Video for SEO: The Ultimate Guide

May 29, 2023

You probably want to start video marketing for your business, and you should your customers love video! Videos are an effective way to increase traffic to your site and improve your Google ranking. Here's everything you need to know about video marketing for small businesses for video search engine optimization aka local video SEO.

Why Video SEO Matters

Video has always had an incredible ability to both drive traffic to sites and get shoppers to buy products (Hubspot). That being said, there are many other benefits to adding video to your marketing strategy. Not only does video provide a great ROI, but it also helps you get found online, which leads to more exposure and opportunities for your brand (Wyzowl). Video can be used across any stage of the customer journey, from awareness through to purchase. Videos can be used to educate customers about your company, services, and even competitors. Videos can be used for testimonials or reviews, and can be used as educational video to demonstrate features or show how a product works.

Videos can also be used to promote special offers or events. And videos can be embedded directly onto a website or blog post, increasing engagement and helping to boost your social media presence across all social networks. In fact, the average time spent watching a YouTube video is around 30 minutes, so it’s easy to see why this type of content is so effective!

Video is a great way to get your audience engaged and help them understand your message. Adding videos to your site will not only increase engagement, but also boost your SEO efforts by helping reduce your bounce rates.

Search engines like Google prioritize websites that contain high quality content, including videos (Google Answers). Videos tend to rank higher in search results than other types of content, making them an effective tool for improving your marketing efforts and organic page rankings.

What is SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of optimizing websites to rank high in search engines like Google and Bing SEO is a method of increasing traffic to your site by making sure that Google, Bing, and other search engines understand what your site is about and rank it highly.

This is done by ensuring that your content is optimized for search engines. You may also need to optimize your site for mobile devices, and social platforms, like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. SEO is an important part of any digital marketing campaign. When people Google something, they're looking for information.

So if you want them to find you, you need to show up at the top of the list. That means optimizing your website for keywords. But there's another way to optimize your website for search engines: adding videos. Videos are great because they give searchers a visual representation of what your brand offers. And since they're often shared across social platforms like Instagram, YouTube! and TikTok, they also get your message out to a wider audience.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process of making changes to your website and other online properties to increase its visibility in organic search results. SEO involves optimizing your title, meta description, URL, image alt text, and internal linking

What is Video SEO

Video SEO is the practice of making technical adjustments to your video distribution in order to increase traffic to your videos. Video SEO involves optimizing your videos to be found on the search engine results page. There are many ways to optimize your videos, including adding keywords, descriptions, tags, titles, and thumbnails. This article will outline each strategy and provide examples.

Search engines like Google and Bing view videos as an integral part of a website, not just a file. As a result, when search engines crawl a video, they categorize the page as a "video page," which allows them to show different results for video searches versus image searches. These results include showing the video in its own box, displaying a rich snippet, or even ranking it higher than other pages on the site.

How Local Video SEO Helps our Website

Aligning your internal content strategy with the search engine’s algorithm is key to getting your site ranked highly.

When you create videos, you can also get them indexed in search engines for free. Videos are often shown alongside other information in search results. That means if someone searches for something, the video will show up in the search results. If you put links in your video description, those links will appear in search results, too.

You can even add keywords to your video title and description, which will increase its chances of ranking well. Video is an important part of any website. It helps users understand what you're trying to say, and it can help get your message across even if your site doesn't rank highly for specific keywords.

When creating content, think about how you can incorporate video into your strategy. For example, if you're writing about a product launch, consider including a short video demo, have a complex idea you wan to explain, consider an educational video. If you're looking for ways to increase engagement, you could create a series of blog posts with embedded videos to encourage readers to comment. And if you need to convey information quickly, like "how to file taxes", you might consider using a video tutorial instead of text instructions.

Video is an essential tool for any website. It allows you to connect with your audience in a deeper way, and it will help you rank high on search engine results pages. If you're writing articles about topics like video marketing, sales, leadership, etc., then video is a great way to provide value to your readers. You'll start seeing more traffic coming from organic searches - just by adding videos to your blog posts. Video is an important factor in SEO. Google’s algorithm favors videos because they provide a richer experience for users. Videos also help with user engagement, which helps with rankings. Not only does video increase the likelihood of clicking through to a website, but it also increases the probability of staying their long enough to complete a purchase.

