Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website or content to rank higher in search engine results on sites such as Google and Yahoo, and it is a critical measure for how visible your video is to your target audience.
The better your SEO, the easier it is for your audience to find and interact with your brand, and when you invest significant portions of your marketing budget into video, it is important that it gets seen by the masses! By optimizing your video content for SEO, you can increase visibility and drive more traffic to your website, your products, and everything your business has to offer.
How To Optimize Your Video’s SEO Ranking
When you are posting a video to your website or to a sharing platform like YouTube, the video content simply exists online. From that initial publishing, it takes work to optimize the SEO value of your video content so that it is seen by search engines and ultimately your ideal client.
So if you’re aiming to improve your video content’s SEO, where should you start? In this blog, we’re diving into some of the best ways to boost your video’s SEO and get the most mileage out of your investment into video marketing.
Here are a few simple tools to add to your video SEO tool belt:
Title and Description
One of the most important things to consider when optimizing your video content for SEO is the title and description. The title and description of your video are the first things that people will see when they find your video in search results, so it’s important to make them as engaging and informative as possible. Use keywords in your title and description, but make sure that they are relevant to your video and that they accurately describe the content of your video. When these keywords are accurate and descriptive, it allows your video to be discovered by more people and a wider variety of search terms.
File Name
As you’re uploading your video content, don’t neglect the potential SEO value of the name of the video file itself. Search engines can’t watch your video, so they rely on other information to understand what your video is about and decide who to promote it to. One piece of information that search engines can use to make these decisions is the file name of your video when you upload it. Make sure that your video file name is relevant to your video and that it contains relevant keywords. This just adds another element for a search engine to identify the content of your video and help it be found by those who are searching for your topic.
Transcription
Another way to improve the SEO of your video is to transcribe the video. Transcribing your video means writing out the spoken words in the video so that search engines can read and understand the content of the video. There are services that can do this for you nearly instantly, or you can type it out manually. Creating a transcription can make it easier for search engines to find and index your video, which can increase visibility and drive more traffic to your website. In addition to helping search engines understand the content of your video, creating a transcription also allows you to pull the information from the video to use in other places. For example, you can create a blog, social media content, and website copy – all using a transcription from a video you already needed to boost SEO. It’s a win-win!
Closed Captions
Adding closed captions is another fantastic way to put words to an otherwise unreadable piece of content. Closed captions add yet another layer of text that search engines are able to scan and determine the subject of your video. Not only great for SEO purposes, closed captions will also make your video more accessible to people with hearing impairments. In adding this accessibility measure to your content, you open up an entirely new audience of potential viewers in addition to helping the content’s SEO.
Tags
While there are elements of your actual video that can be used to improve a search engine’s ability to “read” your content, other elements for SEO come from the posting platform that you choose. One example is the tags that you choose to accompany your video. Tags are keywords that you can use to organize your videos and make them more discoverable in search results. When you use tags, you can help search engines understand what your video is about and increase visibility. Think of the way that we use hashtags on social media platforms to group similar kinds of content. In the same way, tags can be used to categorize content on the same topic, and also help for a search engine to group like content together.
Thumbnail
Creating an engaging thumbnail is another method that can optimize your video content for SEO. An engaging thumbnail is the first image that people see when they find your video in search results on sites like YouTube or Google. By creating an engaging thumbnail, you can make your video more informative and attractive in search results. For example, by using a high-quality still image, titles, and attention-grabbing text, you can improve a potential viewer’s understanding of your video and increase overall click-through rates.
Sharing
Once you’ve optimized your video’s titles, tags, and added the other layers of SEO support for your video content, the next best thing you can do is to share your video. Sharing your video on social media platforms tells the algorithm that your content is gaining traction and that it is worth continuing to push out to more people. Social media platforms are a valuable tool to increase visibility and drive more traffic to your website.
Maximize Your Investment in Video with SEO
No matter what your video goals are, SEO is a powerful way to increase visibility across social media platforms, search engines, and video players alike. By optimizing your video content for SEO, you can increase visibility, drive more traffic to your brand’s website, increase brand awareness, and a variety of other business goals. Video alone is a valuable tool for boosting your organization’s goals., and SEO is the best way to make sure that your video is equipped to reach those business goals and get in front of the right audience.
Is your video content consistently optimized for search engines? If not, these strategies will help you get started to leverage your investment in video content for maximum impact. If you need more help, reach out to our team at AJI Media to partner with a seasoned video production team that can take your video concept from idea to finished product with your ideal SEO in mind.