You should be using video for SEO today because the average person watches about 1.5 hours of video daily. As online videos are quickly becoming the dominant form of this content, not using them to promote your business is a huge mistake.
You also need to consider that not only does this content bring you benefits due to the unparalleled efficiency of its format. And to get some idea of how effective that is you should consider that Forrester Research concluded that a single minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. Aside from the informational value of this content, you can also boost your SEO if you optimize the videos correctly. That will include choosing the right platform, compressing the file, picking the right keywords, and a few other factors.
Comprehensive Guide to Using Video for SEO: 5 Essential Tips
1.    Create a captivating and well-optimized title and video description
Despite the evolution of Google bots, which now consider a wide range of factors when ranking pages, keywords still play a major role in SEO. When dealing with videos, the title and description are the main of the few possibilities you have to integrate keywords in your optimization.
Today it’s best to target long-tail keywords as they will allow you more influence in a small niche. Such precise targeting is more effective overall because it provides more valuable traffic and increases the chance of conversion. However, while it’s true that SEO is definitely one of the most effective methods of online marketing. You also shouldn’t forget that it’s not only about keywords. The ability of the title and description of your video to grab and retain attention is as important. The keywords will help get noticed by Google bots, which is why you benefit from using video for SEO. However, it’s how interesting the text is that will determine if people will click on the link.
A great title should be short, to the point, but with a ‘hook’ to grab the reader’s attention. That ‘hook’ is usually the adjective you add to the title to enhance its emotional impact. As you should keep the title short (preferably under 70 symbols), you’ll need to use words wisely to both grab the attention and give an adequate description of the video’s content.
The description is similar, but as it can be longer, you get more chances to make it attractive for the reader. It should provide the basic outline of the video, but in a form that will intrigue people and motivate them to watch the entire clip.
2.    Make a cool thumbnail image
The thumbnail image is what internet users will see in place of the actual video before they click on Play. It doesn’t provide direct benefits when you are using video for SEO. However, how attractive and informative that image is will play a huge part in determining if people click on it at all.
The most important characteristics of this image are relevance and attractiveness to your targeted audience. It can be a screenshot of the video itself or a completely different image that features some of its key elements. Using a thumbnail image with some comic elements might be most effective, as even the Forbes advises that there’s a great power of using humor in marketing.
3.    Always add a transcript
When using video for SEO, adding a transcript is essential because it allows you to get more text on the page, meaning more keywords. The transcript makes your pages more indexable as well as increases the number of people who can actually watch your video. This includes not only the people suffering from some hearing issues but also those who watch the videos without sound for different reasons.
Note that you should also consider embedding subtitles into the video itself. This will allow you to reach the people described above when you share the videos on social media as including a transcript there might not be possible.
4.    Optimize the entire page
You need to remember that a clip is only one of the elements on the website that need to be optimized when using video for SEO. To achieve maximum benefits you need to have the entire page where the video is posted optimized as well. You also need to ensure that it’s relevant to the topic of the video.
Note that embedding videos on generic pages will be counterproductive. This kind of page won’t enhance the SEO and as it’s not relevant to the video, you might get marked down by Google bots.
5.    Mind the size and quality of your video
Do not forget that today Google considers the page loading speed one of the main factors during the ranking. Therefore, you need to compress your video to ensure it doesn’t take too long to load.
However, be careful as compressing too much will reduce the quality of the video. You should use specialized video optimization plugins and get a top-quality hosting with unlimited bandwidth to ensure maximum speed.
