Have you ever wondered how to boost your search engine rankings? If so, then you're not alone.
You may have even asked yourself this question while sitting there in front of your computer screen trying to figure out how to get those top listings on Google and other search engines. Video is becoming a hot topic among internet marketers right now, and for good reason....
Video is quickly becoming one of the most important forms of content marketing, and its presence could make or break your optimization efforts.
This is especially true for e-commerce sites, where video can help you capture more conversions by providing a more detailed look at what customers will get when they buy your product.
Before we break down exactly how video can improve your organic page ranking, let’s talk a little more about what SEO actually is.
Search engine optimization is what you do to grow your visibility on search engine results pages. The higher your website ranks, the better—it means more people will see your page when they search a relevant query, click through to your website, read your content, and get to know your brand. It’s not an exact science, and the best practices change frequently, but optimizing your website content and structure could ultimately drive more conversions than any of your other digital marketing efforts.
In a noisy world, SEO is one of the best ways for businesses to be seen by their target audiences.
Remember, when people use search engines, they’re doing a targeted search. They’re actively looking for what you’re offering, so making sure your site is the first one users see should be a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy.
If you know this, you’ve probably taken some steps to boost your SEO. You may have created specific blogs and articles based on keyword research. You may have hired a technical SEO expert to help your pages index and crawl correctly.
What you may not know is that video can help your SEO ranking as well–in a very significant way.
When people search for something online, their top results are almost always shown in video format. That means that if you want to get noticed by potential customers who are searching for information about your products or services, then adding video content will help you stand out from the crowd!
Video Search Engine Optimization
Video is one of the most powerful ways to boost your SEO rankings. Here's why.
But how does video help your SEO? Let's take a look at 3 ways that video can boost your SEO:
- Video Thumbnails: When Google shows a video thumbnail next to a search result, which it does for 26% of search results according to BrightEdge, users are more likely to click that listing. The presence of the thumbnail makes the result a "rich snippet," and rich snippets tend to have higher click-through rates than standard snippets.
- Video Rankings: Google has been rumored to prioritize search results with video above results without video. While Google hasn't explicitly confirmed this idea, many marketers agree that their SEO results suggest that it's true.
- Engagement: Users will engage with your content more if there is a video attached than if there isn't one.
So if you want to boost your SEO rankings, video is the way to go.
In fact, Google’s algorithms are increasingly prioritizing websites with video content. In other words, if you don’t have a video on your site, Google may not even show it in search results!
So why does this matter? Because 93% of online experiences start with a search engine—and that means 93% of potential customers will never see your business unless they can find it when they search for it.
Video also helps other metrics that we know Google takes into consideration for ranking. Two of the most important metrics for SEO are the time users spend on your page or site and the number of backlinks referring back to your domain, and video almost always improves both of these figures. Studies show that people spend over twice as long on a page with video than without, and the higher the quality of your content, the more likely you are to get backlinks.
So what does this mean? If you want to boost your SEO rankings and get more traffic from Google searches—which means more customers—video is an essential part of any online marketing strategy!
Prioritize Videos That Increase Your SEO Ranking
The key to using video as part of your SEO strategy is to take the time to make high-quality content that’s aimed at a particular goal. After all, video alone isn’t necessarily your website’s saving grace.
Think of it as a cycle. Video gives you a boost in rankings, which allows more people to see your site, which means more people will click on your link. But, they won’t actually stay on your site very long if your on-page content isn’t high-quality.
It goes back to that old adage: “You can lead a horse to water…” You can have amazing videos up online, but if they don’t actually link anywhere or are just random clips of nothingness, visitors won’t stick around for long enough to really look at the rest of your site—and ultimately buy from you!
If you want to rank on the search engine results page (SERP), then you need to know how to create a video that will really help your SEO efforts.
But how do you know what type of video will work best?
We’ll give you a hint: You don’t want it to be a low-quality, useless video with no context. That would be detrimental to your rankings and make Google think your site is useless. Instead, you want a compelling, high-quality video that provides value for viewers.
That’s right! A well-produced video can boost your ranking on the SERPs—but only if it has the right keywords in it and tells an engaging story that encourages people to share it with their friends and family (which means more links).
Consider the following tips to further boost your video SEO:
1. Distribute Videos To Your Website
If you're looking to get more traffic to your website, then you might want to consider adding video content.
Video is quickly becoming the most powerful tool in digital marketing. And if you're wondering why, consider these stats:
- 72% of consumers say they would rather watch a video about a product than read about it (Marketing Charts).
- 69% of consumers have watched a product video before deciding to make a purchase (Unbounce).
- 80% of people are more likely to buy from a brand that has videos on its website (Vidyard).
Creating videos isn't enough—you need to actually publish your videos on your site. Just make sure that the placement makes sense.
A brand video fits nicely into your "About Us" website page or your homepage.
A product video is a great asset for your e-commerce platform or your website's product descriptions.
Testimonial videos are especially powerful and can work pretty much anywhere on your site.
One bonus tip—while you're distributing your video content for SEO purposes, you can repurpose the same content elsewhere to supplement the rest of your marketing strategy.
2. Consistency Is Key
On average, people spend over half of their online time watching videos.
That means if you want to get in front of your target audience, it's important to make the most of this opportunity by posting regular videos on your company's website or social media channels.
This is where consistency comes into play. You can’t expect fast results. Consistency and dedication are key.
Work to consistently provide value, and work at ranking not just for one keyword, but for numerous relevant keywords that match your customers' search intent. The good news is that you'll be motivated to create more content as you start to see results and understand the process.
3. Optimize Videos For Each Channel
Every distribution channel can be effective to get your brand message to more people with video. YouTube is still the king in video content search-ability, with TikTok quickly on pace to dominate more of the attention. Yet, YouTube will always hold the most SEO power for the foreseeable future.
For YouTube, consider these various metrics and best practices to increase your ranking:
- Title tag information
- Audience retention
- Keywords in description tag
- Tags
- Video length
- Number of subscribers after watching
- Comments (the more, the better)
- Likes and dislikes
Shift Your SEO Focus To Video
As we've shown, the key isn't just making any video.
You need to focus on ways to optimize each individual video. Be sure to choose a topic, target an audience, and create a call-to-action to encourage your viewers to help you spread the word about your company and its services. The result will be more SEO traffic for your business, and higher rankings as well.
When you need help creating a video strategy to improve your SEO rankings, schedule a call with our video marketing experts to customize the perfect solution for your business.
