In this article we will teach you how your video can increase your website’s SEO rankings and be found more easily on Google, how to achieve high video rankings on YouTube and Google and how this can drive more traffic to your website.
What is it?
The term Video SEO is used to describe optimizing video content for search engine traffic. The goal when working with video SEO is to have your video content appear in video search engines as well as in the organic search results for major search engines. It’s important to direct traffic to your site and not to your video hosting provider.
Video SEO is fairly new, having been developed only a few years ago. It is constantly developing and a great way to boost search results for your video so potential customers can find and learn about your businesses.
In this article we will teach you how your video can increase your website’s SEO rankings and be found more easily on Google, how to achieve high video rankings on YouTube and Google and how this can drive more traffic to your website.
In Google we have typed in a fairly average term “60 second video package”, not even a city or country (in fact I went incognito and used America as the search country using isearchfrom.com)
Look at the results for the YouTube video and the video post on our website from over 62,000,000 results, we are high up on the first page. This is achieved with correct Video SEO
How can a video with SEO help a site, channel or Social Media Page?
The benefits of utilising video with correct SEO are numerous. Videos drive more traffic to your webpages creating more enquiries and sales. Videos visually demonstrate the value of products or services to potential customers. They can create the feeling of trust and authenticity. They build brands and relationships. Videos are current and relevant. But they have to be found – correct Video SEO does that.
The world is increasingly digital. With over 3 billion websites listed on Google, it’s important to find ways of raising yourself above the competition. When people are on the go, they often turn to the Internet to research a business. Video is a wonderful resource that can be shared among a person’s network. Ever heard of a viral video? Imagine if yours could be the next one, going from a mere hundred views to thousands with proper SEO.
The strength and effectiveness of social media pages are boosted when video SEO is utilized. Consumers love videos. If your potential audience sees a video posted, they will be enticed to watch it, thus spending more time on a company’s digital channels.
Where to host it?
YouTube is the easiest and best way to host a video. It’s the second largest search engine, behind Google. More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month, spending more than 4 billion hours watching videos. One can easily see the number of views, how often a video appears in someone’s playlist, and how long it is viewed for.
You Tube is also owned by Google and when a video is hosted correctly on YouTube with the right SEO, Google will show that video result almost immediate and in some cases on the first page results.
Other Hosting options
You can also post videos on the numerous other platforms in the market including Vimeo, Daily Motion and Wistia which all have free user accounts. Hosting your video in as many places as possible is also good for SEO. Try however to use a slightly different title and description for each platform. You can also host the video on your own server, but this does very little for SEO. Wordpress provides a hosting service to premium users, but again this not great for SEO rankings.
Making a good video
Before even beginning video SEO, make sure the created product is high quality, preferably HD or higher. Make sure it’s something people will want to watch: engaging, entertaining, informative and correct.
Keep your video under two minutes. Research by Visible Measures states that marketeers have 10 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention. At the 2-minute mark, a person will normally have moved onto something else. A good video can hold their attention for that period of time and if produced correctly gain many more call to action clicks. Read more on “Creating a great video” in our Video Blogs
What’s needed to improve SEO?
A variety of steps should be taken to achieve good video SEO.
One must keep up to date on SEO, since the standards and practices are constantly changing. Google is the industry leader and thus sets the tone what is and is not good search engine optimization. The company provides general guidelines on its Webmasters page on how to improve SEO. Some important rules of thumb are to create short engaging that can be easily found and shared amongst various networks.
How to optimize a video for YouTube
Once you upload to Youtube, there are several steps to take before making it public.
- Think about a good title. If possible, include the subject of your video in the tile, this will dramatically help your video show up in search results. It’s the most important ranking factor. Search results will show 70 characters or less, so keep it short and sweet. On Facebook, titles of less than 40 character are best. Viewers will click on titles that create curiosity, stir emotions, or look beneficial. However, avoid putting it in the form of a question.
