How can you optimize your video Top techniques, tricks, and strategies for video SEO |
If a photograph can be worth a thousand words, how much are videos worth? Well, to engines that search it's "a lots."
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process to increase the visibility of your website's content for the search engines, such as Google, Bing, and others.
Within the competitive field of video SEO providing the appropriate collection of relevant data to engines is crucial to help viewers find and be able to connect with the videos you work so hard to create.
Let's peek behind the opaque web of SEO, so more eyes can happily stumble upon your next video.
Video SEO tips and best techniques
1. Be intentional regarding your title
The title is usually the text at the top that will display on search results. While it's wonderful to have a unique and appealing title for your video, it's also essential to keep the title specific by and use keywords. The more descriptive your title then the greater chance that it will show up when people search for those keywords.
Search results typically become shortened by around 65 characters. Therefore, be sure to front load your title using the most crucial words.
2. Leverage what is being searched by other users
If you're looking for new audiences to discover your video, it makes sense to describe it in the words that they are looking for.
Although the original video was released more than a decade ago "Hayako" is still able to hold a coveted, competitive spot at the top of the search results of Google which proves the effectiveness of video titles optimized for search.
That being said, it's essential not to put random keywords into your title of the video to ensure that it appears in lots of searches. (Pro-tip that this rarely succeeds). If your title and description aren't accurate enough to match the content in the film, the search engine might penalize you.
What are the average lengths of video descriptions?
- YouTube The description field can be as long as 1,000 characters.
- : can contain up to five hundred characters
- Google is able to reduce the description for any article (or article) between 155 and 160 characters
3. Don't underestimate the value of a descriptive descriptionn for video SEO
It's the description "blurb" that will usually be displayed in search results beneath your name. Your description should begin by introducing a catchy hook that grabs your audience's attention instantly remembering that only the first 110 characters, or more, will show before your description is truncated in search results.
After the initial 100 to 200 characters, use the rest of the descriptions to tell the viewers what your film is about with greater detail. Credit your cast and crew, note the equipment that you utilized to film and edit the film as well as include other important components of creating your video.
The description can also be a great place to include the links on your social media sites or websites. Although these links may not improve your search engine rankings but your viewers, collaborators, and fans can use this info to track the work you do on other channels.
Not a copywriter? That's okay. The worst kind of description is one that's not filled in. Try your best to express the most important ideas about your film first before you including any relevant phrases that you think people are searching for.
4. Embed video on your site for additional benefit
It's best practice not to overcrowd a landing page by putting up too many videos since Google will not know which is the most important among them all to show. When you embed videos that are stunning on your site, make sure to stick with one per page.
Your video's page placement is also a major factor in how search engines crawl your website. Ideally, the video will be close to the top of the page.
Videos that are "below the fold," similar to search results appearing on the second page of Google frequently get forgotten about -- which is certainly not something you'd like to happen in order to gain greater visibility.
5. Include a video transcription
The transcription of video content is an essential element of video SEO. It gives Google more information about the content of your videos, improving your chance of appearing higher in result pages.
Google can fetch the bytes of your video in order to determine the content in your video and the spoken language. But, if you've recorded the speech manually in your video, providing a transcript can aid search engines in understanding the spoken words more precisely. When in doubt, always offer more information instead of less.
Additionally, video transcripts can allow your content to be more usable, which is a constant consideration for creators and artists of all trades.
6. Nail your thumbnail
A gorgeous thumbnail is essential for mobile (whether you're using a mobile internet browser or an in-app) as well as the over-the-top (OTT) watching in which your video's name and thumbnail is your main way of contacting potential viewers.
You can include text in your thumbnail or simply let the image stand alone. We've seen both techniques do well.
The stunning color palette as well as a stylish, easy name overlay "Calbuco" provides a mesmerizing thumbnail that entices you to explore:
Sometimes your thumbnail needs some explanation in order to pull the attention of viewers, and that's OK. You can add a subtitle your thumbnail, and showcase your film laurels to boost curiosity:
The one thing we've noticed is that color thumbnails generally have better click-through rates than black and white thumbnails. But, at times, you'll want to go with an aesthetic preference over an decision-making process.
Black and white can be just as eye-catching as color, especially if your thumbnail captures that perfect time in the action.
Make sure you avoid these mistakes in thumbnails:
- Blurry action pictures
- Text that does not match the image, or is difficult to read
- Image stretched, pinched or stretched
- There is no thumbnail
Your video SEO glossary
Below are a few words from the SEO trade you might not be aware of:
Algorithm
Not The Instagram or Facebook algorithms that we are hearing so much about But an evolving Google search algorithms that decides what elements that a site's content is qualified to be ranked. Think of elements like importance to the search query, its usability and the quality of content, etc.
In fact, Google search algorithms are complex and designed to make sure you get the best results. into the top spot of the page.
Crawl
The process of Google "crawling" the site is the way the engine collects data. The "crawler" continuously scans websites for new content, logging these new pages and the information they have (including videos!) to be used for search results.
Rich snippets
An rich snippet from a video will be the thumbnail view which shows up in mobile and desktop Google results. Each video you host on .com We provide metadata that are appropriate to help your video preview be visible on Google and other search engines.
Why do rich snippets matter? Organic results pages are the heartbeat of many sites as well as businesses. These snippets provide a big leg up on standard listings.
They provide a captivating connection to your film with a still thumbnail or motion-based previews that increase your organic click-through rate (CTR) and drives more viewers.
"SERP"
An acronym for "search results page of the engine." When you search for something, Google responds with a SERP that answers your question.
Structured data
structured data(or microdata) is a standard method of telling search engines how to index content on a webpage. Through providing the appropriate structure of data, lets your videos hosted on the internet show up in search results in rich short snippets.
There are other significant types of structured data that Google automatically provides, which are vital for both SEO and social media marketing.
- Schema.org is a common set of definitions that define structured data. It is supported by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex
- Open Graph, Facebook's markup that is used to identify the information and pictures that are automatically displayed when an account is mentioned in a post
- Twitter Cards can be described as markups that draw pictures, videos as well as text. They display the contents in a card each time a page is sent out via Twitter to the entire world.
To check out all of the microdata generated automatically for video by , just enter URLs for video pages using Google's test tool for structured data.
The time has come to dive into the ocean of SEO. While the video SEO process is just one element of the overall advertising strategy for your videos It's not a long time for you to bring meaningful improvements to your content.
Make no mistake: the marketing industry must use video throughout the journey of a consumer whether that's by securing publicity through platforms like Facebook to create a stronger connection with your brand, or embedding videos onto your website to inform customers and increase sales.
Still, simple steps -including optimizing your titles or writing a well-thought out description -- can make a huge difference to attracting the attention of Google and other search engines for your website.