Websites that allow users to upload video content continue to grow as a massive business platform for hundreds of successful influencers. Not only that, but videos in general have become an integral part of the online marketing mix. But despite the increasingly widespread recognition of the power of video content, video optimization is not as commonly practiced as web and content optimization.
The Power of Videos
Video optimization is the art and science of driving traffic to online videos. Unlike photo ads that only show customers a static image of products or articles that explain complicated instructions in writing, videos show what visitors want to know. This level of engagement help building relationships between customers and brands. The only real downside to videos is that when it comes to SEPRS, major video-sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo always have the upper hand.
The Benefits of Video Optimization
There are tremendous benefits to creating optimized videos for web use, but the first step to understanding them is to determine where you want your video to go live. Do you want to showcase your videos on social media or your very own website?
For videos posted on social media or video-sharing platforms:
- You don’t have to stress about maintaining your website because you can easily post video content on Youtube and other video hosting sites.
- Video-sharing websites are goldmines of existing traffic and users. YouTube is an excellent example since it accumulates billions of views in just one day.
- Videos on major video-sharing sites rank higher in the SERPs and achieve an overall better rank in universal search results.
- Videos shared on social media can go viral, achieving a level of social or community status much higher than expected.
For videos hosted or posted on your website:
- Videos within your website are under your full control. You can easily tweak the metadata to be in line with related on-page text to achieve complete SEO benefits.
- You are in charge of video monetization and the type of ads showing up alongside your videos.
- Hosted content generates interest in your website and increases inbound links.
Once you have decided where to upload your content, you then want to produce a video that is interesting — something that offers new or useful information and is accessible to a widespread audience. But how do you create one from a search engine perspective?
Provide the Right Kind of Content
Always ensure your content is worth your viewers’ time of day. People want to see videos relevant to their search query. Videos that are overtly promotional or are nonsensical to those unfamiliar with your brand are unlikely to succeed.
Instead, your videos should focus on two basic types: emotional and educational.
- Emotional. Sometimes, the most effective videos are those that tug at the heartstrings, elicit an emotional reaction, and resonate with viewers on a personal level. Viewers in this bucket consume inspirational or relatable video content as a form of self-expression.
- Educational. Learning should be a never-ending process. Viewers under this bucket are always eager to discover something new. Perhaps they need instructions on how to remove stains on a shirt or a step-by-step guide on how to install games on a computer. Whichever they need, some find chunks of text instructions too overwhelming, so they prefer videos that will guide them through the process.
Online users seek videos according to their needs, so it’s vital to create content that addresses these needs. It should provide your target audience valuable information as well as resonate with others who come across it.
Create A Strong Call To Action
Once a visitor clicks on your video, the last thing you want is for them to click away. The moment you have their attention is the perfect time to make your call to action and encourage them to see what you have to offer. Always start your opening dialogue with bold statements that address your viewers’ concerns, and end your videos with strong reminders that will prompt them to subscribe to your newsletter or share your content.
Add Key Information for SEO
SEO can be quite tricky, mainly because of the frequent algorithm updates on Google’s end. But making your videos more search-friendly can be an easy task if you focus on the following:
- Keywords and descriptions: With Google’s Adwords Planner or other resources that work for you, do some initial research on words you’d like to rank. Incorporate these keywords into your titles and metadata, but be sure that you’re using keywords that people are likely to search for. Using keywords that you only think are clever or catchy will not work if no one is likely to type them in search engines.
- Transcripts: Unlike written content, search engines can’t extract all the spoken words in your videos. Search engines can’t be sure of the subject matter in your videos, so to help with SEO, try transcribing your videos and include accompanying text into a blog post. This way, the blog post featuring your video will alert search engines about the context, and they will qualify your relevant content.
- Multi-platform promotion: If you embed your video on your website, also think about putting it on YouTube where there are billions of viewers a day. You can also distribute your content to different social media platforms with a different title. Since YouTube and Google are the two top search engines, you don’t want to jeopardize your SEO efforts. Tweak your content ever so slightly to take advantage of both.
Analyze Your Performance and Plan Future Videos
Having a keen understanding of analytics is the final step to getting the most out of your video content marketing. If you’re thinking of producing videos in large batches, you must consider investing in a video marketing platform that provides access to analyzed data. Interpreting your video’s digital behavior is key to making informed decisions about future content. It’ll be easier to see which topics are resonating by analyzing who is watching specific videos and for how long. Soon, you’ll start to understand ways to modify your content strategy based on how your videos perform.