4. Click the Confirm button on the “Confirm transcription request”.

5. Toasty will start transcribing the YouTube video to understand the details and create the chapters.

6. Wait for a few minutes until the Status shows as Completed. Then click on the video Upload Name.

You’ll see the screen below and need to go to the Timestamps tab. There you’ll get the timestamps and titles you can use for chapters in your YouTube video.

I would suggest going through these and picking only those you need. Verify that the timestamps are matching the video.

Create Chapters Using YouTube’s Automatic Feature

YouTube has an option where you can use their AI to generate chapters for your video.

I don’t use this option because I don’t like the output it provides. I would rather train ChatGPT or use a better AI tool such as Toasty to generate the chapters.

If you want to use this YouTube feature, you can enable it using the “Allow automatic chapters and key moments” in each video edit option as below.

Add Chapters Into Your YouTube Videos

You now have the YouTube chapters ready for use. You either created them manually by watching the video or using ChatGPT or Toasty AI.

Add Timestamps to the Description

Go to your particular video in YouTube Studio and click Edit Video. Add the chapters in the description box.

It doesn’t matter where you add the chapters in the description. I prefer to add them at the end so they don’t interfere with other information that viewers might want to read.

Click the Save button to save the chapters into the video description.

Encourage Viewer Interaction

You can encourage viewers of your video to make use of the chapters you added:

2. During video playback, prompt viewers to use the timestamps. Example: “Use the chapters below to skip to the section you’re most interested in.”
3. Pin a comment with the timestamps to provide easy access and encourage viewers to comment. Example: “Pinned: Skip to your favorite section with these chapters!”

Conclusion

Now you know the different methods to add chapters to your YouTube video.

I think the fastest and easiest way is to use Toasty AI to generate good quality chapters.

Set up your free account with Toasty and upload your YouTube video. Watch it generate awesome chapters for you with little effort.

I’m sure you’re going to love it.