Please note that affiliate links may be included in some posts.
In this post, I examine 5 YouTube video description templates from successful YouTubers, including some copy and paste templates.
As I’ve grown a modest YouTube channel, I’ve learned to pay attention to the YouTube video description section.
If you’re trying to push traffic from YouTube to your website, as I am, you’ll want to optimize how you format the description. It’s important to format the description so that engages your viewers, but you also want to include text that helps YouTube understand the content of the video.
Hire A Cheap Description Writer
If you’re having trouble coming up with creative YouTube descriptions, consider hiring a professional YouTube description writer.
There’s a bunch of quality options on Fiverr as you can see below- just go to Fiverr and browse the various “YouTube description” writers:
Template Inspiration
If you want some YouTube channel description template inspiration, check out this list of the top 100 YouTubers from SocialBlade.
It’s a great place to swipe the best description templates from the most successful creators.
The Top 100 YouTubers
YouTube’s Description Recommendations
It also makes sense to review YouTube’s own creator recommendations if you want to craft awesome descriptions:
Common Description Features
The predominant YouTube description features I’ve seen are longform text {text}, Calls To Action {CTA} and ‘Follow Me lists’, Icons & Emojis, and even hashtags.
I’ve provided some examples below from Jake Paul’s and WWE’s channel:
Calls To Action (CTA):
GET MY NEW MERCH HERE BEFORE IT SELLS OUT ►https://fanjoy.co/collections/jake-paul
Follow Me Lists:
(Example #1)
*FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA! *MY INSTAGRAM (@JakePaul) ► https://www.instagram.com/JakePaul MY TWITTER (@JakePaul) ► http://twitter.com/JakePaul MY FACEBOOK ► https://www.facebook.com/JakePaul MY SNAPCHAT ► JakePaul19 MY MUSICAL.LY ► @JakePaul
(Example #2)
*FOLLOW TEAM 10! *Twitter ➝ http://twitter.com/Team10official Instagram ➝ http://instagram.com/Team10official Facebook ➝ http://instagram.com/Team10official Snapchat ➝ Team10SnapsMusical.ly ➝ @Team10officialWant to text us? ➝ 1-323-909-4406
Icons & Emojis
► and 
Hashtags
#WWE
Some Notes
Using Symbols & Emojis
You can come up with your innovative formatting using symbols from a site like this. Or grab emojis for YouTube here.
Inserting Links
Here’s how to put links in the YouTube video description- if you paste in https:// links, it should be clickable.
Default Upload Settings
You can even enable default upload settings within YouTube (here’s how). That way, the template will be uploaded with each video. If you want to add credits, according to this Google support document, you’ll need at least 5,000 subscribers.
Channel Descriptions
Remember, there’s also YouTube Channel Descriptions- here’s some considerations when it comes to crafting those.
The YouTube Description Samples
I thought it would make sense to examine how some of the best YouTubers and some of the top YouTube growth hackers format and generate good YouTube descriptions. First up, let’s take a look at how Brian Dean does it.
If you’re unfamiliar with Brian Dean, he’s an internet marketer famous for his Backlinko website.
He’s recently made a big push on YouTube and frequently analyzes how to rank videos for big search terms.
Logically, he’s probably at the forefront of meta description best practices.
1. Brian Dean (Backlinko) YouTube Descriptions
As you can see below, Brian Dean seems to favor a longform, ‘essay’ style YouTube description in the box below the video.
The only call to action (CTA) is at the bottom of his miniature essay:
“SUBSCRIBE to get higher rankings and more traffic! {URL}”
The Brian Dean Template
{Text}{CTA}{URL}
Follow me on Twitter!{URL}
What I Like
The longform description reads really natural.
And when you preview the description snippet in YouTube search, it entices you to click through.
For example, in the screenshot below, you can see Brian Dean’s meta snippet at the top.
Compare it with the second description I highlighted.
The second video has a CTA right at the top.
This probably increases the YouTuber’s CTA clicks, but might decrease actual click throughs to the video itself since the description in this YouTube SERP (Search Engine Results Page) doesn’t say what the video is about.
2. Think Media YouTube Descriptions
I came across Think Media’s channel when searching for YouTube growth hackers.
Check out their template below:
The Think Media Template
{YouTube Video Title} ****{Call To Action}****: {URL}
*** {Show Notes and Resources} *** 1. {2nd Call To Action}: {URL}2. {3rd Call To Action}: {URL}
{SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM} — {why you should follow on social media}
{URL}
{QUESTION — Have a question about…Post in comments section of this video!}Subscribe to {YouTube Channel name} Here:
{URL}{Name/Brand on Social Media:}{URL}{URL}{URL}{URL}{URL}———{Additional Information} ——-
What I Like
I like how Think Media numbers their content in the box- it directs YouTube viewers what to do.
