YouTube Title Checker

What the checker looks at

• Length. YouTube titles can be up to 100 characters (YouTube Data API). The checker flags anything over.
• Truncation. Long titles are cut off in search results, the home feed and suggested videos, and how much shows depends on the screen. The preview uses about 60 characters as a rule of thumb.
• Keyword position. If you enter a target keyword, it checks that the keyword appears and how early.
• Capital letters. A title in all caps is harder to read and can look like clickbait.
• Spammy patterns. Repeated letters (“sooooo”) and stacks of punctuation (“!!!”).

These are heuristics, not a prediction of click-through rate. Nobody outside YouTube can predict CTR from the text alone; the thumbnail, the audience and the topic matter just as much. The goal is to catch avoidable problems.

How to write a title that gets clicked and found

1. Put the important words first

Because titles get cut off, the first five or six words carry the most weight. “Sourdough for beginners: 5 mistakes I made” front-loads the topic. “After three years of baking, here's what I wish I knew about sourdough” hides it.

2. Promise something specific

Numbers, timeframes and outcomes make a promise concrete: “in 10 minutes”, “under $50”, “90 days later”. Just make sure the video delivers. YouTube's spam, deceptive practices and scams policy covers titles that mislead viewers about what's in the video.

3. Match how people search

Type your topic into YouTube's search box and read the autocomplete suggestions. They reflect real searches. Use the natural phrase in your title rather than a clever pun nobody types.

4. Let the thumbnail and title work together

Don't repeat the same words in both. If the thumbnail shows “$0 → $1,000”, the title can explain how. Size your thumbnail correctly with the image resizer.

5. Test after publishing

YouTube Studio shows impressions click-through rate in Analytics. If a video gets impressions but few clicks, try a clearer title or thumbnail. Some channels also have access to YouTube's built-in thumbnail testing.

Worked example

Original: “I Tried Growing Vegetables on My Balcony for 90 Days (Honest Results)”, 70 characters, target keyword “balcony vegetables”. The checker warns that the title passes 60 characters and that the exact keyword doesn't appear (the title says “vegetables on my balcony”). A tighter version: “Balcony Vegetables: 90 Days of Growing (Honest Results)”, 55 characters, keyword at position 0.

Descriptions and tags

Titles are the most important text, but not the only text. Descriptions can be up to 5,000 bytes and the first lines show under the video; check yours with the character counter. Generate a tidy tag list with the tag generator, and read our guide to writing titles, descriptions and tags.

Frequently asked questions