Top 5 Ways to Optimize Video SEO

Video SEO has evolved significantly over the years.

 

If you're still following the advice that a video optimisation expert gave at an industry convention in 2008, or that a YouTube guru wrote in 2015, you might be getting used to poor video performance. Today, YouTube's algorithm attempts to match each viewer with the videos he or she is most likely to watch and love. 

 

What is Video SEO?

 

Video SEO is simply the process of optimizing your video so that it may be indexed and ranked on search engine results pages for relevant keywords. This article will go over a variety of optimisation tactics that can help your movies rank higher.

 

Businesses have increasingly embraced video marketing in recent years. When marketers gained access to DSLR cameras in the late 2000s, it became easier to create movies and upload them to YouTube without a filmmaking degree.

 

We can no longer access the internet without seeing a video, and we all carry cell phones capable of shooting relatively high-quality films anywhere. With the explosion of video, it has become considerably more difficult to get ranked in the general search results.

 

Unlike photos, which are indexed and ranked as files, search engines see videos as a media element that is part of a larger page. When search engines index a video, the page it appears on is classified as a "video page." This allows for alternative behavior in search results pages, such as ranking in vertical search for video (e.g., google.com/video) and in universal search with a video-rich snippet.

 

Top 5 Ways to Optimize Video SEO

 

Ranking your movies on Google is an easy nine-step process. Let us go through them one by one.

 

1. Choose the Right Video Hosting Platform

 

If you're less concerned with driving traffic to your website and more concerned with raising overall brand awareness, YouTube and Vimeo may be worth looking into. The trouble about these platforms is that after your video is indexed, the majority of the traffic travels to them rather than your own website. This can cause your potential site visitors to become lost in a sea of competing traffic (such as the suggested videos that display after yours on YouTube).

 

2.  User engagement

 

Google monitors user participation to determine if your video piques their attention. How many people watch it? How many people make comments after watching the video? A high number of social shares is also a good indicator of engagement. Google's only goal while crawling content with its search algorithm is to offer the stuff that its audience is seeking for. 

 

3. Conduct keyword research to identify 'hot' themes.

 

You could have millions of views, yet your video may not rank in Google for anything. It is critical that your traffic comes from sources that you identify as your target audience. If you want your video to receive views from Google, people must be looking for that specific topic. Alternatively, the topic should include 'video intent.' Video intent refers to persons who would prefer to watch a video about a topic than read words. 

 

4. Insert a video transcript 

 

As you go through your Facebook feed, you're likely to discover multiple videos with captions that allow you to watch them without disturbing your housemates. A video transcript refers to the text that goes along with the video. Video transcripts not only make your videos more accessible to a bigger audience, but they also make them easier to scrape by search bots because they add more text to the page.

 

5. Video thumbnail

 

Perhaps more essential than the video title is the thumbnail image that shows beside it in search results. This visual feature has the ability to be quite eye-catching, helping you stand out from the crowd. The same methods for calculating click-through rates from titles apply here. As a result, it is often preferable to test changes to the thumbnails and titles individually. However, there are several excellent practices to keep in mind when optimizing thumbnails.

 

Also Read | The Future Trends of SEO One Must Watch Out For

 

Benefits offered by using Video SEO

 

Video SEO provides numerous fantastic benefits. It increases the number of views on your films while also contributing to your marketing plan. Here are the five advantages of video search engine optimization

 

1. Move up in organic search results

 

When deciding how to rank your website, search engines look at more than just the text on the page. They also evaluate other forms of content. As a result, incorporating video content into the mix will demonstrate that your website contains a variety of content kinds while also providing users with important content.

 

2. Get more out of your website's content

 

You may use keywords to optimize videos in the same way that you do with blog posts. So, if you succeed in ranking your videos on Google or YouTube, you will be able to effortlessly drive visitors to your website. Another trick is to convert your existing blog content into videos and then integrate them in your articles.

 

3. Attract links to your website

 

Videos are very shareable and interesting. You can boost your chances of receiving backlinks from other websites that choose to reference or distribute your videos. So, if your films are interesting and unique, websites will be more likely to connect to you. Similarly, you can earn referral traffic by including links in your YouTube bio or video descriptions.

 

       4. Increase your brand's social presence

 

With video content, you can provide your audience with useful information while also demonstrating your brand's authority. It allows you to put a face to your brand and foster closer interactions with your customers. When you employ video material, you may quickly refer to the brand and direct visitors to your website. So, even if customers come across your brand naturally, you may increase brand visibility and direct them to your website.

 

5. Reach users through different channels.

 

Using video SEO tactics, you may rank your videos for specific keywords that your target audience searches for on YouTube and Google. These movies can then be shared on many channels, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, email, and Pinterest. To achieve optimal visibility, you must sell your videos via many platforms in addition to video SEO.

 

Also Read | AI in SEO: 6 Smart Ways to Supercharge Your Strategy and Rank Higher

 

Key Takeaways

 

Video SEO is all about optimizing your videos so that they may be listed and indexed in search engine results pages. It is about making creative and technical changes to increase the traffic to your YouTube video content.

 

There are numerous benefits to video search engine optimization. It allows you to rank higher in organic search results, get traffic from YouTube, get more out of your website content, draw links to your website, increase your brand's social presence, and reach users through many channels.

 

Remember that many of the things we discussed need to be in place to ensure that your movies are optimized. We recognise that creating optimized videos takes a significant amount of time and effort, but the results are worthwhile. You cannot afford to slack when it comes to video optimisation; your audience expects it from you and regards it as the very minimum. 

Also Read | Top Advantages and Examples of SEO Tools