Videos are fast becoming one of the most important forms of marketing, and as a content creator, introducing video content could make or mar your optimization efforts depending on its usage.
According to a recent report by Google Search Central, the digital consumption of videos continues to grow worldwide, and Google is continuously working to ensure website owners get their videos indexed and ranked on Google Search Result Pages (SERPs).
What does this tell? It’s pretty straightforward – the need to understand and implement video SEO as a site owner has never been this important.
Thankfully, this article has been specifically written for you! Here, I have comprehensively explained everything you need to know about video SEO, including how it works, tips for ranking your video to the top of search engines’ first pages, and tools to help you achieve that.
So, without further ado, let’s explore!
Typically, what you must know is that videos help your SEO ranking as well – in a significant way.
This is because, unlike images, which are indexed and ranked as files, search engines see videos as a media element that is part of a broader page – the“video page.”
Video SEO involves optimizing videos to be indexed and ranked on search engine results pages for relevant keyword searches.
It also refers to making technical and creative adjustments to video distribution to increase traffic on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and many more.
As previously stated, Video SEO has high potency in driving traffic and generating leads for brands and businesses. In addition, it lets you get more people to watch videos, which is a crucial part of your online marketing strategy.
The importance of video SEO, particularly to augment online marketing strategies, is broadly divided into two:
1.Generate traffic for your YouTube and TikTok account
Nowadays, people consume hours’ worth of video content on YouTube and TikTok daily;
they tend to search for more “how-to” topics on YouTube and TikTok instead of on Google because the video content and included descriptions provide better understanding.
YouTube and TikTok are as much a search engine as Google, and they can be an excellent platform for generating more traffic for your website.
2.Reach users across multiple channels
With video SEO, you can rank your videos for unique keywords your audience may be searching on Google, YouTube, Tiktok, and many more.
Also, you can share them on various platforms like LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.
Here is the official guide from google about how to ensure your videos can be indexed.
Below are a few expert-proven ways to optimize your videos for search engines:
i. Choosing the Right Video for Hosting Platform
When choosing a video hosting platform, you need to consider the reasons you want your videos to rank.
For example, are you aiming to gain more site traffic or leads? Or is your goal more general thought leadership and brand awareness?
YouTube may be an option to explore if you are more focused on general brand awareness.
ii. Inserting Video Transcripts
Transcripts act as page copies. Not only do they make your videos accessible to a larger audience, but they also make your videos more indexable by search bots.
iii. Using an Engaging Thumbnail Image
The video thumbnail is what a searcher sees when indexing your videos. Therefore, it plays a vital role in the click-through rate. So, ensure to always use a thumbnail image that is compelling, relevant, and all-around beautiful.
iv. Paying Attention to Video Titles and Description
Like blog posts, title and meta descriptions significantly rank videos. So, it is essential to spend time creating an engaging video title and description.
Also, do keyword research to ensure you target keywords that people search for.
Furthermore, you can optimize your videos by using lead capture methods, introducing strong CTAs, adding SEO-related information, and many more.
Key1. Clicks and Click-Through Rates
Your CTR is the number of viewers that click on any CTA (call to action) you include in your videos.
Test various CTAs to see which works best and ensure your video content is appealing enough to get high clicks.
To improve the CRTs, I suggest you do the following:
- Alter your CTA by placing it at a different point in your video or making it more visually enticing.
- Make your CTA highly relevant to your video content.
- Improve your average engagement first, particularly if the number of viewers reduces before reaching your CTA.
Key2. View Count
View count is considered more of a vanity metric, as the number of views doesn’t affect your bottom line if no other action is taken.
However, the view count still shows us that we must make the first 3 to 20 seconds of your video hyper-engaging to encourage viewers to continue watching.
Key3. Conversions rates
Conversions are the numbers of leads or potential customers gained from video content.
Although conversion is a vital metric, it is a little trickier to track and will probably involve setting up a separate analytics software for your video host.
A perfect example of such analytics tools is Google Analytics.
To gain high conversions, it is essential to make your video relevant to what your target audience wants to know at the stage of the funnel.
Do the following to create a high-ranking video
Trick1. Make the Video Easy to Understand
Nothing beats an easy-to-understand video. Apart from ensuring more watch time, it also lets you connect better with your audience.
You can do that by:
- sorting out a logical sequence for the video.
- introducing the main topic at the beginning, the first 3 seconds of the video will determine whether your viewers are interested in your content.
