What is Video SEO?
Video SEO is the optimization of a video in order to rank higher in the search results for the intended keywords. For your video to rank on the first page of the universal search or video search, you must follow a few practiced methods. These are SEO techniques that help search engine bots recognize your video.
How has video SEO evolved?
The use of video marketing has increased exponentially over the years. In this digital era, people consume a lot of video content. This is why businesses focus more on this form of advertising, be it a YouTube ad or a sponsored reel on Instagram. Along with this evolution, we can also see some changes in video SEO.
Due to the massive upload of video content every single minute, the algorithm to rank videos has changed over the years. The importance of metadata in video SEO has increased as well. The title, meta description and hashtags in a video matter more than you think. Nowadays, it has become quite difficult for a video to rank in universal search. On the other hand, it is comparatively easier in the video search.
After the emergence of the smartphone era, video SEO has become mobile-optimized. The sharing of a video on social media can increase views or engagement. Voice search is also a big ranking factor nowadays. A short clip from a video can be the answer to a search query. This is how video SEO has evolved over the years.
Ways to Optimize Your Video For Ranking Higher
If you have created or uploaded a video that needs views and engagement, you need to reach the right audience. And for that, you need a solid video SEO strategy. Keeping that in mind, we have listed a few methods that can help you optimize your video to rank higher in the search results.
Choose the Video Hosting Platform Carefully
In the modern day, several video hosting platforms are offering different sets of opportunities. However, along with these opportunities, you will find a few disadvantages. To successfully conduct a video SEO campaign on one of these platforms, you need to weigh the pros and cons.
Video hosting platforms either offer a free service or a paid membership that opens you up to many SEO possibilities. For example, a platform like YouTube is free for uploading videos, but it does not offer much data to make a proper analysis for video SEO. Platforms like Dailymotion and Vimeo offer paid plans with various features.
Write a Compelling Title
For anyone to click on your video, you need to create an appealing title. If you are confident that your video answers a certain set of queries, you need to make sure that the title is clear enough to be understood and interesting enough to be clicked on.
While forming a title, you must also make sure that it is easily discoverable by search engine bots. So, placing a keyword in the right place is also an effective video SEO practice. Remember that the keyword needs to be placed naturally. You should not compromise the appeal of the title by stuffing a keyword.
Write a Unique Description
The description helps the algorithm determine what the video is about. Therefore, you need to ensure that it explains the content in the video in a clear and concise manner. Avoid making it brainy and wordy. Instead, keep it explanatory, appealing, and understandable.
Usually, only the first few lines of a description are visible to the user; the rest becomes available upon clicking, “show more”. So, ensure that the most important information is covered in this section. This is an important video SEO practice as most of the time, search engine bots only crawl through the first section of the description.
You should also include keywords that are relevant to certain search queries. So, when someone searches these queries, the chances of your video popping up become higher. You should also put hashtags that can help the algorithm categorize your video.
Make your Thumbnail Image Fascinating
Along with the title and description, the thumbnail should be intriguing enough for someone to click on your video. There are multiple ways to make a thumbnail appealing.
You can add text that is related to the video in your thumbnail. For example, if your video is titled, “A Guide to SEO”, you can add something like, “What is SEO?” in the thumbnail. Just make sure that the text is bold and clear.
You can select a frame from the video itself for more authenticity. It is a way of showing what to expect in the video. These are a couple of video SEO techniques to make your thumbnail compelling and click-worthy.
Carefully Curate the Rest of the Page
If you are posting a video with a piece of written content, make sure that it is relevant to the video. To implement video SEO more effectively, the content should complement the video or vice versa. This is how you can keep your webpage interesting and keep the visitors engaged.
You should also ensure that the content is SEO-optimized. Adding keywords that are relevant to the video might help. Remember that web crawlers value quality content. So, along with making the video interesting and helpful, you should also add valuable information to the content.
Embed your Video
Embedding your video does not just make the webpage interesting for the visitors but also for web crawlers. If the video succeeds in keeping the visitors on the webpage longer than usual, it has a higher chance of ranking.
A good video embedded on a page filled with helpful information is the perfect combination in video SEO. It might help the video get more views and engagement and push the webpage higher in the SERPs.
As stated earlier, web crawlers value quality content. So, when they crawl through your website and find a page with useful text and video, it can higher rank in the universal search as well as video search.
The Video should be the Main Focus of the Page
If you are embedding the video on a page, ensure that it remains the main focus of the page. Do not forget that video SEO is your first priority. The optimization of the page comes later. To rank your video higher, it needs to be the web page’s center of attention.
If you include it somewhere in the middle or bottom of the page, the crawlers might not bother to go through it. However, if you add it above the fold, it will quickly get noticed. Undoubtedly, the rest of the information on the page should be useful and add value to the video, but the placement of the video should be above this content.
Avoid Embedding the Same Video More than Once
There are no negative effects of embedding a video on multiple platforms, however, there are no positive ones either. The only trouble you will have is implementing video SEO for multiple pages, rather than just focusing on one.It is better to keep your attention on one webpage and give your best efforts for that page to rank higher. If you embed a video on a different webpage, you would have to conduct a video SEO campaign for that page as well.
Moreover, if the pages your video is embedded in contain similar content, the crawlers might categorize it as duplicate content and your video will have a lesser chance of ranking.
FAQs
To Get my Videos Indexed, Which Platform do I Need?
Video indexing is a process that bifurcates your video into multiple parts to help the viewer know what information is provided in what time frame. If you think that a part of your video is an answer to a search query, it can be ranked for that keyword. Therefore, you need to properly index your video either manually or through a service. This is a very intelligent video SEO practice.
There are various platforms that offer video indexing services. For example, VIDIZMO is a service that provides automatic topic detection in more than 52 languages. It has other recognition features as well but mostly it helps you categorize the various parts of your video.
If I Use YouTube, will my Videos Rank Higher since Google owns YouTube?
It is true that Google prefers YouTube content over other platforms, but that does not mean that your video will rank higher just because of that. Web crawlers also prioritize content that is more helpful to the user. So, even if you are using YouTube as a video hosting service, you need to be mindful of the content you are posting.
Moreover, if you are choosing YouTube, you should properly implement video SEO according to the guidelines provided by Google. By optimizing the title, description, and hashtags, you have a higher chance of ranking on Google.
What Distinguishes YouTube SEO from Video SEO?
YouTube SEO is a process that is specifically carried out for YouTube and also provides a chance for ranking on Google. On the contrary, video SEO offers a chance to rank on Google and other search engines as well.
How Long Does it Take for Videos that Have Schema or a Video Sitemap to be Indexed in Google?
The general duration in which Google indexes your video is between two to thirty-six hours. Ideally, if your video has schema or a sitemap, it should rank in the first few hours. To ensure this, you need to use the right video SEO methods and hope for the best.
Conclusion
Video SEO is an intelligent strategy to get recognized by search engine bots and to reach your target audience faster. If you truly believe that your video includes quality content and provides helpful information to the viewers, you should definitely implement this. There are many benefits of video SEO, however, for a successful campaign, you need to execute each and every step perfectly.
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