Using the Internet to watch videos is nothing new. In fact, in 2014, videos already made up 64% of all Internet traffic. That number is expected to grow up to a staggering 80% by the end of 2019, according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index. Videos aren’t just popular, they’re monumental successes, and incorporating them into your business’ website can be very beneficial for SEO rankings.
Content Matters
This one may be the most obvious, but when you have a video on your site, the content is the most important SEO ranking factor. As a rule of thumb, shorter videos will get more hits. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, so you need to keep your videos short, engaging, and informative. To achieve this, it’s a good idea to sample from multiple formats, for example by utilizing animation or photo-montage techniques. Having the perfect balance in your video content makes for an extremely useful marketing tool that can only help your business in the long run.
Keywords Count
It may seem strange to say that videos have keywords, but they absolutely do. Providing the right words in titles, descriptions, and tags helps search engines identify your video and mark it for relevancy. Video transcripts are another clever way to boost SEO, including keywords and phrases that alert search engines to your site’s content. Another added bonus of including transcripts is accessibility for people with hearing disabilities or for those who don’t have the convenience to sit down and watch a video.
YouTube is a Great Tool
YouTube is one of the largest search engines and often, it’s one of the first places users check for information. If that doesn’t sell you, consider that YouTube is owned by Google. While some prefer to host their videos solely on their website, a company YouTube account could prove to be extremely beneficial. Especially where small local businesses are concerned, exposure on a search engine juggernaut like YouTube can make the difference between dozens of views and hundreds of views.
Another added benefit to hosting on YouTube is that it doesn’t slow down the loading time of your company’s site. If a site is slow to load, people will navigate away, thus, YouTube becomes an extremely advantageous extension of your site. However, if you decide to go this route, remember to link back to your site from your YouTube profile, as well as in the video’s individual description. This will increase traffic to your own site and encourage users to look further into your company.
Videos can be a great tool for SEO, especially in this day and age. If you need help with SEO, creating videos, or boosting exposure to your site, Marstudio can help. Call us today to set up a consultation to discuss all your video and SEO needs.
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