Video Marketing for SEO: The Secret to More Organic Traffic

Over 500 million people watch Facebook videos every day and even more are tuned into other video sources on their phones. From streaming TV shows to online reaction videos and tutorials, video is a dominant force in most people’s lives.

You know that video should be part of your marketing strategy, but you may not know that you can also use video marketing for SEO (search engine optimization). Here’s how you can optimize your content for search as part of your video marketing strategy.

What is Video Marketing? 

Video marketing involves using video production to promote your brand. You may consider video marketing to be the same as shooting a 30-second TV commercial and putting it on various streaming channels. But it goes beyond that.

Video marketing benefits include letting you connect with your audience to educate them about your products and services. While over-the-top ads and streaming media ads are part of the equation, video marketing also covers content creation, live streams, webinars, social media posts, and more. 

What is Search Engine Optimization? 

SEO refers to strategies you can take to make your website more visible in internet searches. Search engines use algorithms to establish your site as a credible response to internet search terms. When someone searches for keywords and phrases, the algorithm finds your site and matches it as a credible response. 

SEO practices like keyword research and content marketing help the algorithm establish your site as a relevant match. The better your site matches, the higher it ranks in search engines. SEO factors include features of your website, including content. Offsite SEO factors include your online reputation and the number of quality links back to your site, which can improve your video marketing for SEO.

Benefits of Video Marketing for SEO

You may not think much about videos and SEO. But video marketing covers these internal and external SEO factors. It also offers these SEO benefits. 

Attracts More Backlinks

When someone references your website and posts a link to it on their website, it’s called a backlink. High-quality content, including video, is one of the best ways to generate more backlinks. People like to share videos that they find online, and when you post videos directly on your site, people who click on the video will be directed there. 

You can also get backlinks by posting videos on multiple platforms. When you post your videos to a content platform and your social media feeds, more people see them and you reach a wider audience of interested viewers. 

Allows You to Rank on YouTube

When you’re posting videos to YouTube, use the same SEO principles you would use with your website. This is probably a good time to remind you that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is also the parent company of YouTube. The relationship between SEO and the platform is simply organic.

That means you should leverage SEO best practices you’d use on Google for YouTube. Consider what people would be searching for to find your video, and include some of these keywords in your descriptions. 

Add hashtags to your videos and transcripts in your descriptions to push your videos higher among the ranks. When you have more viewers on YouTube, you improve your brand awareness.

Improves Engagement Metrics

When you look at your website statistics using Google Analytics or a similar tool, you can see which parts of your website are attracting the most views. You can also see how long people stay on various pages. People who are more engaged with your site spend more time on various pages. 

Search engines look at site engagement to establish your site as a relevant match. Popular videos on your website improve these engagement metrics, helping push you, past competitors, in search engine rankings. 

Increases Conversions

Videos on your website add dimension to your products and services. They are eye-catching and are more likely to inspire people to shop with you. People retain 80% of what they see, so adding video to your website may help them remember your brand when they’re out.  

Video Optimization for SEO: 10 Tips for Success

Simply posting videos on your website and social media platforms isn’t enough to improve your SEO. Optimizing videos, and social media video marketing in general, is a bit more complex than that. Use these tips to make the best videos that get you noticed and push you up the ranks. 

1. Know What Your Audience Wants

Video optimization for SEO is all about creating high-quality, shareable videos that people want to watch. If you’re not producing engaging content, people probably won’t share your videos and worse, they may scroll right past. 

Use your other content marketing tactics as a guide to direct video production planning. Learn which topics resonate most with your audience. See which social media posts get the highest levels of engagement. 

2. Do Thorough Keyword Research

Keywords are a critical part of your video marketing SEO strategy. Make a list of topics and phrases that pertain to your business. Brainstorm search topics people would use to find you online and conduct your own searches. Look through your competitors’ websites and videos to look for keywords that drive people to their websites. 

