Yes, it’s a thing. Ranking a website in the long term isn’t just about building links. It’s about content. High-quality content that attracts links naturally over time. We’re talking about the long game here.
One type of content that’s unfortunately still underutilized, or fortunately if you’re already making use of it, is online video. Yes, many businesses do incorporate video into their overall digital marketing strategies, but Video SEO usually doesn’t get a lot of priority. They tend to focus on ads, images, infographics, and other forms of written content. But, video can be a powerful tool in your content repertoire and contribute to your overall SEO score for your site.
Why are videos so popular?
One of the main reasons that videos are a popular form of content is because, when done right, they deliver large amounts of information in a short concise manner. Additionally, videos tell stories. It’s easier to remember something if you’ve seen it and heard it rather than just read it. It’s why TV advertisements and commercials get stuck in your head or get chanted back to you by friends and family. This is how videos gain traction and also improve the user experience. They communicate with people by blending together visuals, movements, and sounds. Other forms of content might find that difficult. Also, we’re almost all on our mobile phones for a large part of our day, and video is really easy to watch on them.
Experts predict that by the year 2021, more than 80% of all consumer traffic will be videos. This means that you should throw a little focus onto your video SEO.
What’s the point of video SEO?
If we’re talking SEOs, your goals should be to answer people’s questions, build links and generate shares on social media or essentially to make your site more relevant and reliable for search queries related to your products/services. Hold up. What does it mean to build links and generate social shares? Simply put, building links is getting other websites to talk about your website and link back to yours. And of course, you know what social shares are. If you have a good video, it can generate a large amount of organic shares and in turn bring in a good quantity of links for your website. If it’s exceptional, you might also get links from reputable and high-quality domains. To do this, you’ll likely need a great content calendar and digital marketing plan. Side note, we can help with that.
Many video advertisements and commercials have gone viral, and there are multiple reasons why. So many different factors have to come into play at just the right time and place. If you’re wondering what they are, well someone did break it down. You can read more about it here The Lowdown on STEPPS – Why Things Go Viral.
Building Links and Generating Social Shares
Video content is responsible for attracting a substantial number of inbound links and social shares for many websites. This helps to prove that, if used correctly, videos are able to contribute significantly to your SEO campaigns. For some, it’s about the outreach or digital marketing strategy, also called video seeding. For well known businesses, it’s generally easier because they have enough high-quality traffic to seamlessly generate social shares. But, if you’re less known, or just starting out, you’re going to need to do outreach.
As with everything though, there is a balance that needs to be found. You can do all the marketing in the world, but if the end product (the video) isn’t relevant, insightful or humorous, then it’s not going to be shared to different communities. If you have an amazing video, but it isn’t reaching people, well you can do the math. Another thing that helps is consistency. Having at least one good video is a great start, but if you also post regularly then you will signal to search engines that your content is regularly updated which will help to improve your SERP ranking (Search Engine Results Page). And finally, to get the most out of your video SEO strategy, think about hosting the videos on your own website. This means that they’ll link back to your website rather than to the video hosting site.
Increasing Conversions
Conversions means turning traffic into sales/revenue. The goal of SEO is to increase rankings and in turn increase traffic to your site and eventually online sales/revenue. So, the first step is to attract traffic to your website. Then you optimize your site content, so that those visitors return, take meaningful actions, and become customers or clients. This is where video is awesome because it provides the perfect stage for your brand story. More and more businesses are using videos on their landing pages, as well as many other pages, to keep their visitors engaged, and of course to convince them to spend some money while they’re there. The global pandemic we’re currently fighting through tells us more than ever that digital is taking over the world, if it hasn’t already, and will be more important than ever for companies of the future.
Mix Videos Into Your SEO Efforts
The use and popularity of videos will continue to increase especially with the rise of smart home and wearable devices. Most people nowadays prefer watching and engaging with videos.. This is also typically what a marketing strategy aims for. Engagement. And of course, it’s easier for people to recall moving pictures than a block of text. Just don’t get caught up in thinking of videos as just marketing assets, but see them for the SEO advantages they can potentially bring you. They drive traffic, boost visibility, and increase website rankings. The bottom line? Put some effort into video content production and witness the amazing results from the perspective of SEOs and marketing.