Video is far from a trend; it’s here to stay. Not only is it the most common way for people to consume media online, but it is also one of the many ways that you can boost your SEO. However, too few companies understand how to optimise the videos themselves and the steps it takes to rank them.
Unless your videos do well in search engines, you won’t get the kickback you were expecting. When done correctly, however, you could surpass some of your toughest competitors on search engines by getting prime visibility for your videos and all residual SEO benefits that come with it. Grace Murphy takes a look at a few things you can do to optimise your videos for search.
1. Use video analytics to create high ranking content
When it comes to ranking your videos, things like your description and titles will play a role. But nothing will be more important than audience retention. This means that your videos have to do their primary job of keeping your audience engaged before you can even think of getting them to rank.
The only way to know what works with your audience is to watch your video analytics. You’ll then be able to see which of your videos are getting the most engagement, and which type of content you should be making in the future.
2. Use the right platform
You also need to realise that there are other platforms out there. Trying to get your YouTube videos to rank is one thing, but once they do, what happens?
While pushing your videos on popular platforms like Vimeo or YouTube might get you featured in search results more easily, your audience might be conflicted once they get there. These results usually end up benefitting the video-sharing site instead, and your visitors are very likely to watch a recommended video from a competitor right after yours.
We would suggest you start looking at other options, such as Wistia for instance. This is the type of platform you want to go for if you want more on-site traffic and conversion. Wistia uses JSON-LD technology to insert metadata right into your videos, making them more conducive to search. This metadata will then be inserted in the header of the page instead of the body, which allows Google bots to index and rank the videos better.
This is not something you can expect from all platforms. Some will use schema mark-up, which is not as efficient and structured. You also have others that will require that you create a video sitemap, which can be very complex.
3. Add a transcript
You’ve probably noticed videos on Facebook that have annotations inserted so you can watch the videos without volume. These are transcripts and can make your videos more SEO friendly since there’s additional text attached to them. This means that search bots can scrape that information more easily.
Transcripts will act as page copy, which means that you’ll have the chance to rank for multiple queries. We also suggest that you pay special attention to transcripts on long-form videos that are the main focus of a page as these scenario types of transcripts will have an even greater impact on your rankings.
4. Work on on-page factors
At the end of the day, it’ll be nearly impossible for your videos to appear on regular search results unless your on- and off-page SEO is on point. This means that you might need to find some outside help to help tighten up your mark-up, improve performance, navigation, links, and mentions, and help you know what you may be doing wrong.
If you were thinking of improving your SEO, we suggest you consider working with a service like PWD. These services are a good option if you want to improve your site’s search engine optimisation from top to bottom. They’re one of the best SEO Perth teams you can find, and will also help you improve the SEO of your website, as well as the overall user experience. Not only that, but they will run a full SEO audit of your website free of charge, and help come up with a plan of action to improve your results.
5. Pay special attention to your thumbnails
You might think that the title of your video will make the most difference when it comes to click-through rate, but you’d be mistaken. It’s actually the thumbnail that will have the greatest impact.
If someone sees two videos on the same subject, most will go for the one with the best thumbnail. This then means that your video will now get even less visibility since Google sees a high CTR as a sign of quality. You now have a video with a less attractive thumbnail lower down the results. That’s something that could easily be fixed by knowing how to create a more enticing one.
As a rule, bright colours with human faces tend to work the best. As a matter of fact, one study found that videos that have a custom human thumbnail tend to have a 30 per cent higher play rate on average. That is a huge difference and one that will make an impact on both your views and SEO.
You also want your thumbnails to be engaging and relevant. For instance, you don’t want to use a picture of your face if you’re showing people how to bake muffins. Instead, a nice close up of a muffin on a cooling rack on a bright white counter would make much more of an impact. You want to treat the thumbnail as you would the cover of a book, and make sure that it entices a visceral response in the viewers.
If you want to get the best results with your videos and for them to get the visibility that they deserve on search engines, make sure that you follow these tips to the letter. You’ll be able to get more visibility for your videos, and hopefully be able to translate this to higher traffic and better visibility for your website.