Nowadays, there are plenty of marketing approaches available for you to choose from, but without a doubt, marketing videos — like animated explainers or product spotlights — are among the best. Helping you reach your target audience across all demographics in simple-yet-effective ways.
However, videos by themselves can’t do all the heavy lifting to boost your brand’s reach. If an awesome piece doesn’t get views, all your efforts making it will go to waste.
Crafting a great piece is just one side of the video marketing coin; you also need to optimize your website and social media posts to better position your content and get the audience it deserves!
It can feel daunting at first, but don’t panic 😉 In this article, we go over 7 key tips that will increase your videos’ visibility and make your content rank better in SERPs.
1- Finding The Right Hosting Platform
So you have your video ready, now what? You first have to decide what hosting platform you’ll use to house it.
It may seem logical to post your video on your website, but keep in mind that doing so might slow it down. Slow pages drive audiences away, and when you have a high rate of users bouncing out of your site, search engine bots will take it as a bad sign and rank it lower on SERPs.
A good alternative is to post your content on a video hosting platform, such as YouTube, and embed that video on your site. This won’t tax your site’s loading time, but you might occasionally be redirecting traffic away from your page and into YouTube.
This isn’t necessarily bad. YouTube is a search engine on its own, so it can be useful to have prospective audiences searching for your services there. However, it’s something to keep in mind.
2- Deciding the Appropriate Length
If you’re going to embed the video on your website, it’s important to note that length is key to viewer retention. According to Wistia, after the 2-minute mark, the engagement on a video drops significantly. So, when choosing the right one for your site, keep in mind that the shorter, the better.
However, if you’re regularly posting content, your audience might want to see some longer videos. If you’re using YouTube as your hosting platform, experiment with different lengths and use their channel analytics tool to measure audience engagement.
It’s also helpful to ask your viewers to leave comments with suggestions regarding length and content. Not only does this give you valuable feedback on your audience’s preferences, but videos with higher engagement are ranked better on SERPs.
3- Optimized Titles and Descriptions Are Essential
Another crucial factor when it comes to video SEO is keyword usage. By optimizing your titles and descriptions to contain specific keywords, you’re making sure that search engine bots understand what your content is about and take it into account when it’s time to rank your video in results pages.
But stuffing a dozen keywords in and hoping for the best won’t cut it. A better strategy is to choose a primary keyword and work around it. Then you can also select a couple of secondary keywords and include them in your tags and descriptions; for example, if I want to post a video advertising my women’s purse company, my list of keywords would look something like this:
- Women’s Purses (primary keyword)
- Leather Purses
- High-Quality Materials
- Women’s Fashion
The title of my video could be something like ‘The Best Women’s Purses’. Then, I would describe what I’m offering to my audience, mentioning the high-quality materials and the type of leather used in the description. ‘Women’s Fashion’ and ‘Women’s Purses’ would be included in the tags.
4- The Hidden Gem in Transcripts
Using accurate and optimized transcripts ensures that your video reaches all types of audiences: the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities are also interested in what you have to offer, and they deserve to have an accessible way to learn more about it. Besides, transcripts also help everyone focus more on what you’re saying, and they avoid misinterpretations or misunderstandings.
And, of course, by uploading your own transcript to the video hosting platform, you can make sure that the bots are catching all the keywords you chose to mention in the piece and ensure that they are taking them into account when positioning your content on SERPs.
5- Thumbnails can Make or Break Your Video’s Reach
Now that you’ve chosen the right hosting platform, carefully planned your keywords, and crafted your transcript, you also need to consider another important aspect of video content optimization: a good thumbnail.
Let’s say that a potential client is using YouTube to search for a service or product your company is offering. Taking the purses example once more, if my video doesn’t have an attractive thumbnail, even if I have considered all the other SEO elements to rank in the top results, that potential client is likely to skip right past my video.
As a rule of thumb, try to keep the aesthetic of your thumbnails across your content consistent. Having a signature font and color palette in all your thumbnails ensures your audience instantly recognizes a video like yours. It also gives a cohesive feeling to your online presence. Branding is everything!
Also, remember that thumbnails are the first thing a potential client sees when finding your video, and it has to be attractive and visually represent what your video is about.
This is easy to do if you’re advertising a product: just make that product the focal point of your thumbnail. Same thing if your video is about a person; just take an expressive frame and use it as your thumbnail. However, if you’re posting, say, an educational explainer about your services, things get a bit more challenging. You can opt for an interesting still from the video with some added text for context there.
6- Optimizing Your Video Landing Page
A great way to attract more viewers is to have a video landing page. Landing pages are a bit different from your usual website: they are designed with a specific purpose in mind, like promoting a new product. If you have a video acting as the focal point, your target audience is more likely to stay and engage with your page than if it only had a wall of text.
But these pages also need to be optimized to get the best results. People shouldn’t have to read an entire essay on purses and their origins before engaging with my example’s video content, and neither should yours! Your video should be at the top of the page, so there’s no need to scroll down to see it. And remember: ‘the shorter, the better’ also applies to landing’s content.
Keep your target audience in mind when optimizing your landing page. If you want them to buy your new product, put a link directly to your store. If you want them to subscribe to your email list, put a button that lets them do so automatically. Make it simple, efficient, and attractive for your potential clients. Use your signature colors, have a straightforward layout, and let your video be the main attraction. There’s no need for long paragraphs explaining what you’re advertising when your video summarizes it more appealingly.
7- Create Optimized Playlists
If you went for a platform like Facebook or YouTube as a hosting service, you probably want to leverage their playlist function. By creating a playlist, you’re ensuring your potential audience finds even more of your content in just one spot. This way, viewers don’t need to go elsewhere to look for more information.
Moreover, playlists usually rank in the top results of YouTube’s search engine, which you can use to your advantage. You can create a playlist with testimonial videos, another one with product recommendations, a third with How-to videos, and so on. Each can bring new viewers to your content and introduce them to what you do.
Playlists are also a great way to incorporate more keywords into your SEO efforts organically. Naming playlists appropriately makes it easier for your audience and search algorithms to find. Win-Win situation for all involved!
In Short
Videos are an excellent tool to add to your marketing approach, but only if people are finding them!
While it can be a bit intimidating when you’re starting out, good SEO practices are bound to take your videos’ visibility to the next level. It may not be enough by itself to gain more customers — you still need to make quality content — but combined with other tactics, it’s a key process to stand out from your competitors.
Bio Victor Blasco:
Victor Blasco is an audiovisual designer, video marketing expert, and founder/CEO of the explainer video production company Yum Yum Videos. Besides running the business, he’s a lifelong student of Chinese philosophy and a passionate geek for all things sci-fi.
