Video content and SEO: the fundamentals

What does video content have to do with SEO?

With the rise of plat­forms like YouTube, Tik­Tok, and Insta­gram, video con­tent has become an essen­tial tool for brands and indi­vid­u­als to com­mu­ni­cate their mes­sages and engage with their audi­ence. Tak­ing the forms of vlogs, tuto­ri­als, webi­na­rs, ani­ma­tions, and more, video is a broad and var­ied tool that can sup­port a vari­ety of busi­ness goals.

When peo­ple hear “SEO,” most will think of blogs, back­links, and web­site opti­mi­sa­tion. Plus, video con­tent is usu­al­ly pub­lished on plat­forms oth­er than a com­pa­ny web­site. So, it’s under­stand­able why peo­ple ques­tion whether video con­tent is rel­e­vant in the pur­suit of SEO success.

So, let’s think about what SEO real­ly is, and whether there’s a con­nec­tion to video content.

If the goal of SEO is to increase organ­ic traf­fic to the site, lead­ing to more con­ver­sions, sales, or engage­ment, then we want to be think­ing about prac­tices that will increase web­site vis­i­bil­i­ty and brand authority.

It may sur­prise peo­ple to know that Google takes in a lot more infor­ma­tion about com­pa­nies than what’s mere­ly on their web­sites. Author­i­ty is a com­plex but essen­tial fac­tor in the rank­ing order of the SERPs. And how do busi­ness­es build author­i­ty? Content!

The rea­son why peo­ple don’t make a direct con­nec­tion between SEO and video isn’t because there isn’t one, it’s because the link is dif­fi­cult to cor­rob­o­rate with data.

Is it hard to correlate SEO success to video content efforts?

Yes. Sev­er­al fac­tors make it hard­er to cor­re­late SEO suc­cess with video con­tent strate­gies. First­ly, SEO is influ­enced by a myr­i­ad of fac­tors, includ­ing on-page opti­mi­sa­tion, back­links, site speed, mobile opti­mi­sa­tion, and more. As a result, iso­lat­ing the impact of video con­tent from these oth­er fac­tors can be tricky.

Though video has lots of pos­i­tive effects on web­site KPIs, these are often indi­rect and hard­er to quan­ti­fy. Plus, SEO is a long-term game, mak­ing it chal­leng­ing to draw direct cor­re­la­tions between actions and results if they span sev­er­al months.

Per­haps most impor­tant­ly, pos­i­tive results are dif­fi­cult to attribute if they orig­i­nate from out­side of a web­site. For exam­ple, if a pri­vate­ly brows­ing user dis­cov­ers your brand through a YouTube video and lat­er search­es for and vis­its your web­site, attribut­ing that web­site vis­it direct­ly to the video is impossible.

Despite these chal­lenges, there is lots of evi­dence in sup­port of the con­nec­tion between video con­tent and SEO (see our list of eleven Whys below). Plus, there are sev­er­al ways a busi­ness can track the impact of their video strat­e­gy on SEO, though they may be less straight­for­ward than usu­al KPI tracking.

How can I track the impact of my video content on SEO?

If you want to have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of your efforts, try the fol­low­ing approaches:

• Imple­ment­ing video schema markup can help search engines under­stand the con­tent of your video, poten­tial­ly lead­ing to rich snip­pets in search results. Mon­i­tor the click-through rate (CTR) from these rich snippets.
• If your video con­tent is high-qual­i­ty and share­able, it might attract back­links. Use tools like Ahrefs or Sem­rush to track back­links to your video con­tent or pages with embed­ded videos.
• If your video con­tent tar­gets spe­cif­ic key­words, mon­i­tor the rank­ing of those key­words before and after pub­lish­ing the video.
• Tools like Google Ana­lyt­ics can help track user behav­iour on pages with videos. Look for improve­ments in met­rics like aver­age ses­sion dura­tion, bounce rate, and pages per ses­sion after adding video content.
• Plat­forms like YouTube pro­vide detailed ana­lyt­ics. Mon­i­tor views, shares, likes, and com­ments to gauge video engagement.
• If pos­si­ble, cre­ate A/B tests that com­pare the per­for­mance of pages with videos against sim­i­lar pages with­out videos.

Evi­dent­ly, it is pos­si­ble to under­stand the impact of your video cam­paigns, though it may look a lit­tle dif­fer­ent to a blog or back­link strat­e­gy. Now let’s look at whether video offers good enough rewards for your hard work.

Why should you invest in video content for SEO?

Video con­tent can sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhance SEO efforts. A recent study by Google found that “89% of view­ers agree that YouTube cre­ators give [shop­ping] rec­om­men­da­tions they can trust”, show­ing that video con­tent is a reli­able and pow­er­ful source of lead generation.

Plus, in a Sem­rush sur­vey, 40% of mar­keters said cre­at­ing more video con­tent led to suc­cess. But how exact­ly is this suc­cess achieved?

