Video SEO, or Video Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing your video content to improve its visibility and ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). The objective of video SEO is to make videos more searchable online, drive more traffic to your site, and increase engagement and conversions through video content.
According to HubSpot, an industry-leading inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platform, video SEO shares many principles with traditional SEO. Just as web page SEO involves optimizing headlines, meta descriptions, and content, video SEO includes similar activities but focused on video content. For instance, you might optimize the title, description, and tags of a video to make it more search-friendly.
There are many ways to optimize a video for SEO. This includes adding relevant keywords to your video title, description, and tags, and ensuring that your video content is high-quality, engaging, and relevant to your audience. You can also promote your video through social media, email marketing, and other channels to increase its visibility.
Transcribing your video content can also improve its SEO. In fact, Moz, a renowned SEO software company, explains that search engines can crawl and index the text of your video if you provide a transcription, thereby increasing your video’s search visibility. Adding captions and subtitles can further enhance the accessibility and searchability of your video.
Another vital aspect of video SEO is hosting your video on the right platform. For example, hosting your video on YouTube – which is owned by Google – can improve its visibility on Google SERPs. However, Wistia, a video software provider, highlights that depending on your goals, you might choose to host your video on your own website to boost the SEO of your site.
One of the most critical factors contributing to video SEO is user engagement. Google uses signals such as click-through-rate, watch time, likes, shares, and comments to determine the quality and relevance of a video. For example, a video with a high watch time and engagement rate is likely to rank higher in search results.
To illustrate, Moz utilized video SEO strategies like optimized titles and descriptions, transcriptions, and engaging thumbnails for their Whiteboard Friday video series. They have been successful in ranking their videos both on Google and YouTube, attracting thousands of viewers and driving substantial traffic to their site.
In conclusion, video SEO is a dynamic and multifaceted approach to optimize and enhance the visibility of your video content on search engine result pages. It requires strategic planning and execution, taking into account factors like keyword optimization, quality content, transcription, engagement, and the optimal hosting platform.
Sources:
1. HubSpot: “The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing“
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ultimate-guide-starting-youtube-channel
1. Moz: “Video SEO: The Definitive Guide“
https://moz.com/blog/video-seo-guide
1. Wistia: “Video SEO“
https://wistia.com/learn/marketing/video-seo-tips
