We have recently discussed voice search and how that will be the future of SEO. Now, there’s a buzz around video SEO. YouTube is now the second-most visited site on the Internet. That being said, it is important to make sure that all video posts, such as YouTube videos, are optimized for search.
How to Optimize your Video for Search
Video SEO can increase the amount of traffic that is being sent to your site. Using video is a great way to add content to your website that will be able to boost the current relationships that you have already built. Here are some of our many tips to ensure that your videos are optimized for video search:
Keyword research – Start with keyword research like you normally would when optimizing for any other search. Pay attention to your audience analytics – what are they watching, liking, and sharing? How often? What related videos are coming up? Understanding your audience and figuring out how your video stays relevant will improve your standing in SEO against your competition.
Transcribe your videos – Closed captions and transcriptions are proved to increase engagement because the overall experience caters to different user preferences. A good example would be Moz. Moz transcribes every “Whiteboard Friday” video and captions them, leaving ample opportunity for target keywords, crosslinking, creating the proper subheadings, etc. The video is also engaging and fun to watch or listen to.
Add links in the description – The description of your video is valuable real estate. Most people just write a summary of the post, when in actuality you should expand the content by adding your target keywords, internal links, external links, information about your organization, and a call to action.
Add a call to action at the end – At the end of each of your videos, we recommend including a call to action. This can be specific to the user, as well as related to intent of the video. Are you selling a product or service? Don’t forget to mention it at the end. Do you want to build a larger viewer base? Add a pop-up button that tells the user, “Subscribe now.” This is similar to written content, except the content reaches the user in a more engaging and sometimes quicker way.
Concerns about SEO with Video Content
There are still many speculations about the validity of video SEO – “What if my viewer doesn’t like to read?”, “What about duplicate content?”
Like regular, copy written SEO, we optimize not only for the user, but for search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Search Engines do not crawl videos the same way. In fact, having both the transcription and the video leaves options for the users, and search engines will reward that page accordingly.
Duplicate videos are completely different from the duplicate content within the videos. If the video is not transcribed word-for-word, and the topics are variable, unique, and relevant to users, you can post videos across multiple platforms, such as websites and social media, and search engines will not penalize you for it. Also, make sure not to copy and paste information into your description, as this will cause duplicate content issues.
Conclusion
In conclusion, video search is becoming a necessity for all marketers. With the amount of video that is being watched each day, it would be in your best interest to optimize for video and YouTube SEO and be ahead of the game! Remember to stay unique and relevant – but if you’re well-versed in SEO content writing already, that should be an easy feat. Here at ASTOUNDZ, we can help you create SEO content for video. Contact us today for more information!
