When thinking about ways to improve search engine optimization (SEO), many people skip over “video.”
Many people online share tips on how to improve your domain’s search engine rankings. “Make sure you’re using as many relevant keywords as possible,” they’ll say. “Keep your articles within a range of 1000 to 2000 words.” “Make sure you’re publishing new content on a regular basis.” The list goes on and on.
The video often gets overlooked. This happens because many still think about SEO with an “old school” mindset. That mindset comes from a time when the Internet was mostly text-based. All of these types of tips are important, but video content is, too. In fact, there are six key ways that video content can improve your SEO efforts that are absolutely worth taking a closer look at.
1. Video will improve your bounce rate.
One of the major qualities that Google looks at when determining search engine rankings is your bounce rate. If people click on your page and leave almost immediately, context clues say that what you have to offer must not be very good. Thus, the longer you can keep someone on your page, the higher that page will rank over time.
A video is an effective method to check this critically important box, as roughly 65% of video viewers watch more than three-quarters of a video. This is in stark contrast to text-based posts, where a significant number of people won’t even make it past the headline.
2. Video creates more engagement
Equally important to Google is engagement. It’s not enough that people are visiting your site, to begin with. Visitors who stay longer, consume lots of content, and engage more with your site show high engagement. This is a strong sign that your site’s rank should improve.
Experts agree that video content is a perfect chance to address this need, too, by allowing you to draw people in through emotional stories, entertaining segments, educational content, and more. Video is versatile. You can upload a how-to video one day and a webinar the next. This variety creates a more engaging experience for your visitors than just posting text-based articles daily.
3. Video is an opportunity for more social shares.
That increased engagement also creates a variety of positive results in and of itself, which is ultimately another way that it can help improve your SEO efforts. Not only does video tend to generate about 1,200% more social shares than text and images combined, but 92% of people who consume videos on a mobile device say that they are likely to share content they enjoy with other people.
This is something you can use to your advantage in other ways, too. Say you’re in the process of launching your own VOD platform and you create a series of videos that will live on your site to promote it. As your SEO increases, more people will be exposed to your primary domain – which points them directly towards your OTT service that you can then build awareness for at the exact same time.
4. Video will get you a higher organic CTR on Google
Paid ads are certainly valuable, but for true long-term SEO gains, you need to focus as much attention as possible on driving organic traffic whenever you can. Remember, 70% of the links users click on are organic. This is by design. Between 70% and 80% of people ignore paid ads completely.
This is another area where video shines, as another study revealed that companies who use video on a regular basis tend to enjoy about 41% more web traffic from search than those who don’t. So not only will that video content generate an appreciable short-term boost in your ranking, but the higher traffic levels you’ll get will help you stay at the top of those results pages.
5. It’s easier to gain actionable insights from Video
One of the most important ideas you need to understand in terms of marketing is that, by and large, your first effort will rarely be your strongest. There is always room for improvement – and in terms of video and its relationship to SEO, a video is better at this than just about anything.
A different study found that brands using advanced video analytics were twice as likely to see big ROI improvements. It’s easier to see why people react to a video than to a blog post. This helps you make better content in the future. This insight won’t just allow for increases in your search engine rankings… it’ll also dramatically strengthen the relationship that people are able to forge with your business, too.
6. Video is the type of content people want.
Finally, one of the biggest ways that video content can improve your SEO efforts is also perhaps the most straightforward.
If you want your site to rank as highly as possible, you need to give the people what they want. That really is the ticket to everything – if you offer content they respond to, they’ll share it more, experience it for longer periods of time, and will undoubtedly keep coming back for more.
With all that in mind, you would be truly hard-pressed to find something more effective at accomplishing all of these things than video.
OTT content on Facebook alone generates about eight billion video views on average every day. YouTube mobile video consumption is increasing at a rate ofabout 100% every year. All told, about 55% of people watch at least one video on a daily basis.
These days, people want video. They want it more than any other type of content. They’re willing to give you copious amounts of their time and attention (not to mention their money) in exchange for it. When all of these points are considered together, it’s clear that video content isn’t just a way to improve your SEO.
It’s one of the best opportunities you have to empower the foundation upon which your entire business is built over the next decade. It would be a shame not to take full advantage of it.
