YouTube Title Optimizer

Titles are half the click. This skill turns a topic, a draft title, or a video URL into a shortlist of titles that earn the click honestly, then leaves the final pick (and the A/B test) to you.

When to use

• User says "give me title ideas for this video"
• User has a flat or clickbait title and wants sharper, honest options
• User wants titles tied to a specific goal (CTR for browse, or search-intent)
• User wants A/B variants to drop into YouTube's Test & Compare

Formulas this skill uses (packaging shapes, Y1-Y6)

Code	Formula	Best for
Y1	Curiosity-Gap	a surprising result whose mechanism is hidden
Y2	Number / Listicle	a finite, scannable payoff
Y3	How-I Outcome	a first-person result with a number and timeframe
Y4	Mistake / Negativity	a costly thing the viewer is getting wrong
Y5	Transformation	a before/after arc over a timeframe
Y6	Versus / Comparison	two named options in tension (search-friendly)
Y11	Third-Party Success Story	a named person/archetype who built a big number from zero

Full skeletons in references/shared/hook-formulas.md. Y11 was added from a 214-video corpus pull (July 2026) where the third-party rags-to-riches title was the most-frequent uncaptured shape; Y1/Y3/Y5 were the confirmed over-performers, and Y2/Y4/Y6 read weaker in the business/creator niche (noted in the reference).

Steps

1. Gather inputs. The topic or rough title, the real payoff of the video, the target viewer, the main search phrase if any, and whether it is long-form or a Short. If a URL is given, parse it with lib/url_parser.py and ask the user to paste the current title and what the video actually delivers.
2. Decide the job. Browse-first (lead with curiosity and emotion) or search-first (lead with the exact query phrase). Most videos want browse; how- to and comparison videos lean search.
3. Shortlist 2 to 3 formulas that fit the payoff, then draft.
4. Write 3 to 5 titles. Each one:
   • Under 100 chars, ideally 40 to 60, click-deciding words first.
   • One specific number where the claim allows it.
   • Curiosity AND a concrete noun. Never pure mystery, never a dry label.
   • Complements a thumbnail (note what the thumbnail should carry instead).
   • At most one em dash, and a title rarely wants one (a colon reads cleaner); no ALL CAPS, 0 to 1 emoji.
5. Humanizer pass. Scrub 2026 AI vocabulary (a title is one line: any marker such as "leverage" or "game-changer" gets replaced), break stacked or hollow rule-of-three, strip reveal bridges ("Here's what nobody tells you") and sincerity framing ("honestly?", "real talk"). Replace an excess em dash with a colon, never a period.
6. Tag each variant with its formula, char count, and primary goal, and flag the one to lead the Test & Compare with.
7. Approval card. Show the variants with char counts. The user picks or asks for another round.
8. On approval. Titles ride along when the video is published. If the user is also uploading via this bundle, pass the chosen title as the title kwarg to lib.publish(kind="video"|"short", ...); otherwise hand it over for Studio.

Hard rules

Global voice rules: see root SKILL.md Voice rules. Additional skill-specific rules:

• 100-char hard cap. Aim 40 to 60 so mobile does not truncate the payoff.
• Front-load: the words that decide the click go before any colon.
• Title and thumbnail never repeat the same words. Note the split every time.
• Curiosity must be honest. The title cannot promise more than the first 30 seconds delivers (a fast click-away is a ranking penalty).
• Always return at least 3 variants. One title is not a recommendation.

Anti-patterns (skill will refuse)

• Clickbait the video does not honor ("you won't believe what happened").
• ALL CAPS titles or 3+ emoji for fake intensity.
• Keyword-stuffing the title to chase search.
• More than one em dash in a title, or a dash where a colon does the job.
• Vague mystery with no concrete noun ("This changes everything").
• Repeating the thumbnail's words in the title.

Resources

• references/shared/hook-formulas.md - Y1-Y6 title skeletons and the pairing table
• references/shared/algorithm-heuristics.md - CTR x retention, packaging, the 60-char cutoff
• references/title-checklist.md - the per-title scrub and CTR fit list

Related skills

• yt-thumbnail-brief - design the other half of the click
• yt-hook-scripter - script the first 30 seconds so the title's promise lands
• yt-description-writer - the SEO description and chapters
• yt-content-planner - pair titles and thumbnails across a week