Google’s search algorithms are inclined to deliver a good user experience. That’s why you need to create content that is authentic, relevant, and valuable to your target audience.
A majority of SEO professionals create and optimize various types of content such as blog posts, infographics, and images to increase their brands’ search visibility. However, one type of content that is quite underutilized in the world of SEO is video content.
Though 87% of brands now use video content as a marketing tool, not many focus on deriving its SEO benefits.
If used effectively, videos can significantly contribute to your overall SEO strategy, in a couple of ways. Let’s see how video content can help you boost your SERP rankings.
Drive more traffic to your website
Consumers enjoy video content. U.S. adults aged 18 to 34 years spent an average of 105 minutes per week watching video content in 2018. And the demand for video content is growing.
According to a study by Cisco, video content will drive 82% of all internet traffic by 2022.
And the best part is that the popularity of videos is not limited to entertainment purposes. It extends to brands too.
54% of consumers want to see more video content from the brands they like. They are more likely to visit your website after watching a video on YouTube or other social media channels.
If you want to grab more of your audience’s attention, video is a good way to go. The more video content you create, the more quality traffic you can draw to your website.
However, you need to create compelling video experiences for your consumers. Here are some of the best ways to do so:
- The videos you create should offer useful or interesting information that your audience wants or likes. Even emotional videos can help you drive good engagement and traffic.
- Each video should have a strong call-to-action associated with it.
- You should optimize your video content with proper keywords in video titles, descriptions, tags, and transcripts.
- You should also optimize your video content for the platform you are hosting it on.
- Your video content should align with and enhance your overall content marketing and SEO strategy.
Providing a better video experience can help you engage your audience effectively. The right videos can help you drive a 157% increase in organic traffic from the SERPs.
High-quality referral traffic will also help you boost your overall SEO initiatives in the long run.
Dollar Shave Club (DSC) channelized the power of video content to become a $1 billion acquisition by Unilever.
With punchlines and gags to suit a variety of tastes, their launch video titled, “Our Blades Are F**king Great,” earned nearly 5 million views within 90 days. They used more of such videos to attract substantial traffic and grow their razor subscription service.
Increase dwell time and reduce bounce rate
Videos can do a lot more than just help you earn new traffic. They also compel your visitors to stay on your site longer and give more exposure to your content.
Wistia found that visitors spent 2.6X more time on pages with video content than those without it. That’s why embedding valuable and engaging videos on your website is a great way to foster engagement and encourage regular visits.
When visitors spend more time on your website, it helps the search engines see that your site has quality content and is trustworthy. It can help you rank your pages higher in Google’s search results.
However, to ensure quality engagement with embedded videos, you should:
- Place your video content above the fold on your web page. Make sure that the video is properly visible.
- The videos you embed on your website should effectively reflect your brand values. You can use product videos, testimonial videos, and informative how-to videos to engage your visitors.
- You can also embed relevant videos to add more value to static content. Sometimes, videos can help you explain the process more efficiently. Useful videos help build trust and loyalty as well.
When people spend more time with the content on your page, they’re more likely to check out other pages too. This can help you reduce your bounce rate.
The Yacht Company beautifully uses a background video on their homepage to keep its visitors glued. The video showcases scenic views and landscapes to engage visitors and compel them to explore more.
Image Source: The Yacht Company
You can also use creative above-the-fold videos to engage visitors and keep them on your website for longer.
Longer dwell times and lower bounce rates can help you improve your Google rankings and also drive a lot of organic traffic to your site.
Build high-quality backlinks
People love sharing content that is interesting and valuable. Amazing video content can help you generate a large number of social shares and high-quality links from reputable sites.
As long as you create authentic, unique videos that viewers can connect with, they’re likely to share them within their circles. Other than social shares, you can also invite bloggers and influencers to check out your video content and cite it with a link back to your site.
In fact, you can also co-create great video content with top influencers/bloggers in your niche. Being active content creators, they can help you produce videos that have the potential to get quality backlinks naturally.
You can then repurpose those videos and host them on your website. Engaging videos can encourage viewers to link to your site, thereby, helping you build a strong link profile.
However, your videos need to have something to offer to viewers. You can entertain them or educate them with well-thought-out video content. Or, you can also leverage videos to tell a story that evokes a strong emotional connection.
The launch video by Dollar Shave Club that I mentioned earlier wasn’t created for link building. But it didn’t take their video much time to go viral and drive a lot of traffic and engagement for the company.
The video got featured by leading publications such as Forbes, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Mashable, and many others. It helped them build hundreds of backlinks, some from sites that are extremely hard to obtain links from.
Image Source: Forbes
Conclusion
Videos have great marketing potential but you can also use them to improve your SEO game.
When used effectively, videos can help you increase your reach, boost engagement, and drive quality traffic to your website. And you can see significant growth in your backlinks and Google rankings.
How do you optimize your video content for search results? Share your favorite tactics with the community!
Guest author: Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, content marketing, and SEO. He is the co-founder of Attrock, a digital marketing agency. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities. Find Shane on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Linkedin.