Well, here are eleven ways video con­tent can con­tribute to a busi­ness’s SEO and oth­er KPIs in a pos­i­tive way:

1. Search engines like Google pri­ori­tise web­sites that offer diverse con­tent, includ­ing videos.
2. Videos can increase the time vis­i­tors spend on your site, sig­nalling to search engines that your site pro­vides valu­able content.
3. Videos are more like­ly to be shared, lead­ing to increased back­links and social sig­nals, both of which are cru­cial for SEO.
4. Videos are inher­ent­ly engag­ing, often lead­ing to high­er click-through rates and low­er bounce rates on your website.
5. With the rise of mobile brows­ing, videos cater to the mobile user expe­ri­ence, as many users pre­fer watch­ing videos over read­ing text on small­er screens.
6. Videos can lead to rich snip­pets in search results, which can make your list­ing stand out and attract more clicks.
7. Videos can often explain prod­ucts or ser­vices bet­ter than text, lead­ing to high­er con­ver­sion rates.
8. Videos, espe­cial­ly those that fea­ture real peo­ple from the com­pa­ny or sat­is­fied cus­tomers, can help build trust and estab­lish cred­i­bil­i­ty.
9. Videos can be eas­i­ly dubbed or sub­ti­tled, mak­ing them acces­si­ble to a glob­al audi­ence and improv­ing inter­na­tion­al SEO. Plus, for those with dis­abil­i­ties or those who pre­fer audi­to­ry learn­ing, videos can be more acces­si­ble than writ­ten content.
10. With plat­forms like YouTube, there’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty to mon­e­tise your con­tent through video ads, cre­at­ing an addi­tion­al rev­enue stream.
11. Videos allow you to repur­pose con­tent in var­i­ous ways, such as turn­ing blog posts into video sum­maries or tuto­ri­als, result­ing in a more diverse con­tent strategy.

Wow! Those are a lot of ben­e­fits. Let’s dive into how you can start cre­at­ing videos so that you can gain access to all these won­der­ful rewards.

How to kickstart video content production

Cre­at­ing video con­tent for the first time might seem daunt­ing, but it’s more acces­si­ble than it’s ever been. Plus, you can start in a sim­ple way and still cre­ate effec­tive and engag­ing videos. So, let’s jump in:

1. Begin by iden­ti­fy­ing the top­ics your audi­ence is inter­est­ed in. To do this, you can use key­word research tools, audi­ence sur­veys, and CRM data.
2. Once you have a list of video ideas, decide on the for­mat – it could be a tuto­r­i­al, inter­view, or animation.
3. Invest in basic equip­ment or even use smart­phone cam­eras to start with. Remem­ber, con­tent qual­i­ty and rel­e­vance are more impor­tant than high-end pro­duc­tion values.
4. Last­ly, always opti­mise your videos with rel­e­vant titles, descrip­tions, and tags to make them SEO-friendly.

For a more in-depth guide to cre­at­ing engag­ing video con­tent, read this blog post.

When should you start a video content strategy?

Giv­en how pow­er­ful video con­tent can be, the ques­tion of start­ing it isn’t so much ‘if’ but ‘when?’ We don’t think all busi­ness­es should cre­ate a video strat­e­gy as soon as they can. It depends on its goals, resources, size, and budget.

Start-ups

For bud­ding start-ups, the dig­i­tal land­scape can be both excit­ing and intim­i­dat­ing. Here, videos can serve as a bea­con, cut­ting through the dig­i­tal noise. They offer a dynam­ic way to intro­duce your brand to the world, help­ing in build­ing brand aware­ness and solid­i­fy­ing an online presence.

A well-craft­ed intro­duc­to­ry video can encap­su­late your brand’s mis­sion, vision, and val­ues, giv­ing poten­tial cus­tomers a glimpse into what sets you apart.

Larger businesses

On the oth­er hand, for busi­ness­es that have already carved out a niche for them­selves, video con­tent can be lever­aged to fur­ther deep­en cus­tomer rela­tion­ships and dri­ve engage­ment. Think of prod­uct launch­es show­cased through grip­ping teas­er videos, heart­felt cus­tomer tes­ti­mo­ni­als that build trust, or detailed tuto­ri­als that demon­strate the val­ue propo­si­tion of your offerings.

Each video serves as a touch­point, rein­forc­ing your brand’s cred­i­bil­i­ty and expertise.

Align your strategy with objectives, audience, and resources

One of the most beau­ti­ful aspects of video con­tent is its uni­ver­sal­i­ty. Whether you’re just set­ting foot in the busi­ness world or have been around for years, it’s nei­ther too ear­ly nor too late to embrace video.

The dig­i­tal realm is always evolv­ing, and audi­ences con­tin­u­al­ly crave fresh, engag­ing con­tent. The key lies in ensur­ing that your video con­tent seam­less­ly aligns with both your busi­ness objec­tives and the needs of your tar­get audience.

