YouTube Video Audit Tool

The audit checks 10 signals: title length and keyword placement, description length and quality, chapter timestamps, tags, closed captions, custom thumbnail, engagement rate (likes-to-views), total view count, subscriber count and video age. Each check is scored and weighted to give a total out of 100 with specific pass/fail indicators.

Engagement rate = (Likes ÷ Views) × 100. A rate above 4% is excellent; 2-4% is good; below 1% suggests viewers are not connecting with the content. Note: YouTube hid dislike counts publicly in 2021, so only likes are visible.

Focus on the highest-impact fixes first: add chapter timestamps (boosts search snippets), write a longer description with keywords in the first 150 characters, enable auto-captions, and verify your thumbnail is custom rather than an auto-selected frame.

Yes. The audit tool works on any public YouTube video URL. Auditing successful competitors helps you understand what optimisation strategies they use that you can apply to your own content.