YouTube - Link problem? | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

16 years ago

Your description has to be 1 line and your link will still show, if your description is 2 lines or more you'll see the html code, you just need to adjust...

BTW, here's an example...just use some short text and then enter your URL...

Thanks
1 reply

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Thomas

16 years ago

Originally Posted by michael-mac

Your description has to be 1 line and your link will still show, if your description is 2 lines or more you'll see the html code, you just need to adjust...

BTW, here's an example...just use some short text and then enter your URL...

I found the same thing (by deleting everything in the description except the URL).

Either way, you're lacking a more detailed description. I don't know if there is much SEO value in the description on YouTube (I'd imagine there probably is) but, even if there isn't, from the users point-of-view, surely a more detailed description is better than a one-liner, or none at all?

And, given that Google (who own YouTube) is so into "user experience", it's a strange change for them to make (unless it really is a bug, in which case they've definitely fallen behind on site maintenance).

Tommy.

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AmyBrown

16 years ago

Any thoughts on whether it's a bug that they plan on fixing or do all descriptions need to be changed? It doesn't make sense to me that they'd choose to display the html.

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mikemac1

16 years ago

@AmyBrown - at first, I thought it was a bug, but it's been 3-4 days now.

By now, YouTube/Google would have it fixed, so I'm starting to think this might be permanent.

Thanks
2 replies

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NMP 16 years ago

Thanks

Glad to know I am not alone I seen they cut allowance of
tags which is probably very good as it was spammed widely.

But the direct link was so important, but I will edit the resource
then and keep it darn short

Thanks again,

Daniel
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Marty S

16 years ago

Originally Posted by michael-mac

@AmyBrown - at first, I thought it was a bug, but it's been 3-4 days now.

By now, YouTube/Google would have it fixed, so I'm starting to think this might be permanent.

Michael it is a bug, and I have waited longer on other such issues to be corrected.

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Andyhenry

16 years ago

Many video sharing sites will ban your account if the first thing in it is a link - I think they've realised than lazy people will abuse their systems and are all looking at ways to cut down on that.

I think it's a good thing.

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nothing to see here.

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NMP 16 years ago

Yes and No. If I see a video and found info interesting. I want to
find a link without have to open a resource box. Is like have a home
page link on a web page. Easy access.

I do not see how you spam starting with a link. If they made it not
possible in title, fine. But different minds will never agree lol ;-)

Daniel
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AmyBrown

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

Many video sharing sites will ban your account if the first thing in it is a link - I think they've realised than lazy people will abuse their systems and are all looking at ways to cut down on that.

I think it's a good thing.

My issue has nothing to do with laziness or abuse. I have a client with many instructional videos, some with 100K+ views. Many show up in Google results and prior to taking the time and potentially affecting their rankings I'd like to know if this is a permanent change.

I guess you've changed your mind since your wrote this on your blog under 7 Essential Youtube tips?

1 - Ensuring that you include the full url that you want people to be able to go to in the description section (so that it appears as a clickable link next to the video.

The current bug/implementation is ugly and it makes no sense to enable a clickable link if you have a short description, as shown in the screenshot above, vs having an informative description.

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Andyhenry

16 years ago

Originally Posted by AmyBrown

My issue has nothing to do with laziness or abuse. I have a client with many instructional videos, some with 100K+ views. Many show up in Google results and prior to taking the time and potentially affecting their rankings I'd like to know if this is a permanent change.

I guess you've changed your mind since your wrote this on your blog under 7 Essential Youtube tips?

The current bug/implementation is ugly and it makes no sense to enable a clickable link if you have a short description, as shown in the screenshot above, vs having an informative description.

I haven't changed my view at all and I'm not saying that your use is a problem - sorry my comment seems to have hit a nerve, it wasn't aimed at you.

I'm just stating that some video sharing sites hate links because many people spam their sites and using links seems to be one way they've started filtering for this stuff.

It makes complete sense for most people to include a link and I do it myself.

Surely you don't think there aren't people spamming video sharing sites with crap videos just to get links and traffic? I've seen a lot of them.

I don't know why you took my comments as a personal attack on you.

I'll just shut my mouth in future so as not to accidentally upset you.

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nothing to see here.

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AmyBrown 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

I'll just shut my mouth in future so as not to accidentally upset you.

If everyone did that it would make for a quiet forum indeed.

It's personal for me because I'm faced with changing hundreds of video descriptions this weekend, for free, because I'm not charging my clients for following my advice.
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PascalSundhar

16 years ago

Yes, i seen on many videos as like html code.

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LeonT

16 years ago

yeah I have noticed this as well... still waiting to see if it will be fixed or not..

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Steve Holmes

16 years ago

If you look at having a description as helping seo and alot of those who know seo use spam sites for marketing - perhaps its a correlation youtube have noticed.

They have apparently shut down alot of accounts recently that promote offers.

Maybe they see it as you can either

1.Promote with a link and get fewer views or

2.Have a description but not have the marketing aspect(prominent link for higher ctr) as it was previously.

Just a thought.

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Mukul Verma

16 years ago

Hey Guys,

This is a easy fix, have been doing it to hundreds of videos last week.

Your link will be clickable if your description in less then 120 characters.

Cheers,
Mukul

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Marty S

16 years ago

Originally Posted by NMP

Hey

Is it just me or is it everyone who can't no longer see clickable links
on YouTube UNLESS you expand the resource box. Freaking irritating.

It show the html code until you expand resource..grrr

This is actually a known issue at Youtube and they will take their own sweet time in correcting it. For the time being, I wouldn't change anything, unless your description was inadequate in the first place.