We recently met with a client that wanted to know if adding video to his website mattered. In short, the answer is yes. Video is a powerful way to engage an audience that doesn’t like to read. And, by choosing the optimal length for your website video, it can be a very effective way to earn more conversions.
If you’re like most business owners, your goal is to get your website on Google’s first page of search results. Video can help catapult your search rankings as pages with video content are 53 times more likely to rank on page one of Google search results.
Why is this the case? One of the more recent changes to Google’s search engine algorithm, the Hummingbird update, values the quality of the content over keyword optimized content. Considering that the vast majority of video content that businesses create is informational and addresses key questions that their target audiences have, Google often gives preference to useful video content over keyword optimized text content in search results.
Even if you choose not to include video on your website, you may want to use it on your branded YouTube, Vimeo, Google+, and Facebook accounts. Pairing video with social media is an excellent way to give your search ranking a boost. And, considering that Google owns both Google+ and YouTube, it only makes sense to share video content on these channels as Google will naturally be favored by Google in search results.
To be most effective with using video to maximize SEO results, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
1. Create video content that solves problems or provides valuable information to your audience.
Think about the topics and questions that your target audience is typing into search queries, and find a way to create video that helps you audience get satisfactory answers to these questions.
2. Keep your metadata relevant.
Using relevant, rich metadata and being smart with your content organization can allow you to incorporate long tail keywords to maximize SEO boost.
3. Make your video content easy for users to browse through.
Use your website to setup a video gallery where visitors can easily pick and choose videos that they want to watch based on categories and tags.
One thing that you’ll want to be sure to avoid is creating an endless stream of video players on a single page of your website. This can make it extremely difficult for your visitors to find what they’re looking for.
As a best practice, have a separate landing page for each video. This will help search engines to index each video asset individually.
In summary, adding video to your website does have the potential to greatly benefit your search strategy. Additionally, social media serves as another powerful channel to use video to give SEO a welcomed boost. Be sure to use our 3 suggested tips to be the most effective with incorporating video into your search strategy.
