What is Video SEO?
Video SEO, also known as Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO), is the practice of optimizing videos for discovery and increased traffic through organic search engine result pages. In today’s digital age, search engines are more focused on providing visitors with results that have video content, oftentimes shown in the form of “rich snippets”, where the video take precedence over plain text results. As such, it is now far more important than ever to include VSEO tactics in your digital strategy.
Why is Video SEO so Important?
Video SEO is important for multiple reasons. First, videos are highly engaging and can be used to draw people into your website, blog, or social media page. Additionally, video search engine rankings can help you improve overall organic search rankings for your site, allowing potential customers or readers to find you more readily. Furthermore, YouTube is the second-largest search engine behind Google, and optimizing your videos can help you gain visibility on YouTube. Additionally, statistics have continually shown time and time again that having video content on your website will help with conversion rates, making the case for using VSEO stronger.
How to Tackle Video SEO
There are multiple things to consider when implementing Video SEO on your website. Here are the main steps you will want to take:
- Auditing
The first step to any successful Video SEO strategy is to perform an audit of your video content. This means reviewing your current video analytics to become familiar with which videos already have the most impressions and views, as well as what people are searching for on search engines when accessing your content.
- Optimizing Your Existing Video Content
When you have a thorough understanding of your video analytics, you can begin to optimize your existing video content for search queries. This involves ensuring that your videos are correctly labeled and tagged based on keyword research and giving them a clear, concise title that accurately reflects their content. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the accompanying descriptions are descriptive and beneficial to the viewers.
- Create a Video Transcript
When your videos are properly labeled and tagged, you can then go one step further and create a text-based transcript of your videos. This is essentially a written version of the audio component of your videos and an integral part of VSEO success; it assists search engines such as Google understand what your videos are about, essentially helping with ranking and indexing them more easily.
- Promote Your Video Content
Once your videos have been properly optimized and a transcript created, it is important to then focus on promoting the content on social media, other websites, and other platforms. Doing so helps to boost your video’s visibility, shareability, and overall impact.
- Utilize Rich Snippets
Rich snippets are pieces of data that are embedded within search results, usually including a preview of the video content and a link for users to click on. Utilizing rich snippets can help draw in potential viewers and improve your click-throughs.
- Monitor Performance
Once you’ve implemented the above steps, it is important to then monitor the performance of each video. This means tracking visits, conversions, and overall engagement with the content. Doing this allows you to gain an understanding of which content is most successful and which is not, informing any future Video SEO decisions.
Video SEO is an important component of any digital media strategy, in today’s age of increasing video viewership. By following the steps outlined above, businesses, websites, and other entities can ensure their videos are optimized for better discoverability and improved traffic.
