How can a video help improve your website ranking?
If you own a business and are trying to drive its success, then you have probably heard the term SEO (search engine optimization) a thousand times.
But, did you know that adding a video to your website can drastically improve your SEO efforts, and help to drive more traffic to your site?
Video is quickly becoming one of the most important forms of content marketing, and its presence on your site could make or break your marketing efforts.
Before we take a closer look at how video can help to improve your organic page ranking, let’s have a brief look at what SEO actually is.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the name given to the multitude of tasks we do on a daily basis to help grow your website’s visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs). After all, the higher your website appears on the SERPS the better, as more people will see your site when they enter a relevant search query, and they should then click through to your website, read your content and get to know more about your business. Now SEO is not an easy thing, and best practices change all the time as Google is constantly updating its algorithms, but optimising your website content and its structure could help to drive more conversions than any of your other marketing efforts.
In this noisy world we live in, with many things competing for our attention online, SEO is one of the best ways for you to be seen by your target audience. After all, when people search online, actively looking for something you offer, making sure your site is the first one they see is crucial for any digital marketing strategy.
You may already be aware that we assist clients with creating articles and blogs for their sites that are based on keyword research. Or that we also look at technical SEO to make sure their website pages are crawled and index correctly. You may not know that we can also use video to help SEO ranking – in a very significant way.
SEO and Video
To strip SEO back to its very basic form, it is all about aligning your content strategy with whatever it is that Google’s algorithm is prioritizing. We know that a video is a powerful tool when it comes to SEO.
So, how does video help with website rankings? Here’s what we know.
Recent research by BrightEdge reveals that when Google shows a video thumbnail next to a search result (which it does for about 26% of search results) more searchers are likely to click that result. The fact that the search result has a video next to it makes it a “rich snippet” and rich snippets tend to have a higher click-through rate (CTR) than standard snippets.
There is also a rumour amongst SEO specialists, that Google prioritizes search results with a video above those without video. Now, Google has not explicitly confirmed this, but a quick glance at the SERPs will tell you that this is probably true – especially if those videos happen to be hosted on Google’s own video marketing platform YouTube.
Video can also help with other metrics that Google is known to consider when ranking websites. For example, two of the most important metrics are the number of backlinks referring to your domain and the amount of time users spend on your page – both of which video can improve. In fact, studies have shown that people tend to spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.
So, video can benefit SEO both directly and indirectly- as the video likely influences your website ranking as well as other factors that go into Google’s selection system.
To summarise then, Google’s algorithms seem to be increasingly prioritising websites with video content, and that isn’t something businesses can ignore., After all, 93% of online experiences start with a search engine, so you need to make sure that you are doing everything you can to appear on that crucial first page.
Quick, stick a video on our site
Now, the key to video SEO is not sticking any old video on your site, but taking the time to make a high-quality video that is aimed at a particular goal. Think of it as a cycle, the video will give you a boost in rankings which should mean more people click through to your website, but if the on-page content they see is not of high quality then they will not stay on your site for long.
As a matter of fact, low-quality content or video can be detrimental to your rankings. This is because hosting a low-quality video on your site with little or no context will be seen as useless by Google and they won’t want to drive people to a page that is useless. Also, more people may see your site in the results, but if your page doesn’t satisfy their intent (which is CRUCIAL to SEO at the moment) then they will quickly exit your site, telling Google that your page isn’t valuable to them.
However, none of this will be a problem if you put some time and effort into your video production strategy. Luckily for you, Zool are experts in video creation, and we have got some great tips to help you to optimize your video marketing efforts:
- Use videos on your site. Now, this might sound like a simple idea, but what we mean is that asking us to create you a video isn’t enough. Your video needs to be published on your site, and in a way that makes sense. So a branded video, for example, could work really well on your home page or on your about us page. A product video would work really well on an e-commerce site as part of your product descriptions. Bonus tip – you can also use your video elsewhere to supplement the rest of your marketing strategy, not just on your website for SEO purposes
- Give your video some context. Don’t just embed your video on a blank page and expect it to help you rank – you need to embed it where it makes sense and surround it with other relevant written and visual content. You could even include a transcript of your video to enable you to target more keywords. The more information you can give Google to help it understand how your video fits into the content on your page, the better.
- Make it educational. You can use a video as an educational tool in a similar way you would use an educational page on your blog. You can use video to educate and empower your customers if they have questions about your brand, industry, products or services – which will help them when they are making their purchasing decision. If you can answer any questions they might have on a continuous basis then you will become an authority in your niche and gain credibility for the value that you provide.
- Be consistent. Consistency and dedication are key when it comes to video marketing. We work consistently to provide value to our clients, by helping them rank for not just one keyword but lots of keywords that match their customers search intent.
Video SEO is still an underutilised area in SEO and so now is a great time for you to get started. If you need help creating a video strategy to improve your SEO rankings, then our video experts can work with you to find the perfect solution.
How can a video help improve your website ranking?
