SEO Guide for Videos – How to Optimize For the Most Popular Video Platforms

What is Video SEO?

Roll the camera! Video SEO has continuously evolved, especially over the last few years. Keeping that in mind, implementing a video marketing strategy is one that has grown in popularity amongst all businesses. Now, with the technology that’s available, it’s easier than ever to get a video online without requiring a degree in film or videography.

Video SEO compromises of optimizing video content to be indexed and ranked on search engine results pages based on relevant keyword searches. On a positive note, there are multiple ways to incorporate an optimization strategy that drives results. One example would be renaming your video file using a target keyword, inserting keywords naturally in the video title, optimizing the description, and tagging it with popular keywords relating to the video’s topic.

Why Optimizing Your Videos for Search is Beneficial

Let’s dive into the data; On average, adults spend over 103 minutes daily watching digital videos in 2020. With the increased use of watching engaging content on different devices (mobile, tablet, etc.), making sure the right approach is taken will generate optimal results.

VSEO comes with its own unique set of benefits, one being that they make target audiences and search engine crawlers consume more every day. Other benefits include:

• Growing and improving reach for a brand.
• Enhancing connections across target audiences.
• Boosting customer engagement and driving return on investment (ROI).
• Igniting lead generation, resulting in more visibility.
• Gaining a stronger sense of consumer behavior.

Steps to Optimize Your Videos for SEO

When optimizing your video for Google’s search results, it’s best to keep these best practices in mind:

• Ask yourself, “What is this video’s objective? What story is it telling?” Review your answer. Based on what your response is, determine how you will create the video around it.
• Prioritize putting a call-to-action (CTA) into every video to drive traffic and get viewers engaged.
• Utilize and leverage lead capture methods to collect customer data.
• Add relevant search-engine-optimized information into each video, based on the topic and target audience.
• Data, data, data! Track and measure the video’s performance.
• Research and select the best video hosting platform, one that has SEO optimization.
• Include typescripts and timestamps in each video.
• Reuse and recycle the same video everywhere!

Please note: every video platform has specific steps on how to optimize video content.

YouTube: Rename your video file using target keywords, insert them naturally into the video, optimize the video description, tag it with popular keywords, and categorize your video.

Vimeo: Leverage what viewers are searching for, add chapters to your video, and include a good description.

Facebook: Keep the video short and put the most relevant information upfront.

Wistia: Prioritize updating the title and description for the video after uploading, write a relevant title for the media, and stray away from making it too wordy.

Any others: Upload a custom thumbnail image for the video’s result link.

Contact Our SEO Experts Today!

Search engine optimization is what we live and breathe. Our team of SEO experts follow the latest trends and best practices to ensure your videos achieve scalable results across every recommended platform. If you’re unsure of how and where to host and optimize your video, along with any SEO needs to improve its organic traffic, website functionality, and more, we’re here to help!

Let’s start optimizing your video SEO – contact us today to learn more.