A Simple Guide To Mastering Video SEO Strategy
We don't talk enough about video SEO strategy. Yes, you've got a great strategy in place for creating great video content. But how much thought have you put into getting people to find and view the content?
Traditional SEO is typically associated with optimizing written web content. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t apply certain SEO principles to video marketing. Get this right, and you significantly increase the visibility of the video content you produce, maximizing its exposure online and providing more opportunities for converting your viewers.
Below are some tips I've found helpful when working with clients to create a video SEO strategy.
1. Keyword Research
The first step to building the right foundation for your video content is audience understanding. To do this, I start with keyword research. First…
a. Understand Your User’s Search Intent
It’s important to understand how your video content will address the search intent of your users. Not all keywords or phrases point to someone wanting to be inundated with product features or service offerings. Many times, they may be looking for questions about industry problems or looking for more information on a certain topic.
When you understand your audience's intent, you’re able to prioritize a format that makes sense.
This could be product tutorials, short-form video content for social FAQ sessions, or more in-depth explanations around a certain topic. This helps to make sure the content provides actual value when your audience comes across it.
b. Use the Right Tools and Techniques
No different than when creating written website content, it’s important to make sure you’re taking into account relevant keywords when creating your video content. The context of your video will come into play when optimizing it after it’s created for search engines (more on that later).
The great thing is there are a number of helpful tools (free or paid) online that can help you better plan your video content for SEO. You’ll want to make sure you’re evaluating the keywords you choose based on their relevancy to your video content and how much relative competition they have online.
c. Analyze Competitor Strategies
There is a lot of information you can glean and use in your content by identifying and monitoring your competitors’ strategies. This isn’t just limited to the topics they’re creating video content for but also to how they’re titling their videos and the keywords they’re focusing on.
Competitor analysis can help you save a significant amount of time and money by testing various marketing strategies and allows you to see exactly what is working for brands that already have content ranking higher on search engines.
2. Video Optimization
After you’ve taken the time to conduct thorough keyword research and analysis, you can now get started with optimizing your videos for increased visibility online.
a. Create Compelling Titles
The title of your video is one of the most important elements you’ll create when optimizing it for search engines. Not only does it provide a great opportunity to catch people’s attention, but it is also the perfect place to incorporate your chosen keywords.
Just like in a blog post or whitepaper, the headline you create is a great attention grabber - your video titles should be viewed the same way. Think of strategic ways to incorporate your keywords while clearly outlining what the video will contain. For example, use terms like “step-by-step guide” or “best of” when differentiating between informational and transactional search intent.
b. Write More Informative Video Descriptions
Well-written video descriptions help search engines index your content. Video descriptions can either live on the website with the video or be written as meta text visible to search crawlers. This is another important element when optimizing your video.
Take the time to create a short but sweet description of what your video is about, and look for ways to naturally weave in your chosen keywords. Like with most SEO tactics, you’ll want to avoid overstuffing content with repetitive terms and phrases since this will likely be flagged as spam in search engines and won't lead to positive ranking results.
c. Use Tagging Strategically
Video tags are a helpful way to categorize your video content on your site, but they also add value to your SEO. Similar to titles and descriptions, tags add more context to search engines on what your video content contains and help to establish relevance when individuals use certain search terms when looking for information.
There is no right or wrong to use tags so long as they are related to your video content. You can use a combination of shorter terms and long-tail keywords.
3. Distributing Through Relevant Channels
An important component of your video and SEO workflow will be deciding where and how your content is distributed. There are a number of different ways you can make your content available for discovery, and having a strong content distribution plan is a great way to get more eyes and ears on it.
a. Website and Blog Integration
Integrating videos on website landing pages or throughout various blog posts is one of the most common ways to showcase content. This is a great way to create a more engaging experience for your site visitors and helps to break up long blocks of written text.
However, when placing your video content, it’s important to make sure you’re placing the content where it will provide the most SEO benefits. For search engines to place higher importance on your videos, you’ll want to make sure they’re published in areas of your site with highly relevant content surrounding them. By doing this, both your written content and video content will be valued higher and can help improve how it is ranked in search results.
b. YouTube Optimization
By far, the most effective way to get your video content viewed by the masses is by hosting it on YouTube. However, like with Google, for your content to be found, you need to make sure you’re optimizing your content as much as possible.
Start by creating your own branded channel with a professional profile picture and banner images. You’ll also want to structure your content so it’s easier to organize into channels and playlists. This will make the videos easier to find and improve the likelihood of new viewers subscribing to additional content you create.
Your Turn; Go Build Your Video SEO Strategy
Having great video content is a great starting point to improve your engagement rates with your audience.
However, to make sure your audience can easily find your content, it’s important to have a comprehensive video SEO strategy in place. By following the tips provided when designing your video and SEO workflow, you’ll be able to attract more attention to your videos while making it easier to generate leads and convert new business.
And if you're looking to learn more about video marketing, we've curated a great list of video marketing courses for you.
Join For More Marketing Insights
Ready to grow? Subscribe to The CMO newsletter to stay on top of trends and get the latest tips, resources, and guides from our community of seasoned marketing leaders straight to your inbox.
