As a website owner, it is important to recognize that online videos can truly push your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) success to the next level. There are simple steps that you can take to secure higher search engine rankings for Vimeo, DailyMotion, MetaCafe, and YouTube. Video SEO will help you get your message in front of more search engine users, resulting in more customer conversions via your brand’s website.
What Does Video SEO Involve?
YouTube considers several elements when it judges how it will rank your video. These elements include:
• How long you can hold your audience.
• How many people subscribe to your channel.
• The number of video comments, likes or dislikes your video acquires.
• Your use video tags, titles and descriptions.
In order to produce a video that has the potential to go viral, you need to ensure that your video content is entertaining, useful, educational, inspirational, and-or shocking. It should grab a user’s attention and motivate them to watch more of your videos.
In order to keep your viewer engaged, it is recommended that you post videos that are no longer than five minutes in length. In fact, the most common length of YouTube’s most popular videos is three minutes. Remember, your goal is to encourage viewers to watch the whole video. Keep in mind that with the abundant amount of information online, the attention span of a given user is most likely very limited.
Video SEO Tips:
Page title. It is crucial that both your title and your thumbnails are related to the keyword / phrase associated with your video. If your video ranks well on YouTube, it will no doubt rank well on Google.
Let’s say that you have posted a funny video of your cat (after all, ‘pet’ videos are extremely popular online). Your title is: “Jeffery the Cat Plays Hopscotch.” Although this video title explains what is in the video, users will most likely search for “cat” and “Hopscotch” in the same query.
You goal is going to be to write a title that is relevant, but will have words that people are likely to search for. In the case above, you would have a better chance of acquiring viewers if your video was titled “Cute Cat Acts Like A Person Playing Hopscotch.” Why? It is because this title has the phrases “cute cats” and “acts like a person.” These two phrases are searched for much more often than “Jeffery the Cat” or “Cat Plays Hopscotch”. Of course, your title must not be misleading; it must be relevant to the subject matter yet optimized for popular search queries.
Let’s apply this to business and pretend that you run a car cleaning service in Minneapolis. You have created a YouTube video to promote your company. Your instinct might be to make a “catchy” title such as “Wow! You Can Have a Squeaky Clean Car in Minutes.” While this title is certainly inviting, it will not help you appear in many relevant searches.
In order to improve the visibility of your car cleaning service, you should be more specific in regards to your service and your location. Your video would obtain a wider audience if you titled it, “Minneapolis Car Cleaning Service.” Although this video title may not be as glitzy, YouTube and Google will give it priority and it will be easier for Minneapolis users to find. This is because the video contains keywords that Minneapolis residents will actually use when looking for a local car cleaning service. If you would like to get creative, you could blend your advertisement with education. You could create a series of educational videos, such as “5 Car Care Tips From Sam’s Minneapolis Car Cleaning Service.”
Video thumbnails allow users to view a short snapshot of your video. Make sure that the image use is captivating and visually appealing in order to interest the user’s attention.
Video descriptions. Your video description should be very in depth and contain links back to your site. You are responsible for informing search engines what your video is about. You have 980 words to describe your video. Associations have been found between video length and how well it ranks. Our advice: use as many words as you can to create your relevant description. If you run a business, include your company name, address and phone number.
Video tags. YouTube offers many video tag options. You are allowed 500 characters. Do not misuse the tags that YouTube provides you. Make sure that they are relevant to what you offer in the video.
Call-to-action. A call-to-action is a well-defined action that you want your viewers to complete. YouTube allows its users to add a call-to-action button within the video. In order to obtain customers or build you followers, you should always include this button.
