SEO and Video: How Are They Connected?

You may have heard that search engine optimization (SEO) tactics can benefit your video marketing campaigns. You may have also heard that video can help with your SEO efforts. Both statements are actually true.

SEO and video marketing are inherently connected; focusing on improving one can actually benefit the results of the other when executed correctly.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at how SEO and video marketing relate to each other, and how you can use this connection to benefit your business and get the most out of your marketing campaigns.

How are SEO and Video Marketing Connected?

SEO marketing and video marketing can directly impact each other.

When you use strategic SEO strategies on your video content, you’ll boost the visibility of your video content significantly. You’ll help your video pop up more often in search engines, both on YouTube and in Google. Focusing on keywords will be crucial to getting these benefits.

Video marketing can also improve your SEO results if the video itself is aligned with your overall SEO strategy. Not only will you have more content to help you connect with customers at all stages of the sales funnel, you’ll also be able to get other potential benefits like link building and the ability to stand out in SERPs (especially if you’re using Rich Snippets, which we’ll discuss in a minute). It’s also expected that since customers are increasingly preferring video becoming more important, Google and other search engines will continue to prioritize sites that have video content in the rankings.

If you’re using third party media players like YouTube, you can also post links to your site in the descriptions of the video, creating backlinks and sending traffic to your site.

The Step-by-Step Process to Improve SEO and Video Marketing at the Same Time

It’s clear that SEO and video work well together, like the peanut butter and jelly of the marketing world. There’s a process you should be following, though, to get the full benefits that you should be seeing.

1. Create Video Content Focusing on SEO

Video marketing can set out to accomplish a number of different goals. You can use them to increase engagement on social media, place them on a landing page to help with conversions, and more. You should absolutely consider SEO improvement as a goal for your video content, even if you have other goals like brand awareness.

By focusing on SEO, you’ll focus on things like keywords, and choose to create content that you know people are looking for. Your biggest goal for these particular videos won’t be selling a certain product, it will be to create videos people are actively seeking out and will be likely to share.

2. Prioritize Keywords

Sometimes it’s helpful to do this before you actually create the video, but it can be done afterwards. Use tools like SEMrush and keywordtool.io to identify the keywords users are searching for online.

how to optimize video for SEO

SEMrush is my favorite keyword research tool.

Once you find them, add them everywhere you can in your video. The video title, description, and video tags (if applicable for the platform you’re using) should all contain keywords to optimize your search engine results.

video SEO

This video had the “how to clean a stainless steel sink” in several places, along with a backlink to their site.

3. Add Indexable Transcripts to Your Videos

When you add captions or subtitles to your videos on YouTube (which is one of the best platforms to use when you want to maximize SEO benefits), these captions are actually indexed by Google. This means that they can be searched. Closed captions can also increase viewer retention rates, and make your video accessible to those who are hearing impaired.

Recommended for You

Webcast, December 12th: Why Automating Your Cold Calls is the Best-Kept Secret for Driving, Qualifying, and Closing More Leads at Scale

You can create and upload SRT files to videos on sites like YouTube, Wistia, and social media like Facebook in order to create transcripts that can be searched by Google.

4. Add Backlinks to Your Site

When you post your video on social media or to third-party video sharing sites, include a link to your site in the description. This can serve as a backlink, giving your site a small SEO boost. If you do this consistently, it can start to have an effect over time.

Adding links in your videos descriptions can provide backlinks to your site.

5. Create Video Site Maps

Video sitemaps are .XML text files you upload to your site that contain information about your video that will help Google evaluate it. This includes the title, description, how long it lasts, and the URL of the landing page where the video will be placed.

Site map text will look like this:

You can see how to create and upload a video sitemap in detail here. While this is an extra step most businesses skip over, this can make a huge difference in helping your video– and your site– rank well in search engines. It will give you the competitive advantage and set you apart from your competition.

6. Embed Videos in Blog Posts

Embed your videos on your site and in blog posts. Google likes seeing sites with video, because users are expressing preferences for video content. This will also increase your video’s visibility, and the more traffic, views, and shares each video gets, the better the SERPs you’ll see.

Final Thoughts

SEO and video marketing can be directly connected to each other, and putting effort into one will often directly benefit the other. Both video marketing and SEO will both help your marketing efforts individually, but they can also bolster the effects of the other. When you understand how the two are linked, you can reap the full benefits of both, promoting your business more effectively across multiple platforms.

[View Source Link]

Share this Post

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

Note: This form will reset after you click Submit, and you’ll get an email confirmation that we are processing your request.
Terms: By clicking Submit you are allowing Cartender to email you a custom sample video and contact you in the future.