The world has gone video mad, making video SEO crazy important.
From your favorite TV series to the news, 'movies' online and at your fingertips, and always on y
our phone…the irony being that you can hardly call a spot of footage 'moving' these days.The point is, people love a good video clip - we are a visual species, after all.
So what happens when someone – whether student, professional or passionate influencer– decides to post their own vid-clip?
They probably think to themselves: "Wow, I've done well here! I made this fantastic video, and 300 people have already watched it. I can see my 15 minutes of fame coming up.
"And then...it doesn't, because they probably forgot about video SEO entirely, or probably your video editing skills aren't that good (oops)
If the latter is the problem, there's a quick solution: outsourcing video editing to Legiit freelancers.
Source: https://legiit.com/categories/video/video-editing
Good news and bad news!
The good news: video is the best way to stand out in the search results.
But here's the bad news: video is also one of the most difficult content formats to optimize.
Whether you're curating user-generated content, showcasing your products, explaining your industry, or crafting a piece of original content, being found online is challenging.
It isn't as simple as uploading your videos to YouTube and praying for traffic.
It requires a little bit more finesse than that.
Ranking high in the video search engine doesn't happen by chance.
There are two ways to go about improving your video SEO.
You can optimize the video itself with things like the title, description, tags, and so on.
Or you can optimize the content that surrounds the video — the page layout, site structure, and so on.
Both are important. While a well-optimized video can rank on its own merits without much else around it, that's unusual.
In most cases, you'll want to create a web page around your video that includes some text content with links, images, and more.
A great video by itself isn't usually enough to rank well in competitive searches.
It requires careful planning and execution to optimize your videos for the search engine properly and ensure that you're using all available resources to their full potential.
But don't worry.
In this post, I'll show you how to optimize your videos for SEO so that the search engine can find them and drive traffic back to you.
We will provide a video SEO checklist and valuable tips on ensuring your target audience see your videos while increasing their reach.
How is video SEO different from regular SEO?
Well, as you know, a video differs from a text page in some fundamental ways.
Video content is often more engaging, but it is also fundamentally different from text-based content.
On average, videos are shared 1200% more than text and image posts combined – making it perfect for businesses looking to increase their organic reach
Source: https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
For this reason, video SEO is not the same as regular SEO. It has its own best practices and rules that differentiate it from standard SEO campaigns.
You can't just throw together a quick explainer video and expect it to rank as well as a blog post or infographic.
Search engine crawlers can't watch videos the way they can read web pages, so they rely on special signals (such as video sitemaps) to find them.
This is why video sitemaps are essential for getting your videos indexed, but we'll cover that in more detail below.
That's why you need a separate video SEO checklist and strategy when publishing videos.
Video SEO has dramatically changed
Video is a great way to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website, but it's not always easy to get noticed.
While YouTube is the second-largest search engine globally, most of its videos are watched after being found on other platforms.
That's why you should also optimize your video content for those platforms and learn how Youtube algorithms work.
Since Google owns YouTube, it makes sense that embedding videos in your posts will help them rank higher in search results (see Youtube SEO tips)
Source https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share
The good news is, with a bit of practice and a few SEO tips, you'll be well on your way to creating videos that rank high in search results - and hopefully, people will watch them!
After all, it's a new SEO world, and the rise of video content has created opportunities for brands to reach customers in fresh ways.
But along with the rise of video content, a whole new set of challenges for video SEO marketers has come.
While Google has gone on record as saying that "unique and compelling" videos are likely to show up as suggested videos when people search, it's also said that "the real value comes from syndicating your videos through social networks, niche sites, and other channels."
In other words, Google wants you to get those views in places it can't track.
So while you'll want to use keywords like you always have, you'll also want to promote your videos elsewhere online and know what kind of videos your audience wants.
Source: https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
Why is it hard to get video SEO right instantly?
The reason why it's difficult to get video SEO right is because the process for optimizing a video is complex, and many brands aren't sure where to begin.
To produce a video that has the best possible chance of ranking well for your keyword, you need to follow best practices in every aspect of production, from scriptwriting to editing.
To start thinking about how your videos can rank better in search results, you need to know how people use search engines.
In addition to traditional text queries, people are increasingly using voice search on their mobile devices, dramatically changing the way they interact with Google.
And this can impact the performance of your video SEO.