How to Boost Awareness with Video SEO

Video is an important component of any online marketing campaign. If done right, it can help drive traffic to your site and increase engagement. But, it’s not enough to just throw up a few videos and hope for the best. You need to create great content that’s focused on a specific audience and purpose. That way, when people watch your videos, they’ll come away feeling like they learned something valuable. This could be detrimental. If you host a low quality video with little or no contextual information, you’re not going to get many video views and clicks. People are going to leave your page as soon as they realize there’s nothing interesting on it. And since you’ve lost the initial traffic, you won’t be getting any backlinks either. So when Google crawls your site again, it’ll see that your page is not relevant, and it’ll drop you down the SERP. As a result, you’ll lose all the rankings you worked hard to earn, and you might even lose other rankings because your page has become less authoritative.

Video marketing doesn’t mean just putting videos on social media channels. You should also create videos specifically for your website. If you have an online store, then creating a product description video could help increase sales. If you have a blog, then create a series of short videos that show different aspects of your company or industry. Or maybe you have a company news section? Create a video about what happened at the last quarterly meeting. Maybe you sell products that require demonstrations? Create a video demonstrating how to use your product. These are all examples of ways to use videos to drive traffic back to your site.

Another option is to create a video series that covers a topic that you cover regularly. For example, if you write a lot about real estate, then why not create a educational video series covering real estate topics? Your audience needs to know what you're offering them before they'll consider watching your video. If you've already covered why your product/service exists, then you should just link to your homepage or another section of your website.

Otherwise, think about what you'd like viewers to do after they watch your video. Would you like them to sign up for your newsletter? Or maybe you'd like them to buy something. Whatever the case, make sure your call-to-action is clear. Be sure your video teaches. If your potential customers have questions about your brand, products, services, or industry, then addressing these questions will teach and empower them when making a purchase decision. If you answer all of their questions, you become an authority figure, and Google sees this and starts boosting your pages even more.       

Videos have been proven to increase conversion rates and engagement. A study conducted by Unbounce shows that when you add a video to a landing page, click through rate increases by 30%. Moreover, if you add a video to an existing product page, conversion rate increases by 25%! So, why not use them? Video is the preferred method of communication online. According to the Scotsman, “the average person spends 59 hours a week using the Internet”. So, if you’ve got a great story to tell, consider using video to share it. 

The Benefits - how does video improve SEO

By embedding a high-quality video on your website:

  • Improves SEO ranking — websites that use video on their home page are more likely to appear on the first page of search results. (Forrester)
  • Increases website traffic — 88% of people spend more time on sites that contain video (Wyzowl)
  • Increases sales — Studies have found that consumers 85% more likely to buy something after they watched a video (SagePub)

Video gives you the ability to instantly connect with customers, highlight your services, share your story. Videos also help with SEO (search engine optimization) since they provide content that online users likes - which Google rewards.

How to embed video to website 

Now that we have an understanding of how video SEO can help your website let's get into embedding a video to your website. Embedding videos is an easy way to increase traffic to your website (check out our "YouTube SEO How to rank videos blog" for more info). 

What is a video embed?

Video embed codes allow websites to pull videos from other sites, making them easier to share. Embedding videos also helps speed up page loads because there is less data to download. You can choose from a range of different video hosting services, from paid to free ones.

Embedding videos is very simple, and there are many ways to go about doing it. Most websites offer a way for users to upload videos directly onto their site. If you are using WordPress, then you already have a built-in plugin called VideoPress that allows you to easily embed any YouTube video into your post. You can also create custom short codes to allow you to embed videos from a number of different sources.

There are also plugins available that allow you to embed videos directly from Vimeo, Daily Motion, Meta Cafe, and others. HTML5 provides an API called “video” that allows developers to create custom player controls. You can choose from different skins, add buttons and other elements, all while maintaining full compatibility with older browsers. To get started, check out YouTube’s documentation and see if it matches what you need. If not, you can always write your own. You may wonder at this point - why can’t I just upload the video to my site and be done with all the hassle? Google often tells us that videos add significant load times, decrease page speeds, and, thus, negatively impact our SEO. Hence, we may lose traffic, rankings, etc. Not to mention overloaded servers, extra costs and so on. So, what should we do? We’ll embed videos to websites! Let’s see why.

