Video SEO: How to Optimise Your Videos for SEO Results

Video content is the most highly consumed digital media, if your business has not yet introduced a video marketing campaign, you are likely falling behind. Creating and producing video content is only the beginning – the most crucial step is optimizing that content for search engines; this might be even more important than the video itself!

Failure to tailor your videos to be optimised means your videos will not rank as high on YouTube, Google, and similar search engines. If nobