You’re probably already familiar with the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A high ranking SEO is something that every business that takes their marketing seriously strives for. What you may not know is that adding video content to your website and other platforms can drastically improve your SEO efforts and drive more people to your brand.
With Google’s algorithms prioritizing websites with video content, YouTube being the second most popular search engine and with 93% of online traffic starting with a search engine, all arrows are pointing to video content being something you should adopting for your business.
Now you may be asking yourself, “how do I optimize my video content so that it improves my SEO ranking?” Well, lucky for you, that’s exactly what we are here to show you.
Invest in High-Quality Video Content
One of the key factors in getting a higher SEO ranking is the amount of time that a user spends on your page or site. Although video content can boost your ranking by increasing access to your site, users won’t remain on your webpage very long if your on-page content isn’t of high-quality. In fact, it may even have the opposite effect. At the beginning more users may encounter your site, but if they are not satisfied with the result and quickly leave the page, this will lower your ranking as your page is not considered valuable, and as a result, you may even experience lower levels of conversion.
Takeaway: Invest time and thought into your video content plan before creating video content; establish your goals, set up a clear video production plan and create a detailed marketing strategy. Remember that quality content doesn’t rely on the quantity of the sum you invest and can also be done on a budget!
Post Product and Explainer Videos on Your Page
Publishing videos on your website increases your SEO. 83% of marketers say video has increased the amount of time users spend on their website (Wyzowl). When a visitor lands on your webpage, you have a matter of moments to impress him and harness his attention. Embedding a video on your landing page is one of the most important techniques to grab your visitors attention and make sure that he sticks around and having product videos on your website is a common strategy to increase brand's conversion.
According to Invodo, a video production studio that specializes in retail, 52% of consumers claim that product videos increase their level of confidence in completing a purchase, with many brands experiencing a close correlation between the presence of product videos and an increase in sales. In the case that your business is service-oriented as opposed to product, you can increase conversion with the use of explainer videos.
Side note: Make sure that your video content is also accompanied by other written content. The more Google understands how your video relates to the content on its page, the better it ranks. You can make the content of your video readable to Google by adding subtitles (provided they are added in an external format and not burned-in).
Takeaway: Put a brand video on your “About Us” page, a product video where your product description is, a testimonial video goes well pretty much anywhere, but make sure that it is in the right context.
Promote Your Video Content on Various Channels
As important as it is to make quality videos for your SEO strategy, putting them in the right places so that they get seen is no less important. Even the most original and engaging of videos need to find their way to the right places to be viewed. Sharing your videos on social media and sending them to your clients via campaigns and newsletters are some of the greatest ways to increase video views, improving it’s ranking and enhancing your SEO.
Takeaway: Post your videos on your business’ pages on social media, share them with your clients and friends and get them to like, share and comment.
Video SEO Rich Snippets
Rich snippets are enhanced search results, or in other words, results that go beyond the regular results. They help a brand stand out from the other search results on that page, making searches more inclined to click on those results.
A video rich snippet usually includes a thumbnail of the video, its length, a description and is usually a lot more prominent and engaging than other results.
Rich snippets rely on the use of structured data, a type of format that provides context to your content in the way that search engines prefer and prioritize.
Takeaway: Although it may not be the most direct way of improving your SEO as it is not a ranking factor, Google helps businesses who help searchers find the content that they are looking for, and that’s exactly what rich snippets are all about.
Include all Video Details
Make sure to include all relevant details and information when uploading your video. Metadata makes it easier for search engines to determine what your content is about, and thus are vital for SEO. Search engines such as Google can’t read your video content (data), and rely on the textual input that you provide in the form of metadata. With the right metadata search engines are able to categorize and prioritize your videos.
Takeaway: The 5 most important metadata tags to improve your SEO are: title, description, header, video transcript and tags
Backlink your Videos
Backlinks are links that redirect traffic from one website to a page on another website. The use of backlinks is a technique to improve your SEO, as many search engines use clicks on backlinks as another way of ranking your website. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have better SEOs. But it’s not enough just linking all your content on the internet, there are many factors that make your backlinks worth clicking, some of them include; good quality videos, they redirect the user to a trusted website, your website has something in common with the origin website, you don’t over-link on the origin website.
Takeaway: Backlink your video content, but make sure that your video content is something that is worthy of a click.
Here is a famous example of a video that generated a lot of backlinks and a lot of brand awareness (something that usually goes hand in hand).
Host Videos on YouTube
Google ranks videos that are posted on YouTube higher than videos on other platforms. Although the traffic goes to your video on YouTube and not to your website, it serves as a very helpful marketing tool. Like Google, YouTube’s relevance is determined by metadata, but its ranking differs as it is determined by time-related metrics. The longer someone is on YouTube following watching your video it contributes to the relevance of your video, regardless if they remain on your video channel.
Takeaway: Even if you are using other platforms to host your videos, make sure that YouTube is one of them. When uploading your videos to YouTube make sure that your videos contain content that people want to watch and will make them want to keep watching, yours or other videos, include and leverage videos from other channels in your playlist, embed the YouTube video onto your website and be smart about the metadata you chose!
In Conclusion:
The use and popularity of videos is only expected to grow with people preferring to watch and engage with them, as well as being the most memorable form of content on the web. With that being said, videos are a lot more than a marketing strategy but also an SEO strategy by driving more traffic to your website, increasing online visibility and
increasing your website's rankings.
The hype and popularity that videos create across the web can lead to great results for a brand when done right. On the same note, it is important to do the right research, be creative and invest in good quality video content. So if you have made it to this point without making video content a significant part of your marketing strategy, we highly recommend putting your focus on it this year.