Why you should embed a video to your website

1. When you embed video on your website it results in a higher video load speed (and SEO). When uploading a video to your website, your video may take a while to load, which, again, can affect the page’s loading time and bounce rate. So, your visitors can experience slower video loads, unexpected pauses, and overall refusal to play. Embedding videos can help keep your site speed at a healthy level and bring no negative impact to your users' experience. According to Google’s official Google Search Advocate John Mueller, site speed matters a lot in our mobile-first environment.

2. Make sure your videos are optimized for search engine optimization (SEO) and social media sharing by adding keywords to your video titles, descriptions, tags, and even file names. If you embed a YouTube video in your blog post, then it will be shared automatically when someone shares your article via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. However, if you upload a video directly to your website, then you need to optimize it for search engines. In other words, you must add keywords to your video title, description, tags, and even the file name. You should also ensure that your video is optimized for responsive design. For example, if your video plays well on desktop browsers but doesn’t display properly on mobile devices, then it won’t rank well in mobile searches.

 A study showed that slow loading sites lose almost 40% of their conversion rate. That’s why you need to pay attention to your site speed. A fast loading website gives users a great experience, increases user engagement and improves SEO. You can see the results yourself when you compare the average load times of different websites. If your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, then there is a high chance that it will rank poorly on search engines. Also, if your site takes more than 10 seconds to load, then visitors will leave your site immediately and never come back.

Choosing the right video hosting platforms

You should choose a video hosting site depending on what kind of experience you want to offer your visitors. If you just need a simple place to upload videos and embed them on your website, then there are plenty of free options out there. You can also use a service like YouTube, Vimeo, or Daily Motion. However, if you want to give your viewers an easy way to share your videos with their friends, then you’ll want to check out services like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Self-Hosted Videos

While it varies depending on your hosting site, the process is generally the same. You simply upload them to your own web hosting account and add a corresponding thumbnail. There are many benefits to doing this yourself. It gives complete control over your content, ensures that it is ad-free and you won’t have to deal with any issues related to copyright infringement. 

Embedding videos on your own website also has its downsides. If you host them yourself, you need to worry about bandwidth usage and storage space. Videos can be very large and depending on your video file slowing down website load - speeds. Decreasing your ranking with Google.  Some users may not be able to see your video at all, if they have slow internet connection. 

Third-Party-Hosted Videos

This allows you to host your video content off-site and link it to your website. There are many video hosting options. Some are free, while others require payment. Free services include fan favorites like YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion. These sites allow you to upload videos and share them across the web. Along with gathering additional video views from people searching those sites. 

However, they also provide advertisements that may interrupt your viewers. Paid services include those offered by companies like Vidyard and Wistia. These services offer a lot of flexibility and analytics on whom, where, and when people are watching your videos. 

One of our favorites is Vidyard an online video platform that allows businesses to increase leads. You can upload your own vidoes or create your own using their software. This is a tool we use in our video production company when doing outreach and responding to clients. 

Benefits of embedding a video to your website

– Video embedding helps reduce the load time of your webpages (Google).

– Site speed is important for your website’s rankings.-" Lowering load time means less conversions, and lost revenue!"

– "Adding videos to your site will significantly affect the amount of time visitors spend on your site (ranking factor)."

– "Choosing the embed option over uploading will make your video appear on Google’s homepage, which will bring traffic."

How to use video in your website

Okay, but where should I use video within my website?

While videos can look great anywhere, it's best to apply a video goal and strategy that fits best within your business, products, and services. To learn more about how to use the best video content for your business or brand, click here!

Home Page  

Your homepage is the face of your brand and your video should tell what you do, why you do it, and what you offer. It’s the first thing that potential customers see when visiting your website. It’s also the first thing that search engines crawl. So, if your homepage doesn’t convey the right message about your brand, then your SEO efforts could be wasted. These are the best types of videos for your website that allow you to always make a great first impression.

Business Profile Videos — A business profile video showcases who you are, what you sell, or what you do. They can feature your location, team, founders, or your origin story in a two-minute video. These videos allow you to instantly connect with your target audience and position your brand as an authority figure in your niche industry.

Explainer Videos — Explainer video is a type of video that helps users understand complex concepts, services and products. These videos are usually short, informative and easy to watch. They help users get an overview of what the product does and why they should care. They are also helpful when trying to increase brand awareness and generate leads.

Promo Videos — Promo videos are designated to promote products, services, and events and help generate the hype it deserves. These social videos are fun, informative and be used on all your social media platforms - getting you the most bang for your buck for your video goals. 

