Why is SEO for Video Important?
When did you last go to page two on a Google search? Exactly.That is why SEO is important.
What is SEO?
SEO, for those out of the loop, stands for Search Engine Optimisation, the practice and skill of getting your site at the top of Google’s search results (or Bing, or AltaVista if you’re reading this in the 90s). It requires some knowledge of how search engines work and how video production can help you climb that ladder up to the top of search results for keywords your business specialises in.
Set Your SEO Goal
As simple as it may sound, your videos need to provide something to viewers. Whether it’s some new information, a promotion, interviews, it could be many things. You just need them to be interested enough to watch. The more you offer your viewers, the more you will be seen as an authority in your specialty area. You can shoot tutorial videos with your products, and don’t be afraid to show off your skills. You can shoot product demonstrations, or case studies, and they can be as niche as you want. If you provide a video that is exactly what the searcher is looking for, and you answer their questions, you immediately present yourself as an authority.
What is metadata?
Metadata is your invisible ally in SEO. Taking a little bit of extra time to correctly add in metadata can pay dividends later on.
By definition it is “data that provides information about other data.” It’s data data. But in a more practical and less confusing way, it is simple things like giving the video file you want to share with the world an appropriate name. Like giving your child a name at birth, it can have a huge impact later on.
So, for your new demonstration video about a revolutionary bike design, make sure the video file is named “NewBikeDemo.mp4,” and not something like “5790281.mp4.”
It also includes using keywords in your naming of videos and blogs, adding a concise description to your video that covers the topics of the video so that the most important aspect of your video is at the forefront.
Make a Video Sitemap
A video sitemap provides all the important data about your video’s and provides all the nitty gritty details that search engines love. It is a way to present the video’s title, description, duration, and subject in a way that search engines can easily digest. If that sounds complex, you are correct, but if you work with us we can help you wade through the confusion to make sitemaps work for you.
Create an Engaging Thumb
Many people judge a book by its cover. It’s a sad fact of life. The internet equivalent is judging a video by its thumbnail. The thumbnail is the first thing viewers will see when they’ve searched for something relevant to your business. If it’s a randomly assigned thumbnail from YouTube, you may end up with a thumbnail of a presenter mid-blink or something that tells you absolutely nothing about the video.
Take the time to create your own thumbnail with the title or themes of the video overlaid on a relevant image from the video. At the very least choose a frame from your video that is relevant to the video, maybe some of the B-roll in the video that shows you the product. The more people enticed to click the thumbnail means more views for you, which means better SEO for your business. Hook the viewer in!
Add Captions
Transcribing your videos and creating a subtitle track is a great idea for two reasons. One; it gives search engines the full content of your video in a text based format, mainly through keywords and sentences throughout the video that people may search for, and two; with many people browsing on their phones, it means they can get all the information they need without reaching for their earphones. With social media video becoming a huge opportunity for business, you need to optimise with captions.
Share Your Video
Once you have created great video, it’s time to share it with the world. And the best way to do that is through social media.
This may lead to more natural clickers, a wider reach, and therefore a better position on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages if you’re not into the whole brevity thing).
A share from a friend is worth much more than an ad from a stranger as people trust their friend’s tastes, so the more valuable the content in your video and the more “shareable” it is, the better it is for your SEO.
If you want to create some high quality videos that can boost your SEO, contact us today.
