No doubt, videos play an important role in content and digital marketing.
In fact, many businesses often use video marketing as a strategy, to stay ahead of the game, as it greatly affects the search engine optimization (SEO) ranking of a website.
Video marketing has been beneficial to many companies and businesses. According to a Forbes article, companies who optimize videos on their website enjoy 41 percent more Web traffic from organic searches. Moreover, video is seen to take over 80 percent of the Internet’s traffic this 2019.
In 2018, there were over 5 billion videos shared on YouTube, alone, while Facebook generated 8 billion video views daily. This shows that video marketing is a powerful content medium for businesses.
How can you optimize your videos to give your business a competitive edge?
For one, the videos should be able to improve your website’s SEO by improving your Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rank and should be interesting enough to keep your site visitors and viewers hooked on what you want to showcase.
In creating videos, they need to be SEO-optimized, too. Here are a few tips and tricks to guide you in creating relevant and SEO optimized videos for your marketing strategy.
Understand what your target market wants
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The first rule of content marketing is to know what’s going on in your target market’s mind--or, in this case, their YouTube history. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes: What kind of videos will I watch for this kind of product or service? Will I watch this until the end? Ample research is necessary.
Keyword research is necessary
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Since this is SEO, keyword research is necessary even in videos. So before writing that script, research on words that will direct your audience to your videos. Check the keywords by heading to YouTube’s search bar to know the common words used when searching.
Keywords can help you figure out the topics people are commonly interested in, which can help you narrow down the video topics you plan to cover.
Know what type of videos to create.
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There are many types of video marketing content you can play with. Create videos that are engaging and informative for your audience. These will help you remain relevant in the online space.
According to Entrepreneur, there are a few trendy videos that businesses can look at for 2019 for their video marketing strategy:
- Vlogging – More and more businesses are making use of this video type this year. Vlogging offers a first-hand experience of someone’s life, which forms a better connection with the target market or audience.
- Live Video – Both Facebook and Instagram have incorporated live videos in their apps, which gives a more connected feeling to the audience. Live videos give the audience the opportunity to engage in a conversation by asking questions or comments in real-time.
- YouTube Ads – More and more companies are leveraging YouTube ads vs. TV ads because of the former reaches more people.
According to Beth Forester of Animoto, here are some videos you can create for your website:
- Company Overview/ About Us Videos – Next to your written “About Us” content is your video that tells the story of how the company started.
- Product Videos – These videos add more value to the product and make the site more SEO-friendly. A study by Hubspot said that 90 percent of users believe that product videos help them decide in buying the product or not.
- Tutorial Videos – Along with the product video is a tutorial video that teaches your customers how to use a certain product as an onboarding experience.
- Testimonial Videos – People tend to respond to real stories, and testimonials are a good format for that. It shows visitors your credibility as a business.
Choose a strong video title
Going back to the keywords you’ve researched, make sure that your titles contain your target keyword. Your title should also be strong enough to make your audience click on and watch the video. Don’t go overboard, though, by making it look like a clickbait.
Name your video files correctly
Apparently, the file name on your computer will affect the SEO optimization of your video. So, like the title of your video on YouTube, name these files correctly with your target keywords, to help the system understand what the video is all about.
Eye-catching thumbnails
Next to the video title, the thumbnail is what people usually look at before clicking on a video. Your thumbnail should be in high-resolution and must be able to visually communicate what your video is about.
Do not neglect descriptions and tags
The description and tags also help your video stand out from the millions online. Both your description and tags should contain your target keywords and should be compelling to your audience to make your video marketing strategy work better.
Embed your videos in a blog post
If your video is related to a blog post, embed your video there. This makes your website and post more appealing and engaging. According to Unbounce, videos on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80 percent.
Videos must be optimized for speed
One factor that greatly affects the SEO of the website is its loading speed. When uploading your videos on the website, make sure that it is compressed; so it loads faster while maintaining its quality.
You can also embed the YouTube file of your video so your website domain itself will not have to host the video.
Keep track of your audience’s video behavior.
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Statistics in video marketing are very important. These help you understand your audience better and improve your strategy in the long run. In analyzing video statistics, you’ll be able to see how far into the video your audience watches, the types of videos they are more interested in, and more.
As long as you have the right strategy and correctly optimize the SEO of your videos, your website will be on top of the SERP. Remember to maintain the quality and consistency of your content for better results.