Video SEO Tips for Your Marketing Strategy

In order to make a video that ranks well in search engines and helps your overall marketing strategy, you need to have content that is useful to your viewers and you need to properly optimize the video for search engines.

Video Content Creation

Many make the mistake of obsessing over making the perfect video and end up releasing little or no video content. While there are some basic video production strategies you should employ, you should be focused on putting out a good amount of useful content.  I have seem some great videos from businesses that are nothing more than someone talking to a camera on a cell phone. This is something anyone can do! With the recent advancement in video and cell phone technology, a smartphone camera is really all you need to start making video. Simply setup your phone in your office, at work, or in front of your business and start talking. There are 2 main types of videos that businesses can make; You can either focus the content of your video around explaining a topic that your ideal customer would be researching in Google before buying your service; or you can make a video that describes your business or services, and explains to people why they should choose you over your competitors. Both methods are great ways to bring in leads, and your strategy will depend on the search terms you are targeting, and the industry you are in.

Informational Video Creation

Information videos are great for any business, but especially service based businesses, or for businesses where the product is informational in nature. Providing visitors with content that expands their understanding of a topic is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an authority on the topic, and you set yourself up as their go-to person for that topic. When coming up with a video topic, put yourself in the shoes of someone who needs your service, and think of some things they may be researching. Here are the main types of informational videos you can do:

• Comparison Videos – Compare different options or products related to your service or give advice on choosing the best option for a product/service in your niche
• Diagnosis Videos – Show how to diagnose issues that your service solves.
• How To Videos – Explain how you perform your service, or a method of doing something that your product simplifies. This can be a lengthy, In depth explanation, or a quick tip.
• Product Review Videos – Give a review of a product related to your niche or service.

Promotional Video Creation

Promotional videos are a great way to sell your service or product in a more personal way than simply having text on a page. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas for video content, you can start by making a video for every page on your website. Make a short outline of the content in a page, and then record yourself explaining it. End the video with a concise call to action and ask the viewer to contact you. Make sure to describe the specific features, advantages, and benefits of your service or product. You can establish the credibility of your business by talking about what associations you are a member of, how your customers rate you, how many positive reviews you have, awards you have received, and how experienced your company/employees are.  Through video, visitors are more likely to trust you and it will separate your website apart from your competitors’ websites.

Optimizing Videos For Search

There are a few things that you can do to give your video a better chance of being seen.

YouTube Video Optimization

If you are using YouTube as your video platform, you can optimize your video by doing the following:

1. Try to start your title with the main phrase that people will use to find your video in Google search, and YouTube. You can then end the title with the name of your business so that it will help with brand recognition.
2. Start your video description with a link to your website. This will allow the link to show up without people clicking the read more link. You can also add a call to action with the link.
3. Add clickable links onto the video itself in the YouTube video editor. This is a great way to provide an easily accessible call to action that will grab a viewer’s attention!

Optimizing Videos On Your Website

If you are hosting a video on your website, or even embedding a YouTube video on your website, you can markup the page with video schema. This will tell Google that your page contains a video, and your page will then show up in the video section of google. Also make sure that the page title, meta title and content surrounding the video are about the same topic that your video is about.

Video Marketing Tips

For any video you create, make sure that you link to it from other websites, embed it, and share your video around the web. The more links and views you get to your video, the more visible your video will be on the web.  Send your videos out to your current customers and followers through social media and email, and build an email list so that you can notify your customers when you release new content and videos. Google hangouts are another great way to generate useful content and user engagement. Through Google Hangouts you can hold a live event which will then be converted to a YouTube video. This is a great way to build interaction on a video before it is even published. Make sure to interact and answer questions that people have in the comments. By following these tips, you can start bringing in more leads to your business through videos.

Tags: Digital Marketing • Video Marketing