If your business has a website, then you’ve heard of search engine optimization or SEO. The concept is simple: you optimize the content of your website in order to increase traffic from organic search engine results.
Video SEO is essentially the same thing. It is the process of optimizing your video so it shows up on search engine results pages. If a video is properly optimized, the video can appear on the first page of the search results when someone searches for relevant keywords. The concept applies to queries made in Google and video platforms like YouTube.
As consumer video consumption continues to grow, Google and other search engines are expected to increase the ranking factor of pages with video content. Here are some tips to consider when optimizing your video for search.
Just like how you’d do keyword research for written website content, you need to conduct a keyword research before posting your videos to maximize SEO.
There are several ways to go about video keyword research, but the simplest one is to simply check if your chosen keywords show up on Google and YouTube Suggest.
Looking at these results will let you know if there is any interest in your video content ideas. As an additional tip, be sure to go incognito or private on your web browser before doing this, as your suggested searches might be affected by your previous search or browsing history.
If you want to perform more in-depth keyword research, you may want to consider using tools such as VidIQ Keyword Search or YouTube Analytics (if you already have existing YouTube video content).
Just having video on your website can help you improve your website’s SEO because Google likes pages with rich content. If a website has a mix of text, photos, and videos, this tells Google that the page has a good mix of media that may be relevant to a search query.
At the same time,your website pages should also be optimized for SEO so both your video and page have good chances of ranking high on search results pages. Here are a few ways to optimize your website for video:
YouTube is by far the most important platform for you to optimize your video content. It is, after all, the most viewed video-based platform. Moreover, Google search engine results list YouTube videos as well.
Once you have your target keywords, incorporate them into the following:
Aside from these, it is also beneficial to say your target keywords in-video. YouTube understands much of what is said in the actual video, and if you’re uploading a transcript, then having the keywords mentioned will most definitely factor in optimization.
Adding a transcript helps YouTube completely understand what is being talked about in your video, and it also helps make your video more accessible. Many creators also say that transcripts help their videos show up more in suggested videos.
Showing up on search results is important, but what good does it do when your video isn’t clicked on? This is where the importance of an engaging video thumbnail comes in. The video thumbnail is one of the most important aspects (next to the title) of the search result snippet. It needs to be relevant and compelling as it can have a huge impact on your video click-through rates.
No matter how good your video SEO is, if it does not add any value to the viewer’s life, then it will not get shares or linkbacks. Your videos should aim to make the audience entertained, more educated, or feel strong enough emotions (happiness, anger, shock, etc.) that they will want to share it on social media or by writie about it and embed it on their own websites. The best part? These shares and linkbacks will ultimately help your SEO efforts.
The popularity of videos is an excellent opportunity for brands to get creative and drive their business goals. Implement these video SEO tips as you produce your video content to ensure that they are seen and heard by your target audience.