Before div­ing in, con­sid­er what will pro­vide clar­i­ty and direc­tion to your video strat­e­gy. Do you need to read­just oth­er bud­gets to make it work? Do you need to con­duct research into your tar­get audi­ence? Does your busi­ness real­ly need to pub­lish videos to achieve its goals?

And if you’re not sure…

Remem­ber, a video con­tent strat­e­gy isn’t set in stone. It’s some­thing flu­id that evolves as your busi­ness grows and changes. So, there’s no need to feel locked into a par­tic­u­lar for­mat or approach. Start small, if need be, and let your strat­e­gy mature and expand when the time is right.

Where should you publish your video content?

There are a few plat­forms you could choose to host and share your video con­tent. But which one’s the best? Here are the pros and cons of the most pop­u­lar video-shar­ing plat­forms: YouTube, Insta­gram, Tik­Tok, and Vimeo.

YouTube

Pros

• Being owned by Google, YouTube videos often rank well in search results.
• YouTube is the sec­ond-largest search engine in the world, offer­ing a vast poten­tial audi­ence for your content.
• YouTube’s Part­ner Pro­gram (YPP) allows cre­ators to earn mon­ey from ads, chan­nel mem­ber­ships, and Super Chat.
• YouTube pro­vides detailed ana­lyt­ics to help cre­ators under­stand their audi­ence and per­for­mance metrics.
• Fea­tures like com­ments, likes, and sub­scrip­tions allow cre­ators to build and engage with their community.

Cons

• With mil­lions of con­tent cre­ators, stand­ing out can be challenging.
• YouTube takes a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion (around 45%) of ad revenue.
• Chan­nels need to meet spe­cif­ic cri­te­ria (like 1,000 sub­scribers and 4,000 watch hours) to be eli­gi­ble for monetisation.
• YouTube has strict com­mu­ni­ty guide­lines, and vio­la­tions can lead to demon­eti­sa­tion or chan­nel termination.
   

Instagram and TikTok

Pros

• Ide­al for bite-sized, engag­ing con­tent that can go viral quickly.
• Both plat­forms are designed pri­mar­i­ly for mobile users, cater­ing to the grow­ing mobile audience.
• Both plat­forms boast high user engage­ment, espe­cial­ly among younger demographics.
• From AR fil­ters to duets, both plat­forms offer unique con­tent cre­ation tools.
• Insta­gram allows for shop­pable posts, mak­ing it great for businesses.

Cons

• Organ­ic reach can be unpre­dictable, with heavy reliance on plat­form algorithms.
• Videos are gen­er­al­ly lim­it­ed to short dura­tions (90 sec­onds for Insta­gram and 3 min­utes for TikTok).
• Insta­gram Sto­ries dis­ap­pears after 24 hours, which can be a dis­ad­van­tage for ever­green content.
• Direct mon­eti­sa­tion can be more chal­leng­ing com­pared to YouTube.

Vimeo

Pros

• Vimeo is known for its pro­fes­sion­al and artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty, mak­ing it ide­al for film­mak­ers, artists, and businesses.
• Vimeo sup­ports high-def­i­n­i­tion videos and offers bet­ter video qual­i­ty play­back than many oth­er platforms.
• Unlike YouTube, Vimeo videos are ad-free, offer­ing a clean­er view­ing experience.
• Users can cus­tomise the video play­er to match their branding.
• Vimeo offers detailed pri­va­cy con­trols, includ­ing pass­word pro­tec­tion and domain-spe­cif­ic embedding.

Cons

• Vimeo videos might not have the same organ­ic reach or search vis­i­bil­i­ty as YouTube videos.
• Vimeo has a small­er user base com­pared to plat­forms like YouTube.
• Many of Vimeo’s advanced fea­tures require a paid subscription.
• Vimeo lacks some of the social fea­tures and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment tools found on plat­forms like YouTube or TikTok.

Despite these numer­ous pros and cons, your tar­get audi­ence is like­ly to be the most impor­tant fac­tor in decid­ing where to pub­lish your videos. If you don’t already know, fig­ure out where your tar­get audi­ence spends most of their time and tai­lor your con­tent to fit the plat­for­m’s style and format.

Fur­ther­more, you always have the option of pub­lish­ing videos on mul­ti­ple plat­forms. For exam­ple, you might decide to cre­ate a long prod­uct tuto­r­i­al for YouTube and release a snap­py, short­er edit­ed ver­sion for Insta­gram. This way, you can achieve the extra bonus of reach­ing leads at dif­fer­ent points in the sales funnel.

Final thoughts

Embrac­ing video con­tent can be a game-chang­er for your SEO strat­e­gy. Not only does it offer a dynam­ic way to engage with your audi­ence, but it also pro­vides tan­gi­ble SEO benefits.

We rec­om­mend that you stay up to date with SEO best prac­tices and pri­ori­tise your audi­ence’s pref­er­ences. But above all, con­sis­ten­cy is key, and there­fore, any strat­e­gy should involve a reg­u­lar post­ing schedule.