Over the years the internet has changed enormously and there are few other ways in which that is more evident than the advancements in the use of video. Long gone are the days when a two minutes video took twenty minutes to download, and no longer does it require equipment worthy of a TV studio to record and produce a video. Today, videos can be recorded on a mobile phone, be uploaded instantly and someone could be watching it within seconds.
As well as informing and entertaining those who watch them, videos also have great appeal for website owners, including businesses who wish to boost their SEO campaigns. Videos provide lots of opportunities and advantages over traditional content such as text. Not least is the fact that the vast majority of internet users prefer watching videos to reading text.
Whilst we have already stated that recording and publishing videos is easy and can be done by anyone, if you want to turn that video into an asset that bolsters your SEO, it does take a bit more thought, time, and effort. However, none of what is required is especially difficult as you will see from the seven ways to optimise your videos for SEO that we have outlined below.
Make Them Worth The User Watching Them: It is essential that you do not make videos just for the sake of it. Each one should have a purpose and more importantly, should provide whoever is watching it with some benefit so that they are encouraged to return to watch your other videos.
Do Not Make Them Too Long: Long videos are desirable in some circumstances but, for SEO, your videos should be kept short. You risk your bounce rate increasing if visitors land on your website and see that the video they have clicked through to watch is over an hour long.
Publish The Transcripts: Apart from helping users, especially those who might have issues with their hearing, if you publish the transcript it is a further way to have your keywords online and another opportunity to prove your relevance to specific keywords to Google.
Use Closed Captions Or Subtitles: Another way to boost the user experience is to enable closed captions or subtitles and as you should know, Google loves a website that provides great UX. It also allows your video to be viewed without sound which is often necessary for some users.
Use Keywords Within The Video’s Title And Description: Whether you are publishing your videos on your website or another website (see below) it helps boost the relevancy of it for certain keywords if those keywords can be found by Google within the video’s title, description and even the file name of the original mp4 file you upload.
Host Your Videos On YouTube: Whilst it is feasible to host videos on your website, it is better for SEO if you host them on YouTube and then embed them on your website for people to watch. YouTube is the second largest search engine online so where better to be found when people search for keywords related to your video than there?
Encourage Sharing: Our final tip is that unless you want to restrict viewer numbers, (not sure why you would), then you should encourage people to share your video. It increases backlinks and if Google sees your video is popular then it will boost its ranking meaning you should see increased traffic to your website.