- Don’t forget about the description! Be sure to include a synopsis of the video including important keywords, your main website, additional links and information, and general information about your channel. You are allowed 5000 characters, but only 160 characters will show up, unobstructed. If you want to have certain words put in every description, go to Upload Defaults under Channel Settings and enter them in.
- Make sure to add keywords that you think people will use when searching for this type of content. These can be entered under the description. Keywords are search terms people use to look for topics they can comprise of just one word or a few words. Five to fifteen tags, or keywords, are recommended for a video. Start with something specific, then choose general terms. Google Adwords can help. Under the Tools menu, type any keywords you may be interested in, then click Get Ideas. This will allow you see monthly search results. Choose ones that have high SEO value and lower title/link competition.
- Also See this Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B1-u4_XvX0
- Thumbnail Images. YouTube provides three random screen grabs for the thumbnail image. It’s best to choose something that conveys the message of the video, differentiates your brand, is fully optimized, and compels a user to click on it. Of course, you can upload your own to use, as well. Having a thumbnail that includes a face and text are the strongest methods for a user to click through. Also the name of your image is important as well. Re-name your image before you upload it to convey what your video is about.
- Transcribing audio for Youtube is important to do as well. Choose the language for the subtitles or closed captions you want to create.
Select Create new subtitles or CC.
Underneath the video, click Transcribe and set timings.
Type all of the spoken audio in the text field. If you’re creating closed captions, make sure to incorporate sound cues like [music] or [applause] to identify background sounds.
Click Set timings to sync your transcript with the video.
This also benefits users who are unable to watch it or listen to the audio. Be sure to look over the transcription afterwards, as it may not be 100% accurate.
- Next step is call to action from your YouTube video to drive traffic to your website. This can be achieved with annotations and the card options in your YouTube account. You must however h
ave an associated website to make these in video options work. Also don’t forget to place your website URL or landing page you want to take viewers to in your description, but you must type http:// before the web name so don’t just use www.mywebsite.com it must be http://mywebsite.com.au Look out for a full article on YouTube call to action with Annotations, Cards and Associated websites.
ave an associated website to make these in video options work. Also don’t forget to place your website URL or landing page you want to take viewers to in your description, but you must type http:// before the web name so don’t just use www.mywebsite.com it must be http://mywebsite.com.au Look out for a full article on YouTube call to action with Annotations, Cards and Associated websites.
How many hours to do proper Video SEO?
For an initial hosting around 2-3 hours. But just like regular search engine optimization, it’s something that should be continually adjusted and improved. However, this answer depends on how much success one wants for his or her business.
You should review the analytics on your video SEO and adjust marketing strategies, accordingly. Investing in this method should not end at just making the video. A carefully crafted message should be tailored through A/B testing. A video’s views will decrease after a short time, so always create new, relevant content.
What are the results like for video with SEO
When a company utilizes video SEO, the results are overwhelmingly positive. If you can drive more traffic to your website with correct Video SEO, the average user will spend 88% more time on a website with video.
Consumers are more likely to buy after viewing a video. Not only that, they will more confident with their decision will doing so! A company will not only obtain more impressions, video SEO will result in increased conversions.
Having a video will also help increase your site ranking, since it gives Google more content to index. Before too long, you could even find yourself on the first page.
What are the results like for video without SEO?
Video SEO should be considered an indispensable part of a company’s marketing toolkit. Lack of a variety of visual tools is a company that is stuck in the past. It’s important to look to the present, and future. Excluding it from your SEO and marketing strategies will result in missed opportunities, or worse.
It also means that Google has less content to index, thus lowering your ratings on search results. Consumers are less likely to be engaged, as well. With a lower ranking, there will be lower impressions, equalling lower conversions.
Is it a service that a video production company like ours could add as a service?
If all of this seems a bit too hard or you don’t have time, please talk to us at Sky Jellyfish. We can certainly help you with Video Production and Video SEO
Peter Brown