There’s a comment template you can grab here, too- it leads off with “Have a question about…”.
This is a great way to increase engagement on a video- helping you to rank higher in the video SERPs.
You can also see that the channel’s About This Video section is an SEO-heavy chunk of text.
This is designed to capture tons of long-tail keywords for YouTube SEO.
3. Pewdiepie YouTube Descriptions
The king of YouTube, at the time of this writing, he has over 60 million subscribers.
So it makes sense to see how this insanely successful YouTuber generates his descriptions.
The Pewdiepie Template
{Call To Action}: {URL} {Emoji}{Call To Action}: {URL} {Emoji}{Call To Action}: {URL}__{CALL TO ACTION}: {URL}__:::::::{TEXT}:::::::: (Affiliate links){Call To Action}:: {Text}{Call To Action}: {URL}{Call To Action}: {URL}{Call To Action}: {URL}Call To Action}: {URL}__:::::::Call To Action}: ::::::::{URL}({TEXT})
What I Like
Pewdiepie uses some cool formatting. It includes a ton of Calls To Action in the meta description- including an affiliate links section.
I like the formatting- using emojis and breaking up the CTAs into different categories with hyphens, colons and different capitalizations makes the content readable and scannable.
4. WWE YouTube Descriptions
World Wrestling Entertainment owns another massive YouTube channel.
Love it or hate it, the WWE are brilliant media marketers- so let’s take a look at how they formatted descriptions in one of their recent video uploads:
The WWE Template
{Text}
{#hashtag} {#hashtag}———————————————————————{CALL TO ACTION}!———————————————————————Subscribe to {Brand Name} on YouTube: {URL}Check out {Brand Name} for news and updates: {URL}———————————————Check out {Brand Name} other channels!———————————————{Text}: {URL}{Text}: {URL}{Text}: {URL}{Text}: {URL}————————————{Brand Name} on Social Media————————————Twitter: {URL}Facebook: {URL}Instagram: {URL}Reddit: {URL}Giphy: {URL}
What I Like
The WWE video description is neatly organized.
It has a highly scannable format- really simple to understand the different CTA groupings.
They also make use of hashtags. Honestly- I didn’t even know YouTube had hashtags until I saw them in this video.
5. Jake Paul YouTube Descriptions
Jake Paul is one of YouTube’s viral stars for his ‘outrageous’ antics.
Personally, I don’t participate in the ‘outrage’ culture.
If anything, I respect his masterful ability to market his brand and its content. Let’s see how he formats his description:
The Jake Paul Template
{TEXT}{emoji} SUBSCRIBE ►{URL} | ★ {CTA} ►{URL}
{CTA} ►{URL}{CTA} ► {URL}
{CTA} ►{URL}{CTA} ► {URL}*FOLLOW {BRAND NAME} ON SOCIAL MEDIA! *MY INSTAGRAM (@) ► {URL}MY TWITTER (@) ► {URL}MY FACEBOOK ► {URL}MY SNAPCHAT ► {text}MY MUSICAL.LY ► @{text}*FOLLOW {OTHER BRAND NAME} *Twitter ➝ {URL}Instagram ➝ {URL}Facebook ➝ {URL}Snapchat ➝ {text}Musical.ly ➝ @{text}Want to text us? ➝ {Phone Number}{CTA} ► {URL}{TEXT}!!
What I Like
The description here seems to jibe with Paul’s playful, snarky personality.
The CTA text reads like how he would speak it.
For example, things like “CYA TOMORROW!!”
I think that’s another underappreciated aspect of these descriptions- try writing as you speak. This sort of consistency will help you market and grow your channel and increase your CTA clickthroughs.
Read More Of My Niche Reports
Growing Your Channel
If you’re looking to grow your YouTube channel, there are some inexpensive masterclasses available on Udemy:
Udemy is a great place to start- they offer cheap, high-quality YouTube growth tutorials if you’re serious about 10x-ing your channel’s subscriber count.
Final Thoughts
If you’re trying to figure out what to put in a YouTube description, it makes sense to examine how the top vloggers are doing it.
You can find templates for gamers, detailed copyright notices, outro and intro credits, especially if you use SocialBlade and sort it by categories.
There are even description generators- but I think it’s better to craft your own swipe file, store it somewhere accessible, and just reuse it, tweaking and improving it over time.
Remember, you want to strike a balance between user engagement and YouTube SEO.
Think Media has a good balance- piling in a ton of long-tail keywords into the bottom of his video. But above that, he’s got a nicely formatted series of CTA links.
Last Updated on May 25, 2021 by Ryan Nelson