- add a readble descript, highlighted thumbnail, and a voiceover or text to explain your videos.
- lastly, add a 'Time Map' for videos longer than 1 minute.
Trick2. Make Valuable Content
As previously stated, always make videos with a viewing demand.
For instance, “how to type?” videos may have no value because it doesn’t speak to a particular audience.
However, refinding the video content to “how to type faster?” makes you address a specific category of online users, which translates to a higher search demand.
Trick3. Make Engaging Videos
Real human videos are more interactive for viewers, as you can always call for comments, likes, and shares.
However, if you are uncomfortable showing your face in your videos, you can explore certain video creation and editing tools to help you generate a digital presenter on the video, such as HeyGen, to help ensure your videos are as engaging as possible. I discussed more about HeyGen in the next section.
Other strategies you can use to rank videos include using video hashtags, adding captions, choosing and having keywords wisely in the title of your videos, and many more.
1.VidIQ - SEO Tools for Video Media
VidIQ is a video optimization tool that helps businesses create and optimize their marketing campaigns, engage audiences with YouTube videos, and eventually help them track the results and performances of these campaigns and videos.
As a YouTuber or content creator, VidIQ allows you to search for videos and channels of competitors and identify their strategies and how you can model them.
VidIQ also provides users with all the data they need in one place with its browser extension, web application, and mobile app so that nothing gets missed while browsing YouTube or periscope for new content ideas.
Top Features of this Video SEO Tool:
- Inline keywords.
- Embed URLs
- Competitor monitoring.
- Video effect data scoring
2. HeyGen - AI Avatar Generator for Video (A-Roll Maker)
The second on our list of essential tools for optimizing your video for SEO is HeyGen.
As I’ve mentioned in the last section, HeyGen helps you create videos without showing your face, thanks to the tool’s multiple AI Avatars and voiceover generators.
Apart from content creation, HeyGen also aids brand awareness, helping their users achieve increased views through insights into what audiences want from different content.
Top Features of this AI video maker:
- online tool and easy-to-use (app without download needs)
- 200+ unique video templates for different purposes and voice-over in over 20 languages
- AI real human avatar and CG avatar built-in
- text to speech feature
- upload your photo then make it speakable on the video (much helpful for create interactive video)
- ...
3.Canva - Thumbnail Maker for video
Canva is yet another freemium tool used to generate thumbnails for your videos. Canva’s user-friendliness also aids in the easy customization of YouTube thumbnails.
Apart from YouTube videos, you can also use Canva to design elements or create a custom thumbnail design for a synchronized playlist or channel.
To customize your thumbnail using Canva, upload your images or artwork, choose a template, and start modifying the template as you deem fit.
Top Features of this video thumbnail creator:
- create video thumbnail for different size needs
- rich font style and color for choose
- allows you to upload your image
- background remover for thumbnail (for pro user)
4.CapCut - General Video Editing Software
CapCut is the default video editing app for TikTok. It is a mobile app that works for iOS and Android devices.
The two versions have similar features, allowing you to modify your TikTok videos with filters, stickers, speed changes, effects, and lots more.
In addition, Capcuts offers with split, reverse, and a few more editing features to make your TikTok videos look more professional, and more importantly, engaging.
Top Features of this video editing tool
- cut, resize, reverse and merge video
- upload mp3 as the video background music
- background remover for video
- change the speed...
Do Video Increase SEO?
Yes, they do. Studies show that 85% of marketers use videos to boost SEO. So, the more video content you create, the more quality traffic you draw to your pages, which in turn increases your overall SEO in the long run.
Does TikTok Use SEO?
Yes, it does. But TikTok is more focused on recommendation engine optimization. So, the most effortless core of optimizing video content on TikTok is by using relevant hashtags like #foryourpage when you post a video.
Can I Add a Link to My TikTok Videos?
Sadly, you can’t. It’s impossible to include a clickable link in the caption of a TikTok video. The platform only allows users below 10,000 can only add a clickable link on their bio, while those with over 10,000 followers can add theirs on their TikTok stories.
Final Words
Videos are now everywhere on the internet. Sadly, due to the explosion of these videos, it is becoming harder to rank on relevant search engines, such as YouTube, Google, and others.
I hope this article helps you better understand what exactly video SEO is, alongside everything you need to know to rank your videos to the top on these search engines.
You may also like: Tips for create outstanding video without editing