For example, if someone wants information on a particular topic, they might type "how do I unclog my sink?" into Google.
However, if they're using voice search on their smartphone (while they're standing in the bathroom getting ready to tackle the problem themselves)...
...they might use a more conversational query like "okay, Google — show me how to unclog my sink."
That means you need to know what keywords your audience uses when they're talking about their problems and interests out loud instead of typing them into a browser window or mobile app.
So here are the most important reasons why it is challenging:
- For starters, as we said before, the way you optimize your website isn't always the same as how you optimize your video content. You might spend years optimizing your website and then start producing videos with no optimization whatsoever. Videos are different from websites and need to be tackled separately.
- Video SEO is more complicated than website SEO because there's more metadata involved. There's a title, description, and tags for every video you upload, which all have to be optimized if you want to rank well in search results. It's not exactly rocket science, but it will take some time to learn how to do it right.
- Video optimization also includes other elements like closed captions and transcripts (yes, those are important too!). If you don't know how to use these elements correctly, you're going to waste a lot of time trying to figure them out on your own (and probably still come up short).
Why do you need to optimize your videos for the search engine?
Videos are everywhere these days. You can find them on every topic imaginable, and they're a great way to discover information quickly.
Because of this, video SEO is more important than ever before. It's no longer enough to simply upload your videos to YouTube and share them on Facebook.
If you want your videos to be found by people who don't already know about you, you need to optimize them for the search engine.
Search engines can't watch video (yet)
Source: https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
Not all video is created equal. The video content you create — and the way you create it — can make all the difference in your video SEO strategy.
You need to optimize your videos for the search engine so that people can find them.
Here are some reasons why you should care about video SEO
1. It helps you with brand reach
2. Video promotes trust and credibility
3. Video helps you rank higher on the results page
4. Video helps improve customer engagement
5. Video helps you understand user behavior
6. Video helps you generate more and better leads
7. Video helps drive more social shares
1. It helps you with brand reach
You don't need to be a Facebook-level company to gain extra exposure from video marketing.
It doesn't matter if you have no history on YouTube or Vimeo—video marketing can help you reach new people and build a customer base of your own.
Plus, video SEO gives more weight to your business website than other types of content.
Without much effort, videos can go viral and help you win over new clients.
2. Video promotes trust and credibility
Video content has been proven to promote more trust and credibility with your audience.
This is especially true if you're promoting a new product or service because the video is the perfect medium for explaining what it does and how it works.
Video content allows you to position yourself as an expert in the minds of your customers.
This improves your credibility and ultimately results in more sales for your business.
A recent survey showed that 73% of consumers prefer a short video over text when learning about a new product or service.
Source: https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
3. Video helps you rank higher on the results page
While optimizing your videos with a specific audience in mind is always a good idea, making sure they're optimized for search engines has become increasingly important.
Video SEO increases your click-through rate, which drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERP (search engine results page).
Video helps drive more social shares, but the search can be a potent traffic driver when you rank in Google's top spots.
Social shares can drive organic traffic and increase views, but these only serve as potential future links back to your video (and your site).
Video SEO helps put you directly in front of those users searching within YouTube or Google specifically—and that one-to-one relationship works wonders for driving consistent traffic to your video content.
4. Video helps improve customer engagement
Video posts generate 73% more engagements than posts of photos.
It's pretty clear then that content marketers should be using video. Video enhances a brand's credibility and offers a greater opportunity to engage with customers.
However, it isn't as simple as just adding a video to your website or publishing one on YouTube.
Video SEO strategy is essential if you want organic search traffic through Google and Bing in order to be found by potential clients and customers.
5. Video helps you understand user behavior
If you're thinking about building a video into your content strategy, don't just think about what you want viewers to do or know.
Think about how they'd search for it. Video can help you better understand user behavior so that when (or if) they type something into Google, they find what they need.
This also enables marketers and designers to better understand which words on a page might be most important and thus serve as search keywords.
Because of their prevalence in online content today, videos should be part of every company's video SEO strategy—and fortunately, it isn't difficult or expensive to add videos where appropriate.
6. Video helps you generate more and better leads
Modern buyers are sophisticated consumers with high expectations. They're used to being entertained by high-quality video content.
Boring, corporate-style videos just won't cut it for today's buyers.
86% of marketers say video has helped them generate more leads
Video is the best way to get your message out there and resonate with your audience.
