How Video Can Help With Your SEO Efforts
SEO can be a complicated beast. There are lots of factors that can lead to your website ranking very well or absolutely tanking in the SERP. Everything from on-page elements like keywords and technical details to off-page elements like backlinks and rich snippets can help boost your SERP ranking.
Content optimization is also an important element of SEO. As the role of video has increased across the web, video SEO has become more critical than ever. There are many different ways that you can implement video into your SEO strategy, and in this article, we’ll cover three ways video SEO can enhance your overall SEO strategy.
User Experience
Back in 2019, Google started making some significant changes to the entire philosophy behind its search engine. Google’s primary mission has always been to “make information universally accessible and useful.”
If we boil it down, this meant that Google was committed to driving user traffic to websites that could answer their questions.
But that is no longer the case. Google’s SERP philosophy has changed, and now it aims to provide a better user experience than simply providing a list of links to click. Google now tries to give users the information they want upfront by pushing zero-click searches.
While this may seem disconnected from the goal of driving traffic through SEO, Google’s shift in focus to user experience on SERP also means SEO leaders need to focus on UX, and one simple way they can do that is through content variety.
Content Variety For A Better User Experience
There are many different variables that go into a good user experience. Fast load times, ease of navigation, and a clear purpose are all hallmarks of a UX-forward website. But equally important is the content that populates the website.
Filling web pages with walls of text does very little to engage users online. After all, you aren’t publishing a book here. And even if you’re publishing long-form content, adding relevant images and infographics will help engage users and keep them on the page.
Videos work the same way. By adding relevant videos to your web pages, Google will recognize that your site is providing engaging content that users will enjoy. If done right, video SEO should help your webpage achieve a higher overall ranking.
Be sure to keep in mind that this is only true if the videos are actually relevant to the rest of the content on the page. You won’t be able to “black hat” your way to a better ranking by adding irrelevant videos to your site.
Content Depth
Remember what Google’s purpose is: “to make information universally accessible and useful.” Google’s number one mission is to provide people with the information they need to answer their queries. Whether it’s helping users find the shipping and return policy for a new website or helping users understand the complexities of video SEO, Google wants to add the most relevant, informative content to the top of their SERP.
Videos provide a unique way for your website to inform visitors, and depending on the topic, explaining something in a video may be more effective than doing so through text. For example, trying to explain how to edit an image in Photoshop would be better done through a tutorial video than through a regular blog post.
It’s important to make sure that all of the content you have on your page works together to cover a topic as thoroughly as possible. Unless you’re explicitly giving someone a “crash course” on a topic, you don’t want to publish shallow content that only gives a cursory overview of a topic. From the user’s perspective, there is nothing more frustrating than clicking on a webpage and not finding the information you’re looking for. Not only will users quickly bounce from your page, but Google will recognize the lack of depth and rank you accordingly.
In short, video SEO can help boost your ranking when you provide in-depth, relevant content that answers a user’s queries. Video SEO tools like Google’s video-rich snippets can help put the informative content you create in front of more users.
Increase Social Presence
Posting in-depth, high-quality video content can also help your SEO efforts by increasing your social media presence. Over the last few years, video has become the most popular and prominent form of content across social media platforms. With the rise of TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc., video is key to social media engagement.
And while a large number of active followers across social media might not be a direct factor that Google uses when ranking webpages, you can use your platform to drive traffic to various web pages. Assuming your content is engaging, and users don’t bounce off right away, this organic traffic should boost your rankings. But this assumes you already have a social media presence.
What if I don’t have a social media presence?
If you haven’t built out your social media presence yet, then video content can be helpful in building it. As mentioned above, video is the most popular type of content right now. It takes time to build an audience, but if you’re making videos for your website, you already have some content that can be edited specifically for social media.
Final Thoughts
If done correctly, video SEO can enhance your overall SEO strategy.
Videos provide excellent opportunities to provide users with an engaging experience, give in-depth explanations for various topics, and expand your audience across social media. If done correctly, each of these three things can help boost your overall SEO efforts and increase your SERP ranking.
Like all things search engine-related, video SEO can be a complicated beast to tackle, and not everyone has the expertise necessary to do it well. Whether your SEO results have been lacking or you simply want to focus more on meeting strategic business goals, Fidelitas is here to help.
We can help you create a winning SEO strategy and implement video SEO to help boost your ranking on Google’s search results page. If you’re ready to work with a dedicated team of SEO professionals and marketers, contact us today.
