by Over the past few years, we’ve heard this question time and time again. “Can video content marketing impact SEO rankings?” The short answer is “yes, it absolutely can.” But as with anything else in the digital marketing world, you’re going to need to put some time and energy into getting it right if you want to reap the benefits.
Getting SEO benefits from video isn’t as simple as embedding a couple of YouTube videos into a web page and hoping for the best. As with any form of content, it requires investment in high-quality video content and plenty of patience and perseverance in sharing that content far and wide across the web.
Let’s take a look at exactly how video marketing can boost SEO. Let’s also explore some essential video SEO best practices that will help you make the most of this exciting opportunity.
1. Video Proves Your Content’s Value to Google
Google doesn’t just take text into account when it assesses the relevancy of your web page to a specific keyword. It also checks what other media you have to offer search engine users.
A mix of text, image and video helps to show Google that your content is varied and valuable.
According to Cisco, 80% of all internet traffic will be represented by video by 2019. So there’s little wonder Google is eager to rank sites that can offer its users video content.
For content strategists, the trick is to ensure that your video content is optimized for search. That means doing video keyword research and including those keywords in your video’s meta tags.
Best Practice: upload a video transcript
Adding a transcript of your video not only helps viewers (maybe they have their volume turned off) but it can also help Google understand the relevancy of the video. When planning scripts for videos, include your primary keywords as well as plenty of relevant synonyms.
2. Video Drives Traffic to Your Site
If you use social platforms or third party sites like YouTube or Vimeo to host your video content, you can use it as an opportunity to drive traffic back to your site.
A billion hours of video is consumed on YouTube every single day. Provided that you include your URLs in your channel name and video descriptions, using YouTube is a fantastic way to expose your business to new audiences. In turn, this should improve your traffic acquisition and give your rankings a healthy boost.
Some marketers are reluctant to use third party sites to host their video because it feels as though they’re “wasting” the SEO benefits of video content on a site that isn’t their own. However, the benefits of YouTube hosting are many.
For starters, it means you don’t have to slow down your own site’s speed by hosting video. You can simply embed it instead. Plus, it makes your content readily available to a highly engaged audience.
Image source: Neil Patel
Did you know that YouTube content reaches more adults during prime-time TV hours than any television network? That alone should tell you how important this channel can become for any business.
Best Practice: Offer extra value for visiting your site
To really make the most of those YouTube views and drive traffic back to your site, give people a compelling reason to click through to the URLs in your video descriptions.
Perhaps you could link them to a special offer or give them a discount code? Maybe you have extra information or free resources that will add to the advice shared in the video?
3. Video Content Earns Links
Including URLs in your channel information or video descriptions on YouTube or other social platforms is the perfect opportunity to earn qualified referral traffic.
Having video content on your website can also help with your outreach and link-building strategy on the whole. After all, if you have unique and shareable videos, that’s a compelling reason for site owners and bloggers to link to you.
This holds true even if you embed videos hosted on YouTube instead of hosting them yourself.
Image source: Tubular Insights
Plus, the more your video is shared on other sites, the more views it is likely to get. Thus the more valuable it will appear to Google, which will only boost its potential to rank high in the SERPs.
Best Practice: Feature your brand on your video
If you’re planning on using your video content as part of your link-building strategy, be sure to brand your videos. Doing so will help to raise awareness of your brand even if people don’t click through to your website.
You could include a short title card or end card with your logo and website, or you could add a small watermark on the video itself.
4. Video Boosts a Brand’s Social Presence
Social media should always play a big role in your video promotion and distribution strategy.
Not only because it’s a great way to get more eyes on your content, but because it could also give your SEO efforts a boost. There’s a strong correlation between higher shares on social media and higher positions in the SERPs.
So while social signals don’t directly impact rankings, we know that it can have an indirect impact. For further reading, check RankPay’s recent SEO Mythbusting article.
Video is huge on social media. A video on Facebook gets 135% more engagement than a photo.
Image source: KPCB
By sharing your video content on social platforms, you’ll increase the number of people watching your brand and earn more clicks and links!
Best practice: adapt video for each social platform
Keep in mind that 85% of Facebook video is watched without sound, and square videos get 30-35% more views on social media than landscape videos.
Bear these stats in mind when creating video content. Always research the statistics and best practices for each individual platform to ensure your video performs to its full potential.
5. Video Marketing Can Improve Your Conversion Rate
Shoppers are nearly 2 times more likely to make a purchase after viewing product videos than those who don’t. This is a pretty clear sign that video can drive improved conversions.
If you’re already onto a winning SEO strategy, it makes sense to get more value out of it by using video to boost your sales.
This doesn’t just go for eCommerce businesses, either. According to Google, 50% of people seek out product videos before they visit a store. By incorporating video marketing into your SEO strategy, you can drive customers to your brick and mortar locations.
Best practice: make product videos short
According to HubSpot, videos under 90 seconds see the best retention rates, so keep short attention spans in mind. Make your product videos short and sweet, don’t ramble!
Final Thoughts
As you can clearly see, video marketing has it’s place in the pantheon of SEO tactics and strategies.
Many of the impacts are rather indirect, much like social marketing. But the bottom-line is that an impact is an impact all the same.
So follow the above best practices, embrace video marketing, and get to work! As you head into 2018, video marketing will be a more and more important avenue for brands to earn online prominence.
About the Author
Josh Sleigh – Josh is Creative Producer at PureMotion, an innovative video production company based in the UK. Always keen to drill down into the detail of what he’s faced with, Josh is happiest when turning clients’ visions into eye-catching, great-looking videos.”
