It is no secret that 2021 is the year of video marketing. Video as a medium has grown exponentially to get both viewers and marketers the type of content they want. In recent years, brands from all industry types have partnered with the best video production companies to create new and innovative videos that have set the bar in terms of quality and commitment.
The thing is, even the best videos will do little for your products or services if no one watches it! Fortunately, in this article, we’ll look at how you can improve the visibility of your videos and how they can be better positioned in SERPs.
Even if your videos are amazing, they are worth nothing if no one watches them. Perhaps you are already investing (or planning) in video content to develop content marketing strategies.
Probably you are already investing (or planning) in video content to develop content marketing strategies. This is a big step and very smart too! As the popularity of videos continues to grow, there is no doubt that video is one of the best marketing games that brands and content creators can make.
Why? Because it works. If done well, video can result in a higher response rate than any other type of content – put it simply, people find the video more engaging and easier to use than images or text.
It’s estimated that by 2022, more than 82% of consumer Internet traffic will come from video. It is too big! But as any strategy-based video production company says, video cannot be consumed alone! You need a holistic strategy that builds on pieces optimized to perform on search engine result pages. And this is what we are going to discuss today.
Optimized video content means higher view rates, and your message reaches more people. Let’s take a quick look at how this can be done!
1. Select the appropriate hosting platforms
If you’re thinking of a video hosting platform, your first thought is probably YouTube. But there are so many other options to consider.
We recommend you choose a platform according to your primary marketing goals. If you want to make your brand known, then YouTube is the platform for you. Just know that if your video is indexed, all traffic will go to you, not your site.
So if you’re optimizing your video to get on-site traffic and generate new leads, check out other hosting platforms that support it.\\
Where are you uploading your video? It’s a question that can be answered interchangeably: Where does your audience come from? If you come from social media, then you need to optimize your video for social media and make sure that you upload your video to the platforms that they like. But the real party begins when they arrive from the search engine.
If that’s the case, the answer to the first question should be simple – you have to ensure that these search engines index the video, and that’s when we talk about Google (as it probably is ); it means YouTube.
Google has also indexed other platforms such as Vimeo, but YouTube has a leg up. It’s not only a streaming platform but also a search engine by itself. It is the second largest search engine – just after Google! Oh, and if you don’t already know, the platform is owned by Google.
So uploading videos to YouTube is the safest method, though not the only one. Always keep your video where your audience is – so if it means social media, Vimeo or any other streaming platform, make sure your content is uploaded there as well.
2. Optimize Your Title and Description
While there is no secret formula for the correct title and description, four rules help optimize video metadata:
- Pay attention to the keywords used by your audience.
- Be honest and relevant to the content.
- Reduced (maximum 55 characters for titles)
3. An Effective Thumbnail Design
Google doesn’t rank you for its thumbnail content, but the cool-looking image will help reduce your interest and attract users’ attention.
You’ll notice that most video platforms automatically select a screenshot from the video and use it as a thumbnail, but you need to create your own! Your thumbnail is probably the first thing your viewers will see from your video, so you haven’t put your side into it.
Start by selecting a representative from your video, then add a title that people can read easily (a shorter version of the title should work very well). You can add a small watermark to your brand logo to show users that this is a professional video.
Don’t judge a book by its cover – all people judge video content based on their thumbnails.
A good miniature will attract the audience’s attention and will be more likely to get the scene. Then count it! Thumbnails should be explicitly designed to allow users to identify the subject of the video using the text associated with the image and video title from the video.
Keep away from clickbait-ey thumbnails! The image should reflect the theme of the video and the style of the brand. Never intentionally display your content intentionally: If the image is not right for your video, viewers will find out that they are not registered for it, stop watching and never come back!
A little professional tip? YouTube Creative Academy gives detailed suggestions for creating useful thumbnails. You can also upload a suggestion of your thumbnail to see if it works!
4. Transcription of the video is included
Because Google is essentially a text database, the more text you can add to your video, the more your search engine will gain recognition. This would be especially useful if you created a video around the text, such as an animated infographic.
You can easily customize your videotape and your title and description by focusing on the keywords that your target audience will search for.
Also, if you are planning to upload your video on social media, transcription is required. For example, when scrolling through Facebook or Instagram feeds, you note that videos play with the sound turned off by default. You can convert your copy to closed captioning to enhance the experience.
5. Do not forget the name of the video file!
Yes! You may never have thought about it a second time, but the file name of your video is important and can help with SEO ranking.
Never use standard titles such as “Video-123 version” or “2021 Final Cut”, but stick to keywords as well as titles, descriptions, and scripts.
6. Optimize Your Video Landing Page
Once you finish optimizing your video, it’s time to start working on your landing page. You would be surprised to know how many excellent videos were not ranked because someone had stored them on a terrible page.
Everyone has come across a website where the video is hidden or so deep that you had to scroll endlessly to see it finally. If you get your audience to search for your video, it would logically lead to a slower playback rate.
Ensure the video is in the front and center of the landing page, ideally embedded above the fold. Make sure that the video is contextually relevant to your page: if your content does not look specific or generic, your chances of ranking will decrease.
7. Rank Only One Video To Embed
Most search engines index only one video per landing site. If you embed more than one video on your page, make sure the first one is your favorite.
Make sure the page focuses on your best-performing videos so that you can get the grip you expect.
8. Optimize Video And Landing Page For Mobile
Mobile optimization is becoming a central topic of SEO as more and more users stream their content through their smartphones every year.
Fortunately, optimizing the piece for mobile is not as difficult as it once was; make sure your website and video storage platform respond to mobile viewing.
9. Proper SEO is just the beginning…
We have seen how SEO can help rank videos, but sometimes it is not enough. Search engines such as Google and YouTube often change their algorithms so that keywords and optimization can only be delivered so far.
Always try to create content that is truly valuable and useful to future customers. Avoid spam-y or click-bait tactics and focus on giving something back to your target audience. Make fun videos that get organic likes and are streamed by friends on the Internet.
10. Insert a Video Transcript
As you scroll through the Facebook feed, you’ll probably see more videos with captions next to the video so you can watch them without disturbing your spouse. The text added with your video is called a video transcript.
Video transcripts make your video more accessible to a larger audience and more comfortable for search crawlers to pull because more text is on the page.