A short explainer video can make all the difference for your marketing efforts and help you increase lead generation.
Source: https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
7. Video helps drive more social shares
People are twice more likely to share video content than any other type of content – even more so than infographics or blogs.
We've all heard the catchy saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words." But what about a video? Could it be worth millions of words? The answer is yes!
Video is quickly becoming the most popular form of content on the web and social media.
People love watching videos, making videos, and sharing videos.
They like it. They comment on it. They share it.
And they share video content more than anything else.
In the world of online marketing, video is king making video SEO critical for success.
How to optimize your video for search?
If you want a simple (and cheaper) way to do video SEO, then you can always use skillful and professional freelancers.
Source: https://legiit.com/categories/seo/video-seo
Tip #1: Choose the right video hosting platform
The first thing you need to do for your video SEO is choose the right hosting platform. There are two types of video hosting platforms: self-hosting and third-party hosting.
- Self-hosting platforms are those where you host your videos on your own server or website.
- Third-party platforms are those where you upload your videos on platforms like YouTube or Facebook.
Self-hosting lets you maintain control over all aspects of your videos, including branding and distribution.
It also allows greater analytics tracking and customization over what appears on the page with your video.
Source https://kinsta.com/blog/video-hosting/
There are many video hosting platforms out there, and when deciding on a platform, you'll need to consider the following:
- Player looks.
Some video players look better than others. In fact, viewers believe that the player's look is one of their top three criteria when watching a video online.
A good player will have an uncluttered interface and customize its appearance. So keep that in mind for your video SEO.
- Inclusion of ads.
While many videos are hosted for free, this often comes at the price of ads displayed around the video.
Ads can distract viewers and damage your brand image, so it's crucial to find a platform that allows you to host without ads or gives you control over what ads appear in your videos.
- Support for multiple formats.
Different browsers support different formats.
A good video player will allow users to choose which format they want to watch, so they don't get any errors while playing your video.
We all know that search engines can't understand video content. When you upload a video to YouTube, for example, Google cannot read that video and understand what it's about.
Tip #2: Create videos with objectives in mind
Video can be a great way to supplement your SEO and grow your business.
However, if you want to make sure that your videos are SEO-optimized, you have to design them with your objectives in mind.
What do I mean by this? Here are some tips:
- Know what you want the viewer to do after watching (this is key). Do you want them to click through to the website? Buy a product? Sign up for an email list? This determines how you structure everything from the first frame to the last.
- Have essential keywords in the title tag and description tag. These tags are easy ways for search engines to find keywords related to your video and rank it higher than others.
- Create a transcript of the audio. Search engines can't understand audio, so transcribing it into text is helpful for them and your video SEO. (we will talk about that in more detail below)
- Embed the video on a relevant page on your site. This has been shown to increase conversions. The page helps contextualize the footage and allows search engines another opportunity to find more keywords related to your video. But for more detail, keep reading.
Source: https://kinsta.com/blog/video-hosting/
Tip #3: Add transcripts to your videos
We all know that search engines can't understand video content.
When you upload a video to YouTube, for example, Google cannot read that video and understand what it's about.
That's why inserting a video transcript on your webpage is crucial for your video SEO.
After all, 85% of all video content uploaded to Facebook is watched without sound. Although video transcripts can be tedious or even time-consuming to create, they're necessary for several reasons.
- First and foremost, they make your videos more accessible to the hearing impaired.
- It's also helpful to have them if someone wants to search through your video by keyword.
- They are very useful for viewers who don't speak English natively or want to watch a video without sound.
- Google prefers sites that offer multiple ways for users to absorb information, so by adding closed captions, you can further boost the ranking of your video on Google SERPs.
- They provide an overall better experience for viewers and Google.
Moreover, if you're making a vlog, consider creating a transcript and posting it on your blog as an accompanying article.
This will help with video SEO purposes and allow you to rank for two different pieces of content — the blog article and the YouTube video.
You should add them as closed captions (CC) to your videos to get more out of your transcripts.
Closed captions are like subtitles that allow viewers to read along with what's being said in a video.
It's also crucial that you include timestamps in the body of your transcript so that users can click on certain parts of the text to jump right into that moment in the video.
Tip #4: Make your thumbnail image engaging
Video thumbnail images are the book covers of the online video world.
