Writing YouTube Shorts titles, hashtags and descriptions (October 2026)

YouTube says titles should accurately reflect what the video is about. When the title and the video don’t match, viewers drop off, and the video can become less discoverable in recommendations and search. A Short takes less than a second to swipe past, so whatever the title promises has to appear within the first three seconds.

Viewers may see only part of a title, so keep it as short as possible and put the most important words first. Move episode numbers and channel branding to the end. Save capital letters and emoji for emphasizing an emotion or something special. YouTube gives “My kids built a robot!!!!!” as an example of overdoing it.

It helps to think of two kinds of titles. A searchable title says plainly what the video covers and reaches people looking for that topic; an intriguing title leaves a question open and catches viewers who weren’t searching for anything. Shorts are mostly seen in the recommendation feed, which favors intriguing titles, but putting a searchable name (a person, team or product) at the front lets you aim for both.

A Short really has two titles. The upload title appears in search results and channel lists, while the on-screen title burned into the video is what viewers see the moment it plays in the feed. Since the on-screen title gets noticed first in the feed, keep it big and within two lines, and let the upload title lead with searchable words. Both should point to the same event so viewers aren’t confused, and both should match the opening shot so nobody swipes away.

Hashtags can go in a video’s title and description. Up to three of the description’s hashtags with the most engagement appear next to the title, and the rest stay in the description and still count in search. Tapping a hashtag opens a results page of other videos using it. When you type in the Shorts upload flow, related hashtags are suggested, and ones you have used before show a clock icon.

Hashtags can’t contain spaces, so join two words together (#twowords). With more than 60 hashtags, YouTube ignores all hashtags on that video, and too many can remove it from uploads or search results. Unrelated hashtags, hashtags that harass people or promote hate, sexual hashtags and profanity are grounds for removal, and so is stuffing the description with plain tags or repeated sentences.

The description isn’t shown on the Shorts screen right away, but it opens when viewers tap the title and it feeds search. Summarize the video in one sentence on the first line. If you used someone else’s footage, credit the source and your basis for using it (your own upload, permission, CC BY and so on). Then collect your hashtags on the last line.

Listing the same word over and over, or adding popular words that have nothing to do with the video, can break YouTube’s hashtag and metadata policies. Like the title, the description has to match the video. Crediting a source is good manners, but it doesn’t replace a copyright or fair-use assessment.

When Shortsmith writes a script, it also writes several upload title options, a two-line on-screen title, hashtags and a description. Upload titles put the source’s key names (a person, team or product) first, and the second line of the on-screen title is an open loop, such as “…and then?” or “the real reason,” with the answer kept inside the video. Numbers and names that aren’t in the source are checked out of the hashtags and description too.

In the “Upload & schedule” window, picking a rendered project fills the title, description and tags from the script, and you can edit the title up to 100 characters and the description up to 5,000. Leaving the title empty uses the script title. You can select YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels together in the same window.

• The first three seconds of a Short
• Post to Shorts, Reels and TikTok at once
• Can Shorts made from other people’s videos earn money?