Few things grab attention like video. While images and optimized text are great for driving online flow to your company’s website, video attracts customers unlike anything else. This is why you need video SEO.
Video search engine optimization (SEO) pulls customers in as they engage in online research on products and services. Nearly 100 percent of your potential customers are doing online research before buying a product or service, and a large percentage of those customers are watching videos as part of that research. Video SEO is a necessity to keep up with your competition.
About 80 percent of your internet traffic will come from videos. And performing video SEO is a great way to build backlinks that further drive traffic to your company’s website. Video SEO is just as important, if not more important than every other aspect of your online marketing plan.
What is video SEO? How do you get your online video content ranked? And what are the features of video SEO? This guide will take you through the features of video SEO and the ways you can use video SEO to drive your brand to success.
What is Video SEO?
Video SEO is the process of boosting your online search ranking and visibility of video content. Video SEO seeks to raise visibility in search rankings on all major search engines. It involves the process of creating video metadata that determines your relevance in the kinds of things people are searching for on internet searches.
Most people know about SEO practices for their online content. The keyword research and optimization procedures that direct search engines to rank your content are now a staple of any sound marketing plan. These same ideas go into video SEO.
The key difference between content SEO ad video SEO is that search engine web crawlers cannot see video data. Therefore, conventional SEO procedures will not work. Video SEO uses tags and metadata that attract web crawlers. Something like a video sitemap on your website serves as a form of metadata for the video content, and this will become accessible to search engine web crawlers.
Since the visual dimension of online commercial activity has come to dominate the way customers search, research, and evaluate their shopping decisions, it is imperative that your video content adheres to video SEO.
How do videos rank in Google?
To rank your video on Google, you need to determine the type of video content you need. This will determine the video platform you need to use. The two main factors that determine which video hosting platform you use come down to what your objectives are. The two things to consider include:
Are your goals to increase brand awareness and show potential customers that you are an authority in your field?
Do you need to drive more traffic to your website in order to generate more business?
If your main goal is to build brand awareness and position yourself as an authority in your field, the best platforms are likely to be YouTube and Vimeo. These platforms are not hosted by Google, but the Google web crawlers access these platforms
To primarily increase traffic flow to your website, something like Hippo Video will be a better bet. Hippo allows you to publish videos directly to your own website, and searches will take traffic to your website.
The next step is to do some research to explore video topics with high traffic potential. Factors to consider for this include:
What people are searching for on Google. You need to tap into topics and ideas that are already being searched on Google. Creating video content that includes highly searched topics increases your chances of ranking on a Google search.
The other thing is finding out search intent. This means figuring out if people are searching for topics they want to watch a video about as opposed to something they would rather read about.
Both of these objectives can be included in keyword research tools that work toward SEO in general.
The next step is to optimize your video access using things like titles, descriptions, and blog posts that constitute metadata attached to your video. Spend time and resources on crafting titles and descriptions that optimize exposure to your videos in online searches. Keyword research becomes essential here.
How to get Videos indexed in Google
Once you have done the research to optimize your video, the next goal is to get your video indexed on Google. To achieve this, you need to follow some simple steps. These include:
Put a video on your page or website
This means a real video, not a video you are simply hosting on your site. These .fly, .mpg , and .mp4 files.
Create a thumbnail of your video
This is what Google will display on search results. Obviously, this is the first (and possibly the only) thing people will see in their search results. The thumbnail needs to be of the highest quality, and it needs to capture the essence of the video.
Create a video sitemap
Video sitemaps constitute the kind of metadata Google uses to rank items in a search.
Submit to Google
Video sitemaps can be submitted to Google in the Google Webmaster Tools. You can do this when you register your site on the same tool.
How to improve your video ranking?
It should already be apparent that everything you put into your video pertains to how your video is ranked in a web search. Some things to consider to improve your video ranking include:
Video title
Make sure you understand your audience. This means doing the research to understand the demographics of who might be interested, and searching for, your product or service. Make sure you include SEO keywords in your title. The title is part of the metadata that signals Google in a search.
