In previous articles in this blog we’ve explored the most current research about the power of using video in your marketing campaign; check back here to read about the The Short Cut to Buyer Trust, or here to find out The Most Popular Website On the Internet and why it’s important to your business. There’s another really compelling reason to make Branded Video an integral part of your marketing campaign – improving your page ranking in Google search results. You could very well label video as one of the elusive secrets of SEO!
A report by Marketing Land states that videos make for 62% of all Google searches universally. In another research report, video results get 41% higher click through rates. If that’s not enough to sway you, consider that Google now gives priority to what it terms “blended results”. This simply means that the result has a blend of text, image and video content, deeming it potentially more valuable to the user.
OK, so you understand the value of video and create your own as a part of your overall marketing toolkit. What are the best practices to increase your SEO ranking using your video?Here’s some of our favorite tips to help your video get Google’s attention:
Create unique keywords. There are programs (paid and free) to help you craft a list of search terms and keywords for your videos. Try this Hubspot article for a comprehensive list of options. Most offer the same ability; to tell you which are the most popular keywords that are relevant for your product or business. This is step one – find the most popular and then ignore them! Instead brainstorm terms that make the middle and bottom of the list, but are still highly applicable to your brand. Why compete with bigger and more established brands? Instead utilize your unique niche.
Add your keywords. Use these key-phrases in the video title and the video tags. This might seem obvious, but it’s a surprisingly common missed opportunity. It’s also highly important to incorporate them in an organic way into the video descriptive text.
Your video thumbnail deserves some time and effort. It’s the first thing your viewers will see, it’s what appears in search results, so it should look professional, clear and intriguing. Don’t rely on the automated thumbnail images generated by video hosting sites as these (and poor quality thumbnail images in general) have been shown to dramatically decrease click through rates.
Lastly, YouTube is second to Google as the most popular search engine and website online. It claims that 100 hours of video content is uploaded to its site every minute, and reportedly has 30 million visitors each day. Even if your video content is being hosted on your website or was produced for paid placement on third party websites, these facts make it a must-do to have a YouTube presence for your company.
What additional tips would you offer for business’ who want their video to be seen by more people? Leave us a suggestion in the comment section below.
If you’re interested in increasing your search results, encourage higher click through rates, and increase lead conversion – we can help. Check out our website for more information or email us (info@frontrunnerfilmsllc.com) to say hi.
