When it comes to search engines, we’d probably all get the answer right if we were asked which one is number one – it’s obviously Google. But did you know that the second most popular search engine is YouTube? Yup, that’s right – YouTube is a search engine, and it has some very impressive stats, like the fact that more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month. So search engine optimization (SEO) is just as important for video content on YouTube as it is for website SEO on Google – in fact, even more so, because owing to the fact that YouTube is owned by Google, YouTube videos (with the right SEO) enjoy better search engine ranking on Google too. So what then is video SEO?
What is video SEO?
In the same way that you have website SEO, so you also have video SEO. It simply means optimizing your video content so that it can be indexed and ranked for relevant keyword searches on the results pages of the search engines.
But first, let’s take a brief step back and look at why you should even be thinking in the first place of including video (video content, video advertising) as an online tactic in your digital marketing strategy.
Why have video content?
Time and again we’ve stressed the importance of constantly producing fresh, relevant and informative content. Paired with that is the fact that most people are visual learners. This is even more relevant now that we’ve become a very mobile society. While not everyone enjoys a good read anymore, many people are very receptive to watching short video clips, which can be watched on pretty much any platform (laptop, smartphone, tablet). These days, most people have a smartphone that has the ability to shoot a decent enough video anywhere – as a result, it’s now pretty much impossible to browse the Internet without seeing a video.
There, in a nutshell, is why creating videos is so essential for the effectiveness of any brand’s digital marketing strategy. But what’s the point of creating videos if they’re not going to rank in the search engine results?
Why is video good for SEO?
Before we look at a few optimization strategies to give your videos the best chance at higher rankings, let’s recap on the top 3 reasons why video is good for SEO.
- YouTube is the world’s 2nd largest search engine, so videos that have got their SEO right will enjoy a far higher ranking and hence more traffic than those that don’t.
- YouTube videos also rank on the search engine of its owner, Google – subject, of course, to Google’s relevant algorithm. So the better a video’s SEO the higher it will rank in both search engines (like the proverbial “two birds with one stone”).
- Video content is more likely to be shared. Owing to their visual nature, videos are more often shared via social media networks and have a much greater chance of going ‘viral’ and generating ‘likes’ than written content. Google pays a lot of positive attention to that sort of thing.
So, there you have it – 3 key reasons why video SEO is so important for your digital marketing strategy’s video advertising tactics. Now for some tried and tested tips to give your videos a better chance at a higher search engine ranking.
5 tips for good video SEO
- Choose an apt title for and write a good description of your video:
The title and metadata for your video are important for determining its search rankings. Ensure you include the keywords that people are actually searching for, but without, of course, stuffing the title and description with them so they don’t really make any sense. That’s neither attractive to people or search engines! - Include an engaging thumbnail image for your video with the desired words you want to be found for:
Even more important than the title is the video thumbnail that a searcher will see when your video is indexed. Don’t forget, people are highly susceptible to anything that’s visual, so the thumbnail will have a significant effect on whether or not people will click on it. If your thumbnail is an engaging, good-quality image that is relevant for what you’re trying to rank (i.e. what people are searching for), then there’s a much greater chance they will click on it. - Include a transcript of your video:
The text that comes up with a video on an online feed is known as the video’s transcript. Transcripts are like page copy, which makes it easier for the search engines to index them and, in turn, rank them more easily for search. - Make sure your page is relevant to your video and optimized for SEO:
It makes no sense to ensure your video SEO is spot on, but the page on which you put it on your website isn’t. After all, you want to make sure the search engine is interested enough to crawl your page, to begin with – otherwise, it will never find the great video you’ve put there. So, continue to create high-quality content and ensure the SEO of all your pages are in good order, and you’ll see the right results. - Make your video relevant to your page:
Don’t simply dump a video on any old page. Make sure it makes sense for visitors to find it there – in other words, ensure the page and the video is relevant to one another. And if that’s the case, then it also makes sense to make the video the whole focus of the page and to ensure it’s the first thing people see when they get to that page. Don’t make them scroll to have to find it. People don’t like to have to go scratching around to find something, no matter how good the item (in this case, your video) might be – and the search engines won’t bother either.
How to promote video SEO through paid advertising
Of course, Google and other search engines are constantly tweaking and changing their search algorithms in line with the changing preferences of their users. So, SEO is always going to be a bit of a moving feast. Therefore, investing in paid video advertising, e.g. paid Google advertising, Google AdWords and YouTube advertising, is sometimes the only logical way to get more clicks on your video as a way to accelerate organic growth in your online marketing campaigns. Organic growth will then, in turn, advance the SEO of your video.
Include video advertising in your digital marketing strategy
Videos, such as product demonstrations, how-to tutorials and customer testimonials, are a great way to make your business more ‘human’ and trustworthy in the eyes of your customers and potential customers. Therefore, no digital marketing strategy that wants to deliver tangible results should be without a video component.
If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of including video in your online marketing strategy and how to do video SEO that will get more eyes on your products or services, then simply talk to the SEO experts at Auckland digital marketing agency. Our comprehensive digital marketing service includes SEO for websites and video. We’re just a phone call away– so get in touch with us today.
