Consumers are busy... like really busy
They don’t have time to go on a mission to get the answers to their questions. Even worse, if they find an article with the information they need, they might not have time to read it in its entirety to get the answer they’re seeking. That’s why having an SEO video marketing strategy in place for your video content is so important. With the right video marketing for SEO, you make your content more accessible, engaging, and visible.
Optimized branded video content can be easily found by your customers through search engines. Best of all, though, consumers are looking for this type of content. More than 54% of consumers would like to see more videos from their favorite brands.
In this post, we’ll highlight the four steps you need to take to make sure that your SEO video marketing strategy is effective and distinguishes you from your competitors.
Why You Need an SEO Video Marketing Strategy
Full-stack marketers often have their plates full with so many aspects of their job to worry about. They have to focus on a variety of digital tactics, launching email campaigns, and executing a content marketing strategy. Now, video SEO needs to be at the top of their list.
A proper video marketing SEO strategy can lead to:
- More site visitors. Optimized videos with calls-to-action to your site can appear in common search engines like Google and Yahoo and popular hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo.
- Higher brand affinity. If consumers like the content, they’ll remember their interaction with the brand. Better yet, they may even think more positively of your brand.
- Enhanced knowledge. Depending on the video’s content, the consumer may leave with additional context of your product or service’s benefit as well as new knowledge about the topic at hand.
- Increased conversions. Research shows that a video on a landing page can lead to an 80% increase in conversions.
A proper video marketing for SEO strategy can lead to an influx of site visitors who stumble across the branded content for the first time. Organic traffic is valuable for companies trying to increase brand awareness and drive conversions.
Video content that is optimized is more likely to be surfaced by the search engine algorithms and appear higher in search engine result pages (SERPs).
If you don’t take the time to properly tag and optimize your content, you will miss the opportunity to connect with your target audience through your engaging video content.
3 Ways SEO Video Marketing Improves Rankings
When done right, video marketing for SEO has the power to significantly improve your search engine rankings. Here are three core reasons why:
- Rich Snippets & SERP Visibility
Videos often appear as rich snippets in Google search results, making your content more eye-catching and increasing click-through rates. - Longer On-Site Engagement
Users tend to spend more time on a page that includes a video. This increase in dwell time is a positive signal to search engines and can improve rankings. - High-Quality Backlinks
Engaging, informative videos are more likely to be shared and linked to, naturally building backlinks—one of the top ranking factors for SEO.
Optimizing Your Video Content in 4 Key Steps
Optimizing your video content starts before the camera begins rolling.
Take a look at these four key steps that you need to incorporate into your video marketing strategy in order to make your content the most effective.
1. Plan Your Video Content Based on Search Intent
Before you even begin storyboarding your idea, consider the overarching topic and objective of the video itself. What point are you trying to get across in the video? What is the video all about?
The planning stage of the video is a critical juncture in making sure your video is set up for success.
Start by conducting keyword research. This can be done on a variety of search engine optimization platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and Google’s Keyword Planner.
On these platforms, you can see the exact phrases, keywords, and queries that your customers are inputting into their search engines. You’ll be able to see key metrics including keywords, search volumes, ranking difficulty, and more.
With this information, you can begin to guide the creation of your video. Ultimately, you want to find the highest search volume for your desired topic and the lowest difficulty.
Once you have a focus keyword or phrase in mind, your attention should shift to creating quality content with an emphasis on that target keyword.
By using that topic as your focus, you will start on the right path of creating a video with a solid foundation that could lead to a higher ranking on various search engines.
2. Publish Your Video With Optimized Tags and Keyword-Enriched Metadata
Once the video is complete, it’s time to publish your video with the right optimization tactics on the hosting platform where it lives.
The elements that you need to focus on include:
- Video Title - Use the focus keyword in the title of the video, and make sure it is written with the angle of the viewer’s search intent. (If the viewer is going to type in a specific phrase into the search engine, consider using a similar phrase as the video title.)
- Metadata and Meta Description - This refers to the video description as well as technical components of the video (e.g. size, upload data, publisher, modified date). Make sure everything is completed accurately and fully.
- Video Tags - Include all relevant video tags associated with the video as well as any secondary keywords of related topics.
It doesn’t matter if you have all high-quality videos on your Youtube channel. Without the right titles, metadata and tags, internet users won’t be able to find them.
3. Select an Attention-Grabbing Video Thumbnail
An attention-grabbing thumbnail is critical to your video’s success.
Picture this: you have an optimized online video that ranks high for a specific Google search query. However, it has a lame thumbnail that’s dark, grim, and boring. The viewer will likely skip over it and be drawn to another video on the page.
That’s why you need to make your video thumbnail work for you.
As you select your video thumbnail consider incorporating the following elements:
- Color - Keep it bright and engaging to attract passive scrollers
- Hook - Consider adding text with a hook that will lure viewers in
- Resolution - Make sure you use the highest-quality image available.
The right thumbnail will make your video stand out in the search engines and also on the video platform where it lives.
4. Repurpose Video Content into Other Forms of Searchable Assets
To get the full value out of your video, consider adding it to existing assets and repurposing the clip into other pieces of content that can be optimized for search engines as well.
These could include:
- Blog posts
- Video transcripts
- Case studies
- Landing page on your own site featuring the embedded video
- Guides
Your content strategy should be closely interwoven with your video strategy to ensure that you are delivering the most impactful, optimized content that your audience craves.
By embedding your video in other owned assets (like a blog article or a landing page), you increase the places where the video can be found.
These pages can be optimized on their own, especially if you add video transcripts full of enriched keywords, and lead to more traffic to your website.
Capitalizing on Your SEO Video Marketing
Creating an amazing video without a video marketing for SEO mindset is like trying to land a rocket ship without taking into account gravity.
Video SEO should go hand-in-hand with the creative development and filming of the content. At each stage, you should keep the consumer in mind and craft the content based on their search intent. Once it’s complete, you should optimize the video’s title, metadata, tags, and thumbnail while considering how you can repurpose the video into other bite-sized content assets.
Without completing these steps, you may be missing ripe opportunities to get your video in front of target consumers actively searching for topics related to it.
Want to increase your video output and showcase your brand in an engaging way? Reach out to Levitate Media for full-service video production from start to finish.
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