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What is video SEO and why should you leverage it?
Chances are you’ve dabbled in video marketing. Maybe you’ve tried social media, email, even paid ads. But what about the customers searching for your videos on Google and other search engines?
That’s where video SEO (VSEO) becomes essential. It ensures that people searching for your solution can easily discover your video directly through Google search.
According to a study by Forrester, videos are 53 times more likely to generate a first-page Google ranking than traditional web content. Jan 9, 2009 Forrester
The problem is that most companies focus on optimizing their YouTube videos for search results, which leads to missed opportunities.
When you send viewers to YouTube:
Don’t believe me? Take a second to Google search a topic related to your business, then click on the videos tab.
Did you notice that all the results are from YouTube?
This presents a tremendous opportunity to rank your video first and direct viewers to watch on your website, where they’re more likely to convert.
This article will guide you on how to optimize your search engine visibility to drive traffic back to your website, where you maintain full control over their experience.
Let’s take a closer look at why you should be leveraging video SEO:
Video SEO applies to YouTube, and other social media platforms like Tiktok, however for the purposes of this article, we will be focusing specifically on how to optimize your website videos for search engines.
SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate compared to only 1.7% of the outbound leads. Feb 15, 2024 G2
How to Choose the Perfect Topic for SEO-Optimized Videos
Before doing anything else, the first step is to figure out what topic to create your video around.
If no one is searching for the video topic, then it won’t get many views, even if it ranks high.
It’s vital to focus on keywords that have a decent search volume and low competition.
For example, “apple iphone 15 pro max reviews” has a keyword difficulty (KD%) of 68. “iphone 15 reviews” has a difficulty of only 32, meaning a better chance of ranking on Google.
When conducting keyword research for video SEO, focusing on search intent helps you align your content with what users are truly seeking, whether they're ready to buy or still exploring options.
For example, a commercial query (C) like "best laptop deals" targets buyers, while an informational query (I) like "how to choose a laptop" caters to those in the research phase.
Quick Tips for Video Keyword Research:
How do you find these topics? The following tools can help:
Great! Now that you have selected a topic you know will bring consistent search traffic to your website, the next step is to create a quality video that leverages SEO trends to rank higher in search results.
Less than 1% of users get to the second page of the search engine results page. Feb 15, 2024 G2
Creating High-Quality Videos That Rank
Most people in today’s digital age watch videos about a product or service before purchasing. Especially the next generation of consumers.
Your video won’t be seen unless it ranks high in search results. It won’t rank high in search results if it’s not a “quality video”.
What does “high quality” mean?
There’s no definitive answer. It’s unique to your industry, customers, and goals.
A SaaS company should be focused on feature highlights while an E comm company might focus on lifestyle content showcasing the product.
Make sure to have high production quality. Good camerawork, clear audio, proper lighting, and solid editing all play a big role in making your video stand out.
90% of consumers say watching product videos helps them decide what to buy. Apr 27, 2024 Vidco
How do search engines rank videos?
People often forget that the internet is largely text based. So, if Google, YouTube, or whatever search engine cannot interpret the text attached to your video, you’ll never rank.
It’s all about giving as much context to search engines as possible. To do that, it all comes down to: The words spoken in the video, matching visuals, and metadata.
Having a detailed script or a tight outline will help you include keywords in the video while keeping the message clear and concise.
Google can extract some limited meaning from the audio of the video of the file.
Transitive verbs are action words about an object. For example, “mix (verb) the eggs (noun)”.
Google’s algorithm uses transitive verbs to decide which videos to feature at the top of SERPs.
When filming, keep the script concise and include transitive keywords.
For example, “The unique design of the iPhone case allows it to stick to any surface.”
Don’t say “I got this iPhone case for Christmas last year at my grandma’s place in Nebraska, it was an extra cold winter, blah blah blah”
Making sure your visuals align with the script is a good way of ensuring that you rank higher in search engines, especially for informational intent searches.
Let’s say you’re making a video on how to make perfect AeroPress coffee.
A good video would include a visual demonstration complimented with the narration “to make perfect AeroPress coffee heat your water to 183 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Now, someone searching for “What temperature water do I need for AeroPress coffee” will likely find your video at the top of the search results in a featured snippet.
Now that you’ve filmed and edited a great video, the next step is to optimize your Meta data.
Google crawls your title for relevance so it’s always good to include your main keywords. A few other best practices to keep in mind when crafting your title:
Remember, if someone searches for a keyword with “video intent” a video is more likely to appear in search results.
Dive deep into how to research “video intent” keywords and get rich snippets. [internal hyperlink]
Google cuts off descriptions in search results after 120 characters, but studies show that longer, more detailed descriptions tend to perform better.
A well-written, thorough description gives Google more context about your content, increasing the chances your video will rank for additional relevant keywords.
Include important keywords, use spaces so it’s easier to read and links to your social profiles in the description to maximize visibility and engagement.
Adding captions is the best and easiest way to add context to your video.
It also provides a better user experience for people with hearing loss, non-native speakers, or those at work in a noisy coffee shop.
If you’ve scripted your video, simply paste your script into YouTube or whatever hosting platform you're using. Many newer video hosting platforms like Zeacon will automatically generate captions.
Text on screen has been proven to increase the watch to completion rate, which is a big factor in SEO ranking, so don’t skip this step.
Your thumbnail is your chance to make a good first impression. When people see good thumbnails, they know they’ll find what they’re looking for.
Keep it clear and concise
Include your branding
Optimize for mobile
Add your primary keyword
If you get a chance, have fun with it! Here’s a great example of a creative thumbnail that’s also congruent to the video topic:
Credit: Ahrefs YouTube
Including timestamps (chapters) in your video is a great way of increasing the chances your video is featured in a rich snippet.
According to HubSpot, videos are the most likely element on a landing page to positively impact conversion rates.
Having a video on the hero section of a single splash page will also increase the chances of achieving video-rich snippets in Google search, as a video should be the main content of a webpage.
Create a dedicated page for each video, embed the video towards the top of the page, and ensure any on-page content matches 1:1 with the video content.
There is one final step to optimizing your videos SEO, which involves XML Video Sitemaps, Microdata, or JSON-LD.
You could read our next article on how to add structured data to your video page or you could simply embed with Zeacon.
Embed a video with a compelling title, good description, eye-catching thumbnail, and Zeacon’s auto-SEO will handle the rest.
All this work results in higher rankings and featured snippets
A regular video snippet is what you see when you search for something and filter to the videos tab.
If your query is related to a “video topic” there’s a higher chance of a video appearing under a “video section” in regular search.
A featured video snippet appears when Google thinks there’s a clear and definitive answer to what was searched.
You want featured snippets because they take up prime real estate, sitting at the top of SERPs with an extra-large thumbnail.
This means more views and a higher click through rate (CTR). These are the videos you want to link back to your website. Not YouTube.
According to EngineScout, rich snippets get 35 percent of all clicks. April 22, 2022 Engine Scout