Services Page 

Product Demonstration / Product Videos — These step-by-step tutorials easily demonstrate best uses and practices of your products. Product demos videos should be fun, informative and could help you get found by prospective customers searching the web. Since question queries are extremely common, creating video content that addresses the searches allow you to easily get found by your target audience - which will lead them right back to your website! An educational video like this not only can be used within your website, but also used for other video goals, like email marketing!

Testimonial Videos / Case Study Videos — These video styles give your products and services the most credibility because they utilize real customers and their success stories. These interview-style videos not only give your business more authenticity, but they help explain why your product or service work so well, and why your customers should choose you instead of someone else.

Frequently Asked Questions Videos — Along with strengthening your credibility, FAQ videos help you get found by online users researching your products and services. By creating these educational videos and answering most commonly asked questions, you're not only providing free value to prospective customers, but you're positioning yourself as an expert in your field.

About Page 

Company Culture Videos — A company culture video is a short highlight reel that gives people an inside look into what life is like at your business or organization. These videos showcase your brand purpose, company values, and insight on current employees. They should communicate in the simplest form possible what your team members loves about their jobs. These video can be used within your website and among your other social media platforms.

Meet the Team — For B2C organizations and businesses, the best way to connect with customers is to showcase your team and what makes them special. Not only will it help attract potential employees, but it will give your customers just one more reason to choose you over the competition. 

Best Practices for Using Video on your Website:

Now that you've figured out which video type works best within your site, here are our some tips for creating a video your target audience will love. 

1. Quality is King

You don't need to invest a million dollars to create a nice-looking video, but with video content on the rise, your customers are expecting something high-quality. Focus on good lighting and clear sound and a strong message/call-to-action.

2. Video Placement

When choosing where to place your video, consider the context of the video and how it relates to the rest of your website. For example, if you're trying to sell something, you may want to put the video at the top of the webpage because it will help get viewers interested in buying your product. Case studies fit best near the bottom of your home page because it solidifies  your credibility and give your audience a sense of trustworthiness and authenticity.

3. Keep it short

Video length should be determined by the page’s goal. An explainer video should be around 60 to 90 seconds long. A demo video could be anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes long. You may need to adjust your video length depending on the page’s goals and audience.

4. Attention Grabbing Thumbnails

If a thumbnail is your audience's first impression of your content, you want to make it a good one. It should grab their attention, reflect your brand and get viewers interested in watching your video. 

5. Keep your site loading fast.

Did you know that nearly half of all internet users will leave if a page takes longer than 2 seconds to load? If you want to keep visitors coming back, then you need to keep your site loading fast. Optimizing your website for desktop and mobile devices is essential if you want to reach users on all social media platforms. 

Key Elements & Benefits of Embedding a Video to Your Website 

1. Use video marketing to increase sales conversions. Video marketing helps you reach out to your target audience and convert them into buyers. You can also use it to create brand awareness, promote events, and engage customers. According to Statista, the amount spent on video marketing will reach $92.253 billion in 2022.

2. Increase engagement with YouTube. YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google. If you own a YouTube channel, then you can easily get traffic to your website. YouTube allows users to watch videos and share them with other viewers. For instance, if you post a video on YouTube about how to cook chicken drumsticks, you can expect thousands of views within days.

3. Improve SEO. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays an important role in digital marketing. A well-optimized video will rank high in search results. In fact, optimizing your video for SEO is essential because 80% of all searches start on YouTube and over 40% of global shoppers surveyed say they have purchased products they discovered on YouTube (Google Consumer Insights). To optimize your video for SEO, consider using keywords, descriptions, tags, titles, and thumbnails. If your site takes longer than 10 seconds to load, then it could negatively affect your search engine rankings. And if you have a slow loading site, you might lose out on potential customers because they won’t wait around for your site to load.

Video Production Tip for your Next Video 

Video marketing has become an essential part of any digital marketing campaign. It helps you increase traffic, conversions, and brand awareness.

You can also use it to create a strong bond with your audience. If done right, it can even help you earn money.

There are many ways to use videos for your own benefit. Here are five tips to get started.

1. Know your audience

2. Use relevant keywords

3. Make sure your videos are optimized

4. Add subtitles

5. Include a call-to-action

Our video production experts can help you craft a plan a professional video that will help you gain traction online. We can even help you create a custom video marketing strategy if you're looking for something specific. Contact us or give us a call and see why we're one of the top video production companies in South Florida