They're what catch a viewer's eye and convince them to click on a video.
When someone searches on Google, they will see a list of videos in the results.
The first thing they will see is the thumbnail image, so you must grab their attention.
https://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisMWalker/videos
So, if you want to optimize your video SEO, you have to make sure your thumbnail image
- is engaging,
- is compelling
- represents the content of your video
- is clear
- is suitable
- is relevant
- is overall beautiful
- is high quality
- shows the users what to expect
- and has a solid call to action.
You need to attract viewers with your image...
Usually, the platform will automatically choose the most suitable still from the video for you.
You can change this by uploading your own custom thumbnail, but you need to make sure it's at least 1280 x 720 pixels; otherwise, it won't be good enough quality.
But keep in mind that search engines aren't watching your videos.
They don't see the colors you've picked or the motion graphics you've created, and they certainly can't understand your message.
The only way they can understand what's in a video is to read the text accompanying it. Which is an important factor of your video SEO success.
You might think of YouTube as an exception to this rule — after all, when you type a search query into YouTube, it shows you a bunch of video thumbnails.
But those thumbnails are accompanied by metadata like titles and descriptions, which help search engines decide which ones are most relevant.
If you want to optimize your video SEO, you have to make sure your thumbnail image is engaging enough to get people to click on the link in search results.
For example, when comparing two similar videos with different thumbnail images, the one with the better image will get more clicks, more views, and better rankings on Google and YouTube.
Tip #5: Add timestamps to your videos
When you add timestamps in your videos, you can help viewers 'consume' your videos better. Anything that viewers like the search engines love.
Timestamps are basically an outline of your video.
They are clickable links at certain points of your video from which viewers can find what they are looking for without watching the whole video.
You can add timestamps to your videos to help people find the most interesting parts (especially if it is a lengthy video.)
They appear as links in the description below your video.
This means that when people click on a timestamp, they'll be taken directly to the point in your video where you've placed them.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-JaA8xmxEc&t=46s
It is good for both video SEO as well as user experience as it will help in higher watch time and better engagement.
One of the biggest benefits of adding timestamps in your videos is that it allows you to better market your content.
Search engines can use this information to generate more relevant search results.
Meanwhile, social media platforms like Facebook can display the timestamp next to your preview to help users find a specific part of your video.
Tip #6: Pay attention to the title and meta description
The title and the meta description are the two most important elements of your video SEO.
The title is what the user sees first when they land on a search results page, and it's also what they are using to decide whether they want to click on your video or not.
If you're trying to optimize a video for SEO, you have to pay attention to these two things.
The meta description is also essential because it helps users decide whether or not your video will be relevant for them.
The description should include a clear summary of what your video is about, but it should also include other relevant keywords that could help you get more views.
Make sure you write a compelling description for each video so people will be more likely to click on it.
Search engines also use the meta description when they rank your video.
So make sure you include relevant keywords in the description to help your video SEO.
Don't just stuff the title and meta description with some (irrelevant) keywords, and pray for the best.
Instead, think of making it as exciting and clickable as possible.
Tip #7: Make sure your page is also optimized
Once you've uploaded your video to YouTube, you can add it to your own website.
Embedding videos from YouTube on your website is a great way to share the videos with visitors and improve the user experience.
You also increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site and lower bounce rates — both of which are positive signals to search engines that help improve rankings.
For your video SEO to be successful, you need to optimize the page that features it.
It will ensure that these pages rank as highly as possible in search.
It's important to remember that while videos appear in search engine results, the video content itself isn't indexed by search engines. (we will keep repeating this until you understand its implications)
So, the higher this page ranks in search results, the more likely it is that users will find it.
Tip #8: Embed your best-performing video content
When you're looking to get more video views, there are a few key things you need to do.
One is to make sure that Google can find your videos.
The second is to make sure that Google knows that your videos are the best and most relevant results for the keywords you want them to show up in.
This matters because Google only indexes one video per page, which can impact your video SEO.
So if you embed two or three or four, then only one of them will be indexed by Google, and it's likely not going to be the best performing video or the one you're trying to promote.
If you want to make one of your videos into a hit, putting multiple videos on the page probably won't help.
Keeping the page focused around a single video will ensure that it receives the attention it deserves, helping with your video SEO efforts.
#9 Don't embed the same video on multiple pages
If you have a bunch of great video content, it's tempting to embed the same video in multiple places: on your website, your blog, social media, and so on.
