YouTube SEO Growth: Title CTR, Chapters + Publish QA

Unlike free "write me a catchy YouTube title" prompts and $1-$3 title generators, this skill scores the titles and metadata you already have with a bundled offline script: title structure 0-100 (STRONG / FIX / REWORK) plus a chapters, description, tags and end-screen PASS / FIX check, with the single top gap for each video. The rules are the same every run. It never predicts views or CTR %.

Sample run (real data, 23 Oct 2026): the top 10 YouTube results for "youtube seo tips" (vidIQ, TubeBuddy, Ahrefs, Think Media and others). We took their public titles, description length, timestamped chapters, tag count and end-screen, then scored them with the bundled youtube_seo_score.py (keyword "youtube seo").

1. Titles: 2 STRONG, 5 FIX, 3 REWORK. Metadata: 3 PASS, 7 FIX
2. STRONG 100: "YouTube SEO 2026: How I Rank #1 on YouTube" (42 chars, power word, keyword at the front, year)
3. FIX 80: "This YouTube SEO Secret will SKYROCKET your views!". Top gap: add a number or year
4. FIX 70: "How to Get Your First 10,000 Views with YouTube SEO". Top gap: move the keyword to the front
5. REWORK 55: "How I'd Use YouTube SEO to Get Millions of Views if I Had to Start Over". At 71 chars it is past the 40-70 range and gets cut off in search
6. 4 of 10 titles don't contain "youtube seo" as a phrase at all (keyword placement: Missing)
7. 6 of 10 have fewer than 5 timestamped chapters, including both STRONG titles (0 chapters, 617-620-char descriptions)
8. 2 of 10 have no end-screen, including "9 YouTube SEO Settings That Are KILLING Your Views" (14 chapters)
9. Only PASS with a full set: "How to Rank in YouTube Search (SEO Beginners Guide)": 16 chapters, 4,924-char description, 19 tags, end-screen
10. The most-viewed video (1.9M, TubeBuddy) only scores FIX 70. Structure is a checklist, not a view forecast, and the report says so

What it does

• Scores every title 0-100 on length (40-70), power words, keyword placement and number/year, then labels it STRONG / FIX / REWORK with the top gap
• Checks chapters (5+), description length (200+), tags (8+) and end-screen and gives each video PASS / FIX
• Reads a plain CSV (Studio export or pasted). Stdlib Python, offline, no API keys, no channel login
• Writes a scored CSV and a markdown report, plus an optional Sheets workbook for keyword map, competitor gap, publish checklist and fix priority
• Leaves blank fields blank. It never invents views, CTR %, search volume or rankings

Use cases

• Pre-publish QA for a weekly upload schedule
• Fixing titles, chapters and end-screens on an underperforming back catalog
• Benchmarking your titles against the videos that rank for your keyword (as in the sample)

Works in Claude Code, Cursor and Codex · tested on real data · v1.0 updated Oct 2026 · questions answered within 24h Check the search intent behind your video keywords in bulk with the free-to-try Cygnix Apify actor: apify.com/cygnix_labs/serp-intent-mapper · More tools: github.com/cygnixlabs-cmd

Pairs well with (Cygnix Labs, on Agensi):

• Get More YouTube Clicks: Keyword, Title + Chapter Audit: the full 8-tab workbook + 35 prompts for keyword mapping and competitor topic gaps (agensi.io/skills/get-more-youtube-clicks-keyword-title-chapter-audit)
• Keyword Clusters + Intent Map: group your video topics into series (agensi.io/skills/keyword-clusters-intent-map-no-paid-seo-tool-needed)
• SERP Intent Mapper: see whether a keyword wants a video, a guide or a tool (agensi.io/skills/serp-intent-mapper-keyword-page-type-match)
• Win Featured Snippets + People Also Ask: SERP Win Plan: turn each video into a snippet-ready blog answer (agensi.io/skills/win-featured-snippets-people-also-ask-serp-win-plan)
• Find Decaying Pages: GSC Triage + Content Refresh Plan: refresh the blog posts that embed your videos (agensi.io/skills/find-decaying-pages-gsc-triage-content-refresh-plan)
• SEO Content Brief (free): a writer-ready brief for the companion post (agensi.io/skills/seo-content-brief-writer-ready-outline)