The use of video is a great way to enhance your online business presence and convert new leads. Video can often be more effective than text since it’s 50x more likely to be listed in Google’s organic search results. Couple that with a 41% higher click-through rate (CTR) and you realize you can’t afford to be missing out on all that potential traffic.
However, improving your video SEO can be difficult. While it’s possible to improve your video ranking in the search results, you should understand the science behind the search and how to edit your videos to improve your position. So, how does video SEO work, and how can you make it work for you? Let’s take a look.
How Does Video SEO Work?
Video SEO is essentially the same as text-based SEO. When creating a web page or blog post, search engines like Google and Bing will crawl that page and index it based on its content. Then, when someone searches for a keyword related to your content, Google will list it in order of relevance. Pages that are determined extremely relevant will be listed first, while those that are only somewhat related will rank poorly.
Video SEO is the same. Websites like Youtube actually search engines with their own unique algorithms. Just as you can type a question in the Google search bar, you must type a phrase into Youtube’s search bar to find a list of related videos. Even Google will index your videos to determine their relevancy and potentially list them in the “video” results of text-based searches.
Generally speaking, if you optimize your videos for one search engine, it will help its rankings on another. However, it is important to remember that Youtube, Google, and other search engines are all unique and have different algorithms. Pay close attention to where you’re posting your video as well as what your goal is. If you want your videos to show up on Google, you may need to make changes than if you simply want to rank well on Youtube or another video platform.
You can benefit from this process by formatting your videos and their text descriptions, titles, etc in a way that search engines can easily read and catalog. Here are some tips for optimizing your videos for SEO.
Optimizing Your Videos For SEO
Regardless of how good your video is, it’s worthless if no one watches it. In order to show your content to more people, (therefore gaining more traffic and increasing your conversions) you need to optimize your video for SEO. There are several ways to accomplish this.
Choose Your Platform
Before posting your video, you need to decide which platform will best fit the theme of your video and therefore engage your audience. A good starting place is to think about your target audience and figure out which video platform they most likely use?
Another important consideration is what your end goal is for posting your video. If you simply want to expose people to what you have to say in that video and raise your general brand awareness, then posting to channels like Youtube is fine.
On the other hand, if your goal is to funnel traffic to your website, you may find yourself competing for the attention of your consumers as they are overwhelmed by other options such as suggested videos that appear at the end of yours.
To funnel traffic to your website, embed your video on a landing page on your site and optimize it to show up in Google’s video section. This prevents users from being distracting by competing videos. It will also expose them to your website where it’s much easier to get them to take action.
Include A Transcript
Most platforms, like Facebook, will allow you to post a transcript with your video. This is advantageous for a few reasons. First, it allows more people to access your information. Not everyone is always in a place where they can watch a video with the volume up, so adding a transcript lets them read what you’re saying without disturbing anyone around them.
Second, transcripts are text, and therefore they get indexed by search bots. This lets you improve the likelihood of your video showing up in a search result organically because the search engine knows exactly what your video is about.
Use An Engaging Thumbnail
The old adage “never judge a book by its cover” doesn’t apply to video. If you use a boring thumbnail that doesn’t catch people’s attention, your video will look poorly made and unexciting. The thumbnail is someone’s first impression of your video, and so it should be engaging and eye-catching.
It’s important to note that your thumbnail should always be related to your video content, but avoid over-the-top images as they will be perceived as click-bait. You probably know what it’s like to click on a video because of the thumbnail and then be frustrated because what you saw in the thumbnail never appeared in the video. Try not to upset your viewers with “false advertising”. Use a thumbnail that is well-made, related to your video, and accurately portrays what your video is about.
Optimize Your Title And Description
One of the first things that come to mind when you hear “video SEO” is probably the title and description. It’s important to give appropriate time and thought to these features as they are important and will directly affect your rankings.
Just as blog posts must be optimized with keywords to rank better in search results, so must your videos. Take time to do keyword research related to your video content and come up with a title that includes that word or phrase.
Remember to optimize your meta descriptions for SEO by including pointed keywords and phrases that relate to your video.
Optimize The Page The Video Is Posted To
Optimizing a video’s page that is posted directly to your site, rather than a video platform like Youtube, will help improves its SEO ranking. Instead of leaving the video on its own, write a description or a paragraph about the video content to post on the page with the video. Search bots love text, so including text with all your videos is a great way to help their rankings.
Focus On More Than SEO
You should understand that SEO isn’t the only thing that matters. Social media posts, email campaigns, and other ways to share your video content with consumers will help grow your following and increase your brand awareness.
You shouldn’t rely solely on SEO to improve your company. While it’s important, every aspect of your business should be given attention and there are plenty of ways to reach consumers. Take advantage of these strategies as well as SEO and you’ll find your company begins to grow even faster than it would then with SEO alone.
Let Us Help You Succeed!
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