Video content, viewership and reach have skyrocketed – You have read it! You have seen it! You know it! On your PC, tablet, smart phone and heck! Even on television, video is everywhere! This is why many businesses (small and big) have leveraged video as part of marketing, sales and as of recent – to boost search rankings for their webpages.
This article will present 8 Video SEO Tips 2017 to Improve Your Search Rankings in 2017
Remember… the primary purpose of your videos is to (1) Educate (2) Entertain (3) Inspire, (4) In the shortest time possible. If your video(s) is not generating value to your audience, and is not convincing them to watch your videos to completion, then your video marketing campaign is failing you (and your business). Read this article on How to Win Video Marketing with Youtube Marketing in 2017 and learn how big brands are cashing in on trending practices. Top 10 Brand Building Strategies Using Online Video Marketing is another article to read on brand building with video.
Let’s get started…
1. Hosting Video On Your Own Domain (website)
If you want to improve search rankings for your domain (website), then you MUST host your videos on your own domain. No Exceptions!
You cannot expect the same result by uploading your video on youtube and embedding that video to your domain. This is a good practice to expand your reach to a broader audience, but it fails in terms of SEO, because search engines will crawl the youtube video first, before it does your site.
2. Metadata – Title, Description, Transcript, File Names
Once you identify keywords and keyphrases that best describe your videos, make sure to include them on the video title, video description, and on any images you may accompany the page with. You must also include a video transcript. A video transcript is a written version of what is mentioned in your video. You must also mention the keyword or the keyphrase on the video.
Video file name is also part of the metadata of your page – because it is part of the page, just as your text, and images. Video file name is also a way of describing your page content. Make sure to include your keyword or keyphrase on the video file name.
When Google (or other search engines) crawl the content of your web page (or video page), it will notice the keyword or keyphrase mentioned in multiple parts of the page (metadata), this will make the content relevant and help boost rankings.
3. Video Thumbnail
Remember the video thumbnail is also part of the metadata. Make sure to include the keyword or keyphrase in the video thumbnail file.
Video thumbnail is the FIRST thing a searcher will notice about your video. Even if your video ranked first on a search query, if the video below contains a more striking and relevant thumbnail, the user might “click” that video, instead of yours. So make an effort to make your video thumbnail as relevant and striking as possible.
4. Creating a Video Sitemap
A Video sitemap details the contents of the page and provide a scalable map for search engines. It also present the metadata (title, description, image files, video files, transcript, etc) and other vital data in a schematic way for search engines to crawl your page. If this detail is overlooked, then you are overlooking an important step that will help your domain (and your videos) to rank.
It serves as an extension to your site’s general sitemap and although it may often be overlooked in video SEO, it is an important step to help your video’s ranking.
5. Making Sharing “easier”
When searchers find your video, and once they have seen it to completion, and your video was able to (1) Entertain (2) Educate, and (3) inspire them, they might want to share it with their peers. However, most browsers find it tedious to copy the link of your page, and to paste it on their preferred social media site. If you have not provided social sharing options “easily” visible from your video page, it might deter them from sharing your video (page content).
Your viewers may also have preferred social media sites they might want to share your video with. By providing social media icons (eg: facebook, google+1, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, etc.) you are providing choices that makes things easier. The more shares, likes, comments the more social signals to your page to rank higher.
6. Allow Embedding of Your Videos
This is different from “sharing” on social media pages. If your viewers like your videos to an extent that they want to feature it on their website, or their blog. This is a HUGE win for your page to get rankings on SERPs (Search Engine Results page). A video embed is also a permanent inbound link that will boost your search rankings.
7. Asking Your Audience to Like, Comment, Share
Your search rankings for pages with video will also depend heavily on video engagement – views, likes, comments, and shares. A lot of people are lazy to even “click” on the like button. Take a look at any viral video, and notice that less than 10% of people who watched it have taken that painstaking effort to like it. So if you know that people are lazy to make that effort, then why not ask for it at the end of the video? You could phrase it like “If you enjoyed this video, learned something new, and was entertained, then please like it, share it with your friends. If you have a question, please let us know by putting it on the comments section below – thank you”.
8. Giving Your Video a Pulse
Your Videos have a lifespan. People searching the net always look for relevant content that is “fresh off the oven”. Take this blog post for an example. The information provided here may not be as relevant in a few years’ time, because the SEO landscape is an ever changing carousel. Same way the content you provide on your video may lose its pulse from a few years’ time.
While promoting your page, you should also make other promotions within your domain and on social media that lead to the same page. This can be another short promotional video, slideshow, infographic that acts as a preview to the same page you are trying to rank with video.
There are many different ways of applying Search Optimization for your website and its pages. With the tips given above, you will be rewarded for the extra effort you put in.
Video is not for every business – different businesses yield different results by using video. BUT… doing a video for your business will NEVER harm the online progress of it, instead it will only help.
To further your understanding about how to use video with SEO, download my FREE copy of The Future VIDEO SEO Strategy and get started right away. Good luck – Vijith
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