How to add chapters to YouTube videos

Skimming through a book is way easier when you’re looking at a table of contents and skipping right to the chapter you’re interested in. The same goes for YouTube videos, and although we absolutely love long-form content, sometimes we need to get straight to the point, ASAP. Stick around and find out all there is to know about how to add chapters to YouTube videos and edit them without having to download any software or put pen to paper and write down where things happen in your video.

All about YouTube chapters

YouTube chapters– love them or hate them, we simply can’t deny they’re a powerful, time-saving feature that both creators and viewers tend to use to their advantage. What they do is break up the video into bite-sized chunks that are more digestible and easier to navigate or understand. Video chapters show up as clickable sections in a YouTube video’s progress bar, and they let you jump directly to a defined section.

In short, YouTube chapters are essentially timestamped markers that divide videos into segments. Here’s how you can see them:

• Hovering over the progress bar and identifying the separate sections, each corresponding to a chapter
• Right in the description, where you’ve got clickable timestamps that help you jump straight into the corresponding chapter by auto-playing it in the video

Here’s what YouTube video chapters look like in the description of a video:

Why should I add chapters to YouTube videos?

You might be wondering: is it really necessary to create chapters on YouTube? While this isn’t a definitive answer, we highly recommend that you do so for the following reasons.

An overall better viewing experience

It’s so much more satisfying for the viewer to be able to skip right to the part of the video they’re truly interested in. Of course, in an ideal world, all the videos on YouTube would be watched from start to finish, but we have to be realistic. Offering your viewers a smoother experience that leaves space for them to choose which segment to watch is one of the top reasons to add chapters to YouTube videos. Trust us, they will appreciate it!

Engagement boost and increased watch times

Remember what we were talking about earlier and having people ideally watch YouTube videos from beginning to end? Another great advantage video chapters have is that they bring in people who are interested in a specific topic or niche that you cover in one segment. The best part? Some of them will stay and keep watching, giving you better engagement and stats in terms of watch times. 

Crystal-clear content structure

This one’s for the creators entirely. Don’t you just love it when a YouTube video is so perfectly organized that the storytelling feels like a cherry on top of a perfect cake? Chaotic content definitely has an audience pool of its own, but being able to look back at your videos and delightfully navigate through the content is so much more rewarding. Not to mention how much your viewers would love it as well!

More exposure through video SEO

In case you didn’t know, YouTube video SEO is a huge part of any successful creator’s content strategy. The science behind this is pretty simple: giving your video chapters a relevant title acts as a keyword by telling the algorithm what the video section is about. This way, your chances of having videos shown to interested audiences increase significantly. It’s all about context, and YouTube does it best when it comes to video chapters.

3 Tips for adding chapters to YouTube videos

Start off with a script for structure

There’s no easier way to tell how you can divide your video into chapters than by taking a look at your video script. We can’t stress enough how important it is to start with a clearly structured script and just how easy everything becomes once you’ve got that in place. Flixier features an AI script generator that you can try out for free when you simply don’t know how to start. Yet another cool tip is to auto-generate captions (yes, Flixier can do that too!) and use them as a starting point to determine what chapters you can divide your video into.

Make sure your first timestamp starts at precisely 00:00

This is something you don’t want to forget or gloss over, trust us! YouTube does not recognize chapters unless you start at exactly 00:00. To make sure they’re displayed correctly, name your chapters starting with this template: 00:00 - Intro, 00:23 - Chapter name, and so on. 

Keep chapter titles short but relevant

You might be tempted to give your video chapters teaser names like “Next step” or “Part three”, but that’s definitely not a good idea. Instead, opt for short and concise descriptions of what happens in each section separately, along the lines of “Packing for the Eurotrip” or “How to prep ingredients for cheesecake.” Remember that including keywords also gets you a gold star for YouTube video SEO. 

How to add chapters to YouTube videos 

It’s been all fun and games so far, but now we’re down to the main reason you’re here: how to add chapters to YouTube videos! We’ve got not one, not two, but three easy-to-follow methods you can try out.

Automatically add chapters right from YouTube’s interface

1. Sign in to your YouTube Studio account and head to the Content tab
2. Select the video you want to add chapters to
3. Tap Show more > Automatic Chapters and select “Allow automatic chapters and key moments”
4. Tap Save, and you’re done

Use Flixier

Not only can you edit YouTube videos in Flixier, but you can also speed up the process of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Getting it all done, from start to finish, right in a single browser tab– now that’s a real treat.

1. Tap the Start Editing button and seamlessly import multimedia from your computer, smartphone, or cloud storage. Upload external links and gather material for your upcoming video
2. Just like a pro, you can effortlessly crop, enhance, edit, and trim YouTube videos. Add eye-catching effects, transitions, animated motion titles, and more. Auto-generate subtitles and download them in the TXT format, where you’ll see precisely placed timestamps. Click Export and save your video or auto-publish it to your YouTube channel.
3. Sign in to your YouTube Studio account and head to the Content tab
4. Select the video you just uploaded to add chapters
5. Select Video Details and refer to the TXT file to precisely identify the timestamps where you want each chapter to appear
6. Click Save and volià!

The old-fashioned manual way

This one definitely isn’t a time-saver, but why argue with personal preferences?

1. Open your video and pause it whenever you want separate chapters. Manually write down the exact timestamp where each chapter starts in a doc to remember them with precision
2. Sign in to your YouTube Studio account and head to the Content tab
3. Select the video you want to add chapters to
4. Select Video Details and start manually writing down where each chapter starts and ends by using the doc where you wrote down timestamps
5. Tap Save to finish

That’s all about creating chapters for YouTube videos! We’ve learned all about the “how to”, gone through some extra tips to provide structure and clarity to your workflow, and explored the benefits YouTube chapters bring to your channel’s growth. Until next time, happy creating!