As marketers search for more innovative ways to attract new audiences, video SEO cannot be ignored. Statistics suggest that video accounts for 74% of all online traffic – demand that has increased at a rapid pace. Producing videos is only the start. If you want your video content to rank higher and attract more views you also need to have an effective video SEO strategy in place.
To help you get the most out of your video content, we’ve identified 6 tips and tricks that you should be implementing:
Optimising your video for the keywords you’re targeting is crucial if you want to rank well in search engines, so do your research. Arguably, the most popular tool available is Google’s Keyword Planner, which allows you to type in various keyword phrases and see the average search volume and competition for each term.
When choosing keywords, it’s also important to consider that while it’s Google that indexes video content, it is people that are watching it. Using search friendly keywords that match user-intent is key to generating valuable clicks.
Remember that Google doesn’t watch or listen to your video (yet!), which means that the search engine relies heavily on your transcription to identify the topic. Although video is a visual medium, the text component is important when it comes to search ranking factors. Translating your videos audio into text can help search engines qualify your content and relevance, and make your content ‘keyword searchable’.
3.Mobile-first
With mobile video viewing surpassing desktop, mobile-responsive videos are a key aspect for driving traffic. If your clips don’t resize to mobile format then you will end up with cropped videos that visitors can’t see or fully load. This will mean lots of lost views and could also cause people to leave your site in search of more user-friendly alternatives. Optimising your videos for mobile consumption isn’t as hard as it used to be. This article by Hubspot demonstrates how to make sure your embedded videos are mobile friendly.
Schema markup is an important addition to your website to make sure your content gets indexed. Essentially, schema markup is a piece of code that provides clear, structured information to search engines about rich content like addresses, places, products and media content.
Using the VideoObject item on your video content allows you to specify the details of your video for a richer search engine listing. Doing so will not only give your video a better chance of being correctly indexed but will also allow your search results to include thumbnails, descriptions and duration.
If executed properly, self-hosting your videos can help with your own website’s SEO. This is because video content can help send signals to search engines that your page or site contains rich media relevant to search requests.
Youtube is currently ranked as the second largest search engine, so it stands to reason that you will want to utilise this platform in order to rank well. However, you don’t want to dilute your own SEO efforts, so a useful tip is to embed your videos on your own site and then alter the title before uploading to Youtube. This will mean that you have a sufficient presence on both platforms.
No matter how good you are at SEO, if no one is watching your video then there is little point in it. Video content and SEO should work hand in hand to give your brand more visibility, which means before you start planning your content you need to identify the purpose for creating it.
To fully optimise video you need to make sure that it is both ‘shareable’ and ‘linkable’. Specifically, this means providing valuable and informative content that publishers and web users want to link to. Studies suggest that Google pays attention to video content that generates social signals such as “likes” and “shares”, this sharing can build valuable links back to your page and increase your overall search position.
As with any content marketing strategy, be sure to measure your efforts in order to determine your success and highlight areas that need improvement. Before you create your video campaign, ascertain what your goals are – this could be to boost your website’s search traffic or increase brand awareness. Having a clear goal will help keep your video marketing efforts on the right track.
Author bio:
Ad-Rank Media is an award-winning digital marketing agency specialising in SEO, content marketing and digital PR.
