How to write titles and descriptions for short-form clips

The text around a clip does two jobs: pull the viewer in, and tell the platform what the clip is about. The balance between those two differs by platform.

On TikTok and Reels, the caption is mostly a second hook — a line that adds intrigue or context to the video, plus three to five specific hashtags. Keep it short; long captions get truncated and rarely help.

On YouTube Shorts, the title is effectively a search field. A clear, keyword-forward title ('How to price a freelance project') does discovery work that a clever title doesn't, because Shorts surfaces in search and suggested feeds tied to long-form.

Across all three, put the most important words first, don't bait-and-switch (a title the clip doesn't deliver on tanks retention and trust), and match the language your audience actually searches.

OptimaClip's per-platform export step is where this metadata lives, so the TikTok caption and the Shorts title for the same moment can be written for their different jobs instead of copy-pasted.