🔹 Introduction
Now that winter has come to an end, taxes are filed, and the final lines of code from a major website update are wrapping up, I’ve finally been able to shift some of my spare time back toward YouTube.
But like many creators — especially those building a business while juggling real-life responsibilities — I don’t always have long, uninterrupted hours to film. In those in-between moments, when recording isn’t an option but I still want to make progress, I often switch into research mode.
A few minutes here and there, paired with the right tools, can be surprisingly productive. Whether I’m outlining ideas, studying trends, or trying to understand how other creators structure their content, small bursts of research help me plan better and think more clearly. One of the tools I reach for most often during those sessions is MW Metadata, found at mattw.io/youtube-metadata. It’s simple, free, and surprisingly powerful for what it does — and it’s become one of my favorite quiet resources for planning content intentionally.
🔹 What MW Metadata Is (and Why I Like It)
MW Metadata is a free tool created by developer and YouTube creator Matt Watson. It gives you a fast, clutter-free way to inspect the public metadata behind any YouTube video or channel — things like titles, tags, upload dates, and other publishing details that often go unnoticed but reveal a lot about a creator’s strategy.
There’s no login, no upsells, no tracking — just a clean page where you paste a video or channel URL, hit submit, and instantly see the data YouTube makes publicly available (but usually tucks away in multiple menus). It's not just helpful for seeing what someone wrote in their description — it's a way of seeing how their content was framed.
What I love most is how fast and flexible it is. Whether I’m trying to understand how a particular creator thinks about keywords, or I’m just scanning for upload rhythms and content types, MW Metadata turns a channel’s library into a sortable, searchable workspace that helps me think more strategically — even when I only have a few minutes to spare.
🔹 Why I Find It Useful (Especially for Research)
I’m still in the early stages of building out my content, but I’ve already learned that strategic thinking needs room to breathe. MW Metadata helps me slow down, look closely, and study how other creators are making decisions — not just creatively, but structurally.
Here’s what a typical workflow looks like:
I paste a full channel URL into the MW Metadata homepage — for example, https://www.youtube.com/@thehomeworkdad — and click submit. After the page loads, I scroll down and click the link that says: “Inspect the metadata for all of this channel's videos.”
That opens up a full table of every public video on the channel. I can select how many videos I want to see on a page and choose which columns I want to see — title, thumbnail, views, likes, publish date, video duration, tags, and more — and sort by whichever field I need. A few clicks, and I’m able to look at the content from a completely different angle.
Instead of scrolling endlessly through thumbnails and guessing what worked, I can quickly spot patterns: Which videos performed best? How often are they posting? What types of titles do they repeat? Are tags being used consistently? Are some descriptions really minimal while others are more intentional?
What used to feel like vague guesswork becomes structured insight — all without opening YouTube Studio or relying on tools with more bells and whistles than I need at this stage.
🔹 A Few Practical Ways MW Metadata Can Be Used
Some of the ways I’ve used MW Metadata — or could see it being useful — include:
Studying upload patterns and pacing: Being able to sort a creator’s videos by date and compare that to views or likes helps surface what kind of schedule they’ve kept — and whether it’s shifted over time.
Understanding how creators format multi-part series or repeat topics: It’s easier to evaluate a series when you can see every related video in one place. You can observe how titles evolve, how tags are reused, or how description formatting changes from one part to the next.
Spotting areas for improvement in your own videos: Looking at your own metadata in this format can be eye-opening. Maybe you notice that you forgot to fill in a description, or that your title formatting has been inconsistent. You might see how many of your own videos have missing tags or vague language — things you might otherwise overlook when uploading in a rush.
Seeing the strategy behind simplicity: Sometimes you’ll find high-performing videos with no tags at all — which might signal that the strength of the content itself carried it, or that metadata wasn’t necessary in that niche. Other times, you'll see long, well-structured descriptions and clear keyword choices that tell you a creator is being intentional with their publishing.
🔹 Conclusion: Learn to See What’s Already Working
As creators, we spend so much time trying to produce — and sometimes not enough time trying to understand. Tools like MW Metadata don’t replace creativity, and they’re not magic — but they can help you slow down and see more clearly.
You don’t need a huge subscriber base or premium analytics tools to study what’s working. You just need the willingness to look a little deeper and ask better questions. MW Metadata won’t give you all the answers, but it might show you a corner of the puzzle you hadn’t noticed before.
So if you haven’t tried it, head over to mattw.io/youtube-metadata, paste in your own channel — or one you respect — and spend five or ten minutes exploring. You might walk away with a new insight, a better understanding of what’s working… or even just a little more confidence in the direction you’re heading.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need.
