if just 5 to 10 words determine the success of your next video you'd want to get them right and yet I see so many YouTubers sabotage themselves with bad titles it happens all the time they'll spend days working on a video and hours perfecting a thumbnail only to treat the title as a mere afterthought but your title is doing way more heavy lifting than you realize to the point where a single title change can be enough to blow up a video so in the next 8 minutes I'm breaking down the five biggest mistakes YouTubers make
with their titles and how to fix them we'll start off with by far the most common title mistake that I see which is not giving people a reason to click because here's the brutal truth if people aren't clicking on your video it's because you're not generating enough curiosity take this video from Anthony Chen where he tries out different Filipino foods most people will title this video something along the lines of I tried Filipino food but look at what Anthony did instead I flew 7,292 Mi to eat here which title makes you more Curious the second
one why because it makes you ask questions why did you fly so far to eat there what kind of food do they serve was it worth it these questions open a loop and our brains hate unfinished thoughts so we're driven to click on the video to learn the answer if no one's clicking on your video it's because your title doesn't open a strong enough Loop how do you open stronger Loops well a lot of ways I'll put some up on screen to help you get started but this actually leads quite nicely into into title mistake
number two which is not using what already been proven to work because you don't have to invent brand new ways of generating curiosity even the most successful YouTubers in the world don't pull titles out of thin err instead they model proven formats taking inspiration from titles that have already driven millions of views for either themselves or for others how do you do that well start by identifying outliers or videos that have far outperformed a Channel's view average you can find these outliers by scrolling through different creators video libraries and looking for uploads with significantly higher
views than their surrounding videos but to make it easier I like using an outlier tool like spotter Studio especially when it comes to finding outliers within my own Niche spotter studio is also the sponsor of this video but more on them later after you find an outlier break the title down into its core underlying structure take this video from cold kwin this title can be broken down into the format I took bold action for time frame this is what happened happened you can then apply that format to your own video I woke up at 400
a.m. every day for a month this is what happened I tried five passive income streams for year this is what happened you get the idea so before you write a title look for what's already working take the structure and make it your own mistake number three is using boring words in your title just one word or phrase could be the difference between your title getting clicks and getting completely ignored take a look at these two titles from the same video how to edit and film YouTube videos how to edit and film cinematic videos like a
pro the first title is vague and uninspiring it tells you what the video is about but it doesn't give you compelling reason to click the second with just a few words instantly makes the video feel more valuable high quality and worth watching That's The Power of power words specific words that make your title more intriguing without changing its meaning here are four categories of power words that can instantly level up a title A otal power words Authority power words urgency power words and exclusivity power words but here's the real secret every Niche has its own
power words that are particularly effective in driving Clicks in the finance Niche you'll often see words like broke millionaire and passive income in the fitness Niche you'll see shredded transformation and fat burning to find yours scroll through the top performing videos in your Niche and look for patterns you'll start seeing the same words over and over again and if you want to cheat Studios power up feature can instantly generate titles using Niche specific power words for you using data from over 30 million views to identify words or phrases that have outperformed within your Niche if
you find a title you like spotter Studio makes it incredibly easy to continue the ideation process you can use the rephrase feature to rewrite your title in creative ways the shorten feature to simplify it or if you're looking for a complete refresh the explode feature reframes or title using different techniques and angles to try out those and countless other features features click the link in the description below to try out spotter studio for free for 14 days thank you so so much to spotter studio for sponsoring this video mistake number four is being too wordy
in your titles it's important to remember that your title isn't viewed in a vacuum it's surrounded by dozens of other videos each competing for attention and if your title takes long to process your viewer's eyes will instantly be drawn to a title with a faster intake speed I'll show you what I mean take a look at these two titles which one is your ey drawn to for most people it's this one simply because it's easier to read ideally you want to keep your title under 55 characters but longer titles can work as long as you
structure them effectively word order in YouTube matters because people don't read word for word they skim compare these two variations of the same title in the first variation someone's skimming might not even realize what the video is about and on some devices YouTube will cut off a second half with a dot dot dot leaving out the most curiosity evoking part frontload the most important words of your title and make sure that the core message of your title is clear even as someone who only catches the first half and finally title mistake number five is sticking
with a title that's not working sometimes despite your best efforts a title just doesn't perform and that's okay but you need to be willing to change it big creators do this all the time and I mean all the time how do you know if a title needs to be changed monitor your click-through rate or CTR and your impressions if they're both lower than average in the first 24 hours there's something about your title and thumbnail that's not resonating which variable you change is up to you but it's much easier to make a title change than
it is to make a thumbnail change if your CTR and impressions are average hold off on changing anything until after the window where your videos typically start gaining traction for some channels that's 2 days after upload for others it can take up to a week or more my own videos tend to start picking up around day 8 to 10 so I hold off on making any major changes until after that if you're not sure what your own pattern is go into YouTube Studio check the gray typical in this period view range and look for where
it changes slope you won't always see an immediate impact after changing a title sometimes it can take up to a week or more to see results but either way it's worth doing because sometimes all your video needs to blow up is the right title and look if you're watching this video and realizing that you are making one or more of these title mistakes that's great because that means that you're showing up you're seeking out ways to improve and you're making the effort to learn this whole YouTube thing is hard the deeper you go and the
more videos that you watch the more you realize just how much there is to get better at but you don't have to make all the changes all at once pick one mistake to correct one micro adjustment to make it a time and one day you'll look back and realize just how far you've come if you like this video and want to continue your YouTube educational journey I would highly recommend checking out this video where I break down exactly how to make a killer YouTube thumbnail otherwise thank you so much for watching like And subscribe if
you can keep creating and I'll see you in the next video
