How to Use Videos to Boost Your SEO Performance

In early 1996 Bill Gates published an essay titled “Content is King,” which explored how content was slowly changing the digital sphere as a whole. Little did we know that in only a few years the online space would be influenced so much by content, especially videos. Gates surely did not foresee this kind of video content dominating our lives. The last couple of decades have seen the rise and growth of the internet and social media. As this slowly becomes a vital aspect of our daily lives, modern society has also become highly digital. As such, video content is taking over a number of industries.

Businesses have altered the way they market their products to incorporate more videos into their strategies. Videos act as an effective communication device by more thoroughly engaging audiences. But is that all video is good for? Or does it bring more commercial benefits?

Videos: Boosting Your SEO Efforts

Videos are easy to consume on-the-go. They offer content in a more flexible manner while still staying relevant and providing the value of context. However, videos can do far more than engage your audience and promote your products; they can boost your SEO and thus give you better website rankings.

The question at hand remains: how exactly do videos help enhance your SEO rankings?

They Have Direct Impact

The main reason why video is a good idea for your business is its impact. The direct effect of video content essentially builds the foundation of your online presence and therefore increases SEO rankings. The end result of this? Better engagement, conversion and hence, greater revenue.

They Garner More Web Traffic

Video is one of the most effective communication methods in the online sphere. This is why YouTube and similar platforms are generating so much business: video has been made more accessible to a larger audience. Since 80% of all web traffic is geared to video, incorporating it into any marketing strategy will only have positive effects.

They Are Part of Mobile Optimization

Mobile optimization becomes a part of video optimization directly. It is the primary focus of most developers and business owners as the largest consumption of video happens on a mobile device. A responsive site that uploads videos to sites like YouTube and Vimeo is surely going to grow.

They Have Potential for Growth

The popularity of this medium spread to advertising and marketing and $7.77 billion was spent on online video advertising alone in 2015. This is expected to double over the coming years, which means that such drastic growth will account for millions of dollars in profit.

Why Does Google Love Video Content?

Google announced that it was acquiring the rights of YouTube back in 2006. Today, YouTube is the biggest video streaming platform in the world. This is mostly because videos get more favor over other kinds of content. Google’s recent algorithm modifications have changed the landscape for search engines. It now solely prioritizes blended search results with exclusive content, and hence a video will always appear at the forefront of a web search. The estimated annual revenue of YouTube will account for around $15 billion this year. This essentially means that Google loves video and prioritizes it over all other forms of content. But, how does video help Google?

Statistically speaking, 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine; therefore businesses will do everything they can to stay on that first search engine results page (SERP). The first three results are the most crucial as they get 55% of all clicks. Adding videos specifically helps increase your SERP rank by:

Increasing Click-Through Rates

The video on your page will drive a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs.

Lowering Bounce Rates

People will spend almost twice as long on video content without leaving the page than any other content.

Creating Quality Backlinks

Take video animation as an example: the higher the quality of your specific video content, the greater the likelihood of your getting backlinks.

Google My Business Listings (GMB)

Google My Business listings work well for local businesses. With images, posts and messages on these listings, businesses will rank higher on search pages. Adding video further boosts the GMB listing rank in the Local Pack because you will be demonstrating your product in under 30 seconds to get an edge over your competitors.

Some Ways You Can Optimize Your Video for SEO

We’ve established that the practice of using video to appear higher in search results will drive more traffic to your site. Using a properly optimized video can boost your performance in Google and streaming platforms like YouTube. Understanding the specific SEO areas that affect these video rankings is essential before you decide to upload your video. Simple things such as thumbnails could make or break your video’s performance.

Ways to Optimize Your Video to Boost SEO

Choose the Right Video Hosting Platform

Choosing your video hosting platform is an important step if you want a better video ranking. In the end, it depends on why you are optimizing your video in the first place: to gain traffic or new leads, to raise brand awareness, etc. It is also worth considering alternative platforms to gain SEO friendly metadata, which will make indexing and ranking easier.

Include a Video Transcript

Around 85% of Facebook videos are watched without any sound. This is why it is so important to include a video transcript (like subtitles) so that your video can be watched anywhere and anytime, even without any sounds. Search bots find it easier to index videos with transcripts because of the additional text provided, which will enable your videos to get ranked for more search queries.

Insert Keywords Naturally in the Title

Users are naturally drawn to video titles more than anything else. When a user searches for your video, their attention span will be determined by how compelling and clear the title is. Keywords in a video title should be inserted naturally in a descriptive and concise manner, to demonstrate how well it matches what the user was looking for.

Publish the Video on Social Media

Consumers watch an estimated 100 million hours of video watched on Facebook every day. Furthermore, videos will get 135% more audience interaction than posts with non-moving images. The focus on creating video has led to more shareable content that has garnered more website traffic. Another factor that will add to this is using social media to publish your videos. Mass video consumption takes place on sites like YouTube and Instagram. Thus, if you share your branded video on these kinds of social platforms, it will get more clicks.

In Conclusion

The popularity of video content is only going to increase in the upcoming years. Boosting your SEO can be easy using this method, as people prefer watching videos over other forms of content.