Captioning Videos: 8 Reasons Why It's Essential

With the vastness of the internet, there are a lot fun, engaging, and informative content to watch on video-sharing sites such as YouTube. In fact, watching these videos has become one of the favorite pastimes or hobbies of people on the Internet. However, one thing creators can do to enhance a viewer’s experience is captioning videos.

In a 2024 poll by CBS News, over half of Americans keep subtitles turned on when watching videos, with 24% keeping captions turned on sometimes and 34% keeping them constantly turned on. But is adding closed captions or subtitles to videos necessary? The short answer is, yes, there are plenty of reasons to add captions to your videos.

In this blog, we will outline the eight reasons why you should add captions on videos.

1. Closed Captions Make It Easier to Engage with Your Content

One of the reasons you should add closed captions to your videos is that they can make it easier for audiences to engage with your video’s content. With captions, you allow your readers to read as the narration continues, keeping their attention on your content. This is particularly useful if your content is made for educational purposes, as the more visual learners in your audience can absorb and retain information better, thanks to the closed captions in your video.

In addition, captions can help maintain viewer interest and prevent drop-off rates if you're posting longer videos. By adding captions on videos, you’re providing viewers with a consistent and engaging experience. This ensures that they stay and watch your videos from beginning to end, no matter the length. Additionally, thanks to this enhanced experience, you might also encourage them to watch your other videos or look forward to the ones you might upload in the future.

2. They Improve Content Accessibility

Another benefit of adding closed captions to your video is that they can improve how accessible it is overall. According to the WHO, around 5% of the world’s population, or 430 million people, are experiencing hearing loss. As a result, many deaf or hard-of-hearing people cannot enjoy video content the same way others can. This is where closed captions can greatly help, whether the video is for social media or video-sharing sites.

With closed captions, you’re expanding your audience by allowing even those who are hard of hearing to access and enjoy your content. Additionally, non-native speakers can also enjoy your content, as captions will enable them to read along as they watch the video, even if they have a limited grasp of the language. Because of such benefits for you and your viewers, it’s always a good idea to consider adding captions to your videos.

3. They Can Assist Audiences with Comprehension

If you ever find yourself asking why are captions important when creating videos, one answer is that they can assist your audience with comprehension. Captions already make it easier to retain audience attention, especially if your video is a lengthy one. However, apart from that, they can also assist people in understanding your content even better. As per a study by Oregon State University’s eCampus Research Unit, 98.6% of students find captions helpful.

In addition to assisting audiences in comprehending your video’s contents better, captions are also a great aid to non-native speakers trying to learn the spoken language/s in your video. This is because the captions support them as they learn, leading to improvements in their studies of the language and enhancing the value of your content.

4. Closed Captions Drive Organic Traffic

It may sound difficult to believe, but closed captions can actually help increase your video’s SEO performance. Remember, when professionals add subtitles to video, a transcript is an immediate byproduct of the process. This transcript then allows your video to be found by search engines more easily via SEO. With that in mind, don’t hesitate to always have your videos captioned by a transcription service that also offers captioning services.

5. Closed Captions Help With Regulation Compliance

Nowadays, video creators must comply with regulations such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and make their content more inclusive to those with disabilities. In fact, there have been some instances where streaming sites and entities such as Netflix and FedEx have faced lawsuits for failing to comply with this regulation.

By adding captions to your videos, not only will you be able to avoid the legal problems associated with failing to comply with these regulations, but you will also make your content inclusive to everyone who wants to view your videos.

6. They Make Repurposing Content Easier

Video creators can always repurpose video content into other kinds of media. These include blogs, case studies, and eGuides. If you add captions on videos, the transcriptions produced can make the repurposing process much easier. This is because with closed captions, you’ll no longer have to sift through hours of footage just to get the information you need.

If you have plans to repurpose your content in the future, it’s always best to add closed captions to your videos. That way, you can extract quotes and any other information for your new media within minutes. Therefore, you shouldn’t hesitate to turn to audio and video transcription services for assistance in captioning your videos.

7. Closed Captions Expand Your Audience

Another reason video creators should add closed captions to their videos is because captioning videos can assist in expanding one’s audience reach. Remember, not everyone speaks English or the language your video is spoken in. As such, closed captions let you extend your reach to a variety of audiences around the globe, as they allow them to better understand the information you’re conveying.

8. They Allow Audiences to Watch Quietly

Finally, another reason video creators should add captioning to their videos is because some people like to quietly watch videos. A viewer could have plenty of reasons for doing this; for instance, they may not have earphones to watch the videos with audio in a public setting. Alternatively, it may be because their current environment doesn’t allow them to watch videos with audio.

According to a 2019 study by Streaming Media, almost 70% of people use captions when watching videos in public. Digiday's study, meanwhile, states that 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without audio. This emphasizes the importance of captions on videos more than ever. As such, video creators should always consider adding them to their videos.

Adding captions on videos is a practice that creators should keep in mind. However, for this task, it’s always a great idea to leave it in the hands of professionals. That way, you can rest assured that the captions are accurate. When looking for a service to add closed captions to your videos, don’t hesitate to turn to a service like TranscriptionWing.

TranscriptionWing is an audio transcription service that transcribes audio and video files and offers closed captioning for videos. With 25 years of experience in the industry, TranscriptionWing are the experts to turn to for transcription and closed captioning projects. Contact us today to add precise and accurate captions to your videos.