But for your video SEO strategy, it's better to create several videos that cover similar topics rather than embedding the same video everywhere.
Normally, if the pages you’re embedding your video on are more than 70%+ unique, then it shouldn’t be a problem embedding the video on multiple pages.
However, if you want to stay on the safe side, stay away from this practice.
So.... don't embed the same video in multiple places if you want to get more results for your video SEO efforts.
This isn't a loophole that you can exploit to get more views. It also won't help you get higher rankings.
If anything... it can actually hurt your ranking.
If you embed the same video on multiple pages, Google will only index one of those pages to be returned in search results.
This means that even if you upload a great video, if it's embedded on five different pages of your website, only one of those pages will rank for your target keyword(s).
This can also create duplicate content issues with Google because their crawlers won't know which page to return for organic search results.
Duplicate content is not ideal for the user experience.
- It annoys your users
- It isn't an effective use of your traffic
- You can get penalized for it
- You'll confuse your visitors more
- It can lower your engagement rate
- And it just looks lazy
Basically, you are competing with yourself to get a better ranking...which is not ideal.
When users find duplicate content from multiple sources across the web, it is difficult to determine which is the most recent and accurate source of information.
It also becomes difficult for Google to determine which source they should rank in organic search results.
#10 Create the correct type of video content
If you want to succeed with your video SEO, you have to create the right video content that resonates with your audience.
You have to understand what your audience wants to know.
- What questions do they have?
- What problems do they need to solve?
- How to answer their questions or solve their problem.
First, you have to know who you're talking to and the purpose of the video.
Knowing these two things allows you to determine the type of content that you want to create for them and what strategy you should make for your video SEO.
Once you know your audience and what problems they need solving, you can create content that targets their pain points.
You have to find out what sort of video content your target audience is already watching so you can learn from the videos that are working well.
This is where keyword research comes into play.
This will help you determine the right type of content that your target audience wants and needs.
This means researching what topics and types of videos are popular in your industry.
YouTube's or Google's search function can be a great place to start this research for your video SEO, especially when using the advanced search option.
Simply enter a relevant keyword into YouTube's search bar and scroll down to the bottom of the results page to find the advanced search option.
Once you've found a list of popular potential keywords, it's time to filter them by topic relevance and search volume.
Next, the best way is to create a video for your viewers instead of for yourself.
Often, people will create a video because they want to be seen as an expert in their field.
They make the video because they want the viewers to think they know everything there is to know about their industry.
But when you create a video for your audience, you get them involved by asking questions and talking about their own experiences.
By doing this, you're helping them learn something new, which can really help your videos get ranked on Youtube.
#11 Measure your performance
If you want to make sure that your videos are fully optimized, you have to know how to measure their performance.
Source: https://promo.com/blog/video-metrics
Here are a few metrics that you need to keep an eye on when focusing on your video SEO:
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Viewer engagement
- View count
This is self-explanatory. The more views, the more popular and successful your video is.
But it's important to remember that just because a video has millions of views doesn't mean that it's effective at achieving its goals.
A high view count only means that more people watched it, but there's no indication if they actually enjoyed it or not.
That's why viewer engagement is also important.
However, there's more to video SEO checklists than just measuring how many views and clicks you get. You also want to make sure that people are sharing your videos on social media sites.
If people are sharing something on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, then it means that it's valuable content.
This is because people tend to share things that they find interesting or valuable. So it's a good indication that you're doing something right with your content.
To conclude...
While SEO is always a great reason to optimize your videos, it's worth remembering you must be sure to err on the side of caution.
You need to make sure that everything you do can be easily seen by as many people as possible, positively impacting your video SEO efforts.
After all, it's hard enough to stand out on the web with all the noise out there!
Optimizing your video content for different search engines can mean the difference between getting that sweet, sweet traffic and… not.
But knowing what type of optimization to use for which companies can be a bit confusing at times, especially if you're brand new to SEO.
The bottom line is that it is all a balancing act when it comes to video SEO strategies and best practices. A perfect recipe is not needed.
You can not just add a dash of fancy ingredients but optimize it to ensure it works positively and efficiently; everything you do in the process will help make all your efforts worth the time.
As long as you have this mind frame, you will be equipped with the tools and data needed for all your video SEO needs.
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