“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
– John Wanamaker
John said what we as marketers feel all too often. And when it comes to SEO, it’s no different. What drives our content and pages in search results is elusive and hard to pin down. Although it takes a lot to show up in top results, there are a few proven tactics that help, however. And what’s one of them? Providing lots of video content for your audience.
Strategy
Video content has become one of the most powerful mediums for engaging people (think about Netflix’s ability to keep you hooked for hours while you binge watch your favorite TV show). It works well because you can create it in many ways. It’s flexible. It can be your company’s explainer video, behind the scenes of daily operations that your more personable intern puts together, social media vignettes, testimonials from clients or customers, etc. Then all you have to do is upload to all of your social platforms, as well as Youtube, Vimeo, and any other customer facing presence you occupy.
Keywords
Finding strong keywords that accurately represent your brand will not only make your message clearer, but also draw larger audiences to you, through the magic of search engines. Use Google to identify which keywords are most popular and which are less, then find those that are somewhere in between (you don’t want your brand to get lost in a sea of overused keywords). Incorporate these keywords in video titles, hashtags, video content descriptions, and your SEO will most definitely increase. But remember, be consistent. The more you build your keyword consistency, the more likely search engines will find you and bring your brand to the front.
Captions
More and more these days, what accompanies most videos are captions. The most obvious positive from doing this, is widening your audience to more easily include the hearing impaired. But did you know, using closed captioning will also widen your SEO potential? Search engines won’t detect your video visuals but they will detect text, so the more text you can involve within your video content, the better. And what better way to get your keywords out there than through captions!
Video Thumbnails
They’re everywhere. And they’re tiny. But they’re also hugely important. Think of your video thumbnail as an invitation. You want it to be engaging, to catch the eye, and make your viewer want to know more. In a word, you want it to be clickbait-able. Ways to do this? Ensure your video title is short and to the point, expressing what your video is about. Make it clear and easily visible. Include your brand’s logo, and keep that keyword consistency going! Also, if possible, include human subjects within the thumbnail, as this offers a 30% more chance of being seen and visited.
Be diligent, be consistent, and remember the results take time. 62% of Google searches result in video, so be encouraged in knowing you’re on the right track. And hey, if you want some help, we’re here for you. Happy shooting.