Creative Video / Sep 6, 2021
How can a video help improve your website ranking?
If you own a business and are trying to drive its success, then you have probably heard the term SEO (search engine optimization) a thousand times.
But, did you know that adding a video to your website can drastically improve your SEO efforts, and help to drive more traffic to your site?
Video is quickly becoming one of the most important forms of content marketing, and its presence on your site could make or break your marketing efforts.
Before we take a closer look at how video can help to improve your organic page ranking, let’s have a brief look at what SEO actually is.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the name given to the multitude of tasks we do on a daily basis to help grow your website’s visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs). After all, the higher your website appears on the SERPS the better, as more people will see your site when they enter a relevant search query, and they should then click through to your website, read your content and get to know more about your business. Now SEO is not an easy thing, and best practices change all the time as Google is constantly updating its algorithms, but optimising your website content and its structure could help to drive more conversions than any of your other marketing efforts.
In this noisy world we live in, with many things competing for our attention online, SEO is one of the best ways for you to be seen by your target audience. After all, when people search online, actively looking for something you offer, making sure your site is the first one they see is crucial for any digital marketing strategy.
You may already be aware that we assist clients with creating articles and blogs for their sites that are based on keyword research. Or that we also look at technical SEO to make sure their website pages are crawled and index correctly. You may not know that we can also use video to help SEO ranking – in a very significant way.
SEO and Video
To strip SEO back to its very basic form, it is all about aligning your content strategy with whatever it is that Google’s algorithm is prioritizing. We know that a video is a powerful tool when it comes to SEO.
So, how does video help with website rankings? Here’s what we know.
Recent research by BrightEdge reveals that when Google shows a video thumbnail next to a search result (which it does for about 26% of search results) more searchers are likely to click that result. The fact that the search result has a video next to it makes it a “rich snippet” and rich snippets tend to have a higher click-through rate (CTR) than standard snippets.
There is also a rumour amongst SEO specialists, that Google prioritizes search results with a video above those without video. Now, Google has not explicitly confirmed this, but a quick glance at the SERPs will tell you that this is probably true – especially if those videos happen to be hosted on Google’s own video marketing platform YouTube.
Video can also help with other metrics that Google is known to consider when ranking websites. For example, two of the most important metrics are the number of backlinks referring to your domain and the amount of time users spend on your page – both of which video can improve. In fact, studies have shown that people tend to spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.
So, video can benefit SEO both directly and indirectly- as the video likely influences your website ranking as well as other factors that go into Google’s selection system.
To summarise then, Google’s algorithms seem to be increasingly prioritising websites with video content, and that isn’t something businesses can ignore., After all, 93% of online experiences start with a search engine, so you need to make sure that you are doing everything you can to appear on that crucial first page.
Quick, stick a video on our site
Now, the key to video SEO is not sticking any old video on your site, but taking the time to make a high-quality video that is aimed at a particular goal. Think of it as a cycle, the video will give you a boost in rankings which should mean more people click through to your website, but if the on-page content they see is not of high quality then they will not stay on your site for long.
As a matter of fact, low-quality content or video can be detrimental to your rankings. This is because hosting a low-quality video on your site with little or no context will be seen as useless by Google and they won’t want to drive people to a page that is useless. Also, more people may see your site in the results, but if your page doesn’t satisfy their intent (which is CRUCIAL to SEO at the moment) then they will quickly exit your site, telling Google that your page isn’t valuable to them.
However, none of this will be a problem if you put some time and effort into your video production strategy. Luckily for you, Zool are experts in video creation, and we have got some great tips to help you to optimize your video marketing efforts:
- Use videos on your site. Now, this might sound like a simple idea, but what we mean is that asking us to create you a video isn’t enough. Your video needs to be published on your site, and in a way that makes sense. So a branded video, for example, could work really well on your home page or on your about us page. A product video would work really well on an e-commerce site as part of your product descriptions. Bonus tip – you can also use your video elsewhere to supplement the rest of your marketing strategy, not just on your website for SEO purposes
- Give your video some context. Don’t just embed your video on a blank page and expect it to help you rank – you need to embed it where it makes sense and surround it with other relevant written and visual content. You could even include a transcript of your video to enable you to target more keywords. The more information you can give Google to help it understand how your video fits into the content on your page, the better.
- Make it educational. You can use a video as an educational tool in a similar way you would use an educational page on your blog. You can use video to educate and empower your customers if they have questions about your brand, industry, products or services – which will help them when they are making their purchasing decision. If you can answer any questions they might have on a continuous basis then you will become an authority in your niche and gain credibility for the value that you provide.
- Be consistent. Consistency and dedication are key when it comes to video marketing. We work consistently to provide value to our clients, by helping them rank for not just one keyword but lots of keywords that match their customers search intent.
Video SEO is still an underutilised area in SEO and so now is a great time for you to get started. If you need help creating a video strategy to improve your SEO rankings, then our video experts can work with you to find the perfect solution.
