You’ve probably heard the term search engine optimization (SEO) about a million times now. And the things aren’t much different when it comes to video content either. But did you know that these two go very well together? As a matter of fact, there are many ways video content can improve your SEO. And if you want to learn more about that connection, you’re at the right place.
Now, it’s not a surprise that video became so important. It’s been with us for a while, and people have been using videos on e-commerce sites to grab visitor’s attention for quite some time. But, these days, it can make or break your optimization efforts. So, you must know what you’re doing with them. You can’t film and post random things and hope for the best. It doesn’t work that way.
Luckily, you don’t need to worry. We’ll explain everything you need to know about them. But, before we dive into all of that, let’s talk a little more about SEO and why it’s so important to boost it.
1. What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is what you do to position higher in search result pages. It’s one of the most important factors of your rank. And the higher the rank, the better it is. More people will see your page when they search for a relevant keyword. And thanks to that, you’ll get more visitors. That’s what it’s all about.
So, it would be great if we could tell you what things you need to do to get to first place on the SERPs. But if you would know it, then everyone would know it. Hence, everyone would be in the first place. And we don’t have to explain to you how this isn’t possible.
All of this is why no one except Google really knows what to do. However, we know what things can help you. And luckily, SEO isn’t an exact science, and the best practices change all the time. So, you can find a combination of tactics that works great for you.
The thing is that the internet is a noisy place. And in it, the SEO is like a constant. When people use search engines, they’re doing targeted research. They know what they’re searching for. And if you’re offering that thing, you want to have a well-optimized site, so they see it. The more time you spend optimizing it, the more conversions you’ll get. And that’s a thing you need to remember.
2. Where is the video in all of that?
If you knew the things we talked about, then you probably did something to boost your SEO. Most often, people create blogs and articles based on keyword research. If you wanted to go even a step further, maybe you hired an SEO expert to guide you through the process. And that’s a great thing. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, it’s always a good idea to seek help.
However, what you might not know is that video can improve your rank even more than blogs. It’s true. And if you choose to advertise with them, you’ll see results you didn’t even hope for. It’s your best bet to use Instagram for this purpose. It’s social media that works the best with videos, and you should use that potential. But more on that later on.
Now, let’s focus on the ways video content can improve your SEO.
3. Google cares about video, so you should too
The most important thing here is Google’s internal algorithm for generating search engine results pages. In fact, it may be the most important thing on the whole list. You see, when creating SERPs, Google values two things above all others. And these are:
- Quality of your content
- The relevance to someone’s original search terms.
The closer you can get, the better your site will be positioned.
However, to determine these things, the algorithm looks further than just the text on a page. It scans for other types of media as well. And if you have to offer more than your competition, you’ll come on top. It’s as simple as that.
So, you want your pages to be as varied as they’re informative. Only if Google sees them this way, you’ll be able to position them well. Videos add to the variety, and for that, they’re giving a boost to your SEO efforts.
4. Videos generate traffic
Another thing that Google cares about when determining the ranks is the amount of traffic your site gets. If you’re having a lot of users coming back to your website, all the chances are that they’re doing that for a reason. So, other people who are looking for similar things will find your content interesting as well.
It’s not a secret that people are much more likely to visit your site if they see a link to it in the description of a YouTube video. Hence, it pays out to learn how to make thumbnails for YouTube videos. Later, you can use that knowledge and do the same for other social media channels.
Lots of B2B and B2C companies are investing in this type of content so much that they’re launching their own video websites. The more of it you create, the more traffic you can draw to your site. And the best of all is that the traffic you make will be high quality. In the long run, you’ll see that this is one of the ways video content can improve your SEO for quite a bit.
5. It keeps visitors on your site for longer
Search engines pay a lot of attention to how much time people spend on your site once they arrive. If you have a lot of visitors, but they only stay for a couple of seconds, that can raise a red flag. It shows that your content isn’t good. So they’ll seek information elsewhere.
Obviously, this is something you want to avoid, and videos make this possible. People need time to watch them, so they’ll stick around for longer. On top of that, the digital marketing team behind Digital Dot argues that users are more prone to watch a video than they are to read a blog post. Even if they need the same amount of time to do it, and if they will get the same information. It just feels like less work.
From all of this, it’s clear that by keeping visitors on your page for longer with videos, you’ll improve your bounce rate. And in turn, search engines like Google and Bing will boost your page all the way to the top of their rankings. It’s a thing worth trouble.
6. People are more likely to link to videos
According to clearscope.io, if you have dealt with SEO already, you know that quality backlinks are vital for the success of any strategy. The more of them you have, the more important and authoritative Google will find you. And the more authority you have, the higher you will appear in the SERPs. It all follows the pattern that you should be familiar with by now.
If you publish videos on social platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, you’ll get a chance to earn both referral and quality traffic. And these two can dramatically boost your rankings. But that’s not all there is to it. It will trigger a positive ripple effect that you’ll be able to feel across your social media platforms.
We already talked about how no one except Google knows how exactly the algorithm works. It ensures that people can’t game the system. But, that didn’t stop them from experimenting. And thanks to those who did, we know that there’s a strong correlation between lots of social shares and position on the search results. In other words, the more people share your content on social media, the better position your pages will get.
Although this is the indirect impact we’re talking about here, it still hits the same. So, it might be a smart idea to take some time and look into the best tools for creating attention-grabbing social media videos. If you can fascinate the audience in the first few seconds, you can be sure that they’ll watch the whole thing. And if they like it, they’ll probably share it. This thing has too much potential for you not to pay attention to it.
7. Videos will make your SEO more valuable
Up until now, we talked only about how videos help your site rank higher. However, all of these positive things you can do for your SEO won’t mean a thing if you can’t take the relationship one step closer to the conversion. Luckily, this is another area where videos can be more than helpful.
If your visitors see something like a product video, they’re almost twice as likely to buy it than they would be without engaging with any content. So, videos help your site in multiple ways. They’ll point people towards your pages, but they can also carry them a lot deeper. As a matter of fact, they can be the tool you use to convince people to convert.
All of this means that videos can help you in every stage of the buyer’s journey. And that’s why there are so many ways video content can improve your SEO. It can offer you ROI that you can’t take for granted. And once you get a feel of it, you’ll want to take full advantage of it.
Rhydian Choi 
Kim Marks