Thorough research will help you write captions and descriptions that draw eyes to your videos. 

3. Create Videos for Humans

Think about what people want to see in your videos. Instead of shooting stiff videos describing your products and services, figure out how you can appeal to human interests. Use inventive storytelling, humor, benefits-based language, or strong emotional connection to create videos people want to watch.

4. Use Well-Placed CTAs (But Not Too Many)

Marketing without a call to action (CTA) feels incomplete. Each of your marketing video ideas should have a purpose. Viewers should be able to understand what you want them to do. Include CTAs in your videos in places where they feel natural and relevant. 

Videos with too many CTAs come across as a sales pitch. These ads may alienate viewers who think you’re only trying to sell to them. Add a few CTAs where it makes sense to keep them from distracting viewers. 

5. Add Your Metadata

Metadata is text inside your video file that tells a search engine what is in the video. You can add it automatically with most video production products. Include it in all your videos so search engines and other algorithms can find your videos on the web. 

When adding metadata, you can tag your company, add keywords, and include your company URL. All of this information directs search bots to your website when people search for similar videos. 

6. Add Your Video Transcript

Video descriptions are a great place to add keywords and signal search engines, and video transcripts take this idea up a notch. A video transcript serves as supplemental written content for our video, making it easier for search engines to match up the video to different search terms. 

7. Master the Art of Thumbnails

A thumbnail serves as the cover of your video and is a key component of video optimization. It grabs a viewer’s attention and helps them figure out what the video is about before they click on it. You may be tempted to use a clip from the video, but that won’t likely inspire clicks. 

Make a thumbnail that’s clean and easy to read. Include a clear tagline detailing the video’s content and add your branding. Use a high-resolution image to land your video in image searches. But most importantly, inspire curiosity to incentivize clicks, without being misleading.

8. Embed Your Video on Relevant Content

Embedding your video involves adding an HTML code that makes your video appear on various sections of your website. You can make your content work harder for you by embedding videos into other pieces of website content. 

You may have a 30-second video ad example that illustrates a larger written blog post. Embed the video to break up the text and drive people to your blog. 

9. Use Schema Markup on All Your Videos

Schema markup is a piece of code added to your website that makes search engines display a larger description when it appears in search results. If you’ve ever worked with pay-per-click advertising, you are familiar with the description you add underneath each header. 

Schema markup tells the search engine what to add underneath a header in organic searches. When you add them to your videos, search engines can look for them and use them to establish your video as a relevant result. 

10. Don’t Forget a Video Sitemap

Video sitemaps provide additional information about your content. It uses metadata to help Google and other search engines find you by highlighting what’s in the video. Your video sitemap typically includes the title, length of the video, and description. 

If you’re not comfortable writing code, you can use a generator to create a video sitemap. 

Bonus Tip: Resist the Urge to Buy Fake Views and Likes

You may be tempted to artificially inflate your views and likes to improve your search ranking. But doing so doesn’t guarantee an SEO bump, and can even hurt your video. But search engines look at a variety of factors to determine your relevance. It’s better to get traction organically by posting engaging videos that people want to share. 

Besides, YouTube and other sites are cracking down on fake views. So you’re better off spending your money elsewhere by producing great content using proven types of videos that resonate with audiences.

Related: Social Media Video Ad Specs & Placements Guide

Producing Videos for Your SEO Strategy at Scale

Like other content, video marketing for SEO works better when you post more often. But you don’t have to spend a lot of time and money producing marketing videos. QuickFrame’s video production platform connects you with a video production team to produce data-driven videos that get results. 

Our platform uses machine learning to analyze your content and help you create videos that help you meet your objectives. Contact us to learn more. 

Video and SEO: Final Thoughts

Video is a great way to engage people where they are — on their mobile phones. And utilizing a smart approach to video marketing can help you boost your SEO to rank higher in search engines and reach more potential customers. Use these video optimization tips to get started.