Video thumbnail
Thumbnails can make or break video SEO rankings. This is the first thing that grabs the attention of anyone doing a search. This means your thumbnail must be able to grab attention within seconds. Create something that grabs attention in addition to the video content. Stills from the video itself are not often the best thumbnails.
Video description
You must optimize your video description. One of the most important factors in ranking your video is the optimization of your video description. Video descriptions are one of the most important sources of metadata for web crawler access and rankings.
Video length
Video length is not the top concern for SEO rankings. Staying under about 20 minutes makes sense, but the main issue is producing the best quality video possible. Video SEO depends far more on quality than quantity.
Upload Date
Upload date fits into the category of structured data. This will influence video SEO when your video content has to do with time-sensitive events. Things like sporting events and website videos will get factored into SEO rankings with video content.
Captions
Captions and subtitles are designed to communicate video dialogue. Closed captions are specifically aimed at those who cannot hear. Both subtitles and captions will communicate the test version of your video, and this needs to be optimized along with every other segment of text that pertains to the video.
Links
Once you have all the features in place like top-quality video and SEO keywords built into all your metadata, the next step is to build links with your video content. This means things like social media sharing to increase visibility and engagement that will boost your rankings.
Quality links build authenticity and trust in your website and your brand. Building these links is essential to branch out with your video SEO.
Reasons to create more Video Content
Traditional marketing would focus primarily on one medium or another. You would have focused your resources on print, audio, or video. In today’s market, you need to have a multi-media approach to remain competitive. The bright side of this is that all media are accessible now, even to small businesses. Some of the reasons you need to create more video content as part of your marketing strategy include:
Have a higher brand reach
You reach more people with video as part of a multi-pronged approach to marketing. Video has revolutionized the way marketing works in building brand reach. While many people searching online for products and services will follow text alone, the video expands your reach.
Connect better with your audience
Video allows you to establish connections with your audience in ways text simply will not allow. By placing your message in a video, you can create the kind of image for your brand that allows people to forge connections that operate on a personal level. Video directs your message in ways that are experienced as far more direct than other mediums.
Increase customer engagement
Video marketing also makes it possible to directly engage customers based on the kinds of things you discover through customer feedback and customer reviews. You can build video content around the kinds of things your customers have spoken about and render your message as one that goes directly to their concerns and desires.
Increase ROI (Return on Investment)
More than 80 percent of the businesses that have begun using video as part of their marketing strategies and worked toward video SEO report that video provides the highest return on investment of all marketing strategies. Video was once available only to top brands with large marketing budgets. The same advancements in technology that make SEO possible have also made video marketing available to far more businesses than ever before.
Search results visibility
Video clearly increases your visibility in search results. Text alone can be made to rank high in search results. But the addition of video and things like video thumbnails drive far more traffic and conversions than just text. Video can capture the attention of even the most reticent customers and get them to actively engage your brand.
Increase your leads
Video marketing and video SEO can create connections and leads through things like links on social media. Video SEO makes it possible for other online resources to boost your visibility and create connections beyond your own website and marketing materials.
Video SEO FAQs
What is Video SEO?
Video SEO is the process of boosting your online search ranking and visibility of video content. Video SEO seeks to raise visibility in search rankings on all major search engines. It involves the process of creating video metadata that determines your relevance in the kinds of things people are searching for on internet searches.
How do videos rank in Google?
Google uses web crawlers to comb things like metadata that are attached and associated with video content. Other things like tags and descriptions signal the Google ranking systems through SEO keywords.
What are key factors in video SEO?
The main things you need to attend to in ranking your video content are high-quality video, SEO keywords in all metadata, clear and compelling thumbnails, and relevant content.
Video content service integration is crucial for success in today’s market. It simply is not enough to devise a strategy that will gain public attention. You also need a sound set of strategies to maintain the image of your company and to help that image grow. Video content service integration not only builds your brand visibility and recognition but also boosts your reputation as an authority in your field.
As you can see from this guide, there is a lot to video content service integration. To get the most out of video content service integration, you will need professionals who are knowledgeable and will invest themselves in the success of your company. HeyDay Marketing Services provides video content service integration that will help your business grow.
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