The benefit of video content might not be immediately apparent to everyone; but as soon as you consider that YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google then the benefits become more obvious.
Video content is especially useful for businesses which have something to teach or who can develop instructional content. ‘How to do XYZ’ videos are a good example. Instructional videos seem to rank best followed by videos with funny content.
If given the choice between digesting several pages of web content or watching a two or three minute video most people will usually opt for the video. It tends to provide a more engaging platform for communication and prospects may appreciate seeing a more personable and human side of your business. Good video content tends to communicate much more information to prospects, both overt and subtle.
You can also optimise your actual YouTube page. It is usually a good idea to include your keyword in the title of your video, as well as the word ‘video’. People will often include the word ‘video’ in their search term when they are searching for content of interest.
It is also a good idea to include your keyword in the video description as this gives the search engine an indication of the content of the video so that it can be classified correctly.
A link back to your company website or social networking page inserted at the beginning of your description is recommended so that viewers can see it. Descriptions are cut after a few lines so having your link at the beginning ensures that viewers will see it.
If your video is relatively short, a transcription will help the search engine classify the content and help to rank the video accordingly. You can also tag a YouTube video in the same way you can tag other content and is a useful addition for improving your SEO performance. Don’t forget backlinks either.
Another important consideration when looking to optimise the SEO performance of a video is the ‘keyword intent’. Videos optimised for transactional keywords such as ‘buy’, ‘cheap’, ‘free’ or ‘sale’ perform poorly in universal search.
Informational key words seem to perform much better in universal search; keywords which are comparative (‘this versus that’), instructional (‘learn to …’, ‘how to do…’) or educational (‘what is XYZ’? or ‘the history of UVW’) seem to be better.
Navigational keywords and phrases, or those that contain web addresses, brand names or brand descriptions only seem to do well for those which are most popular and recognised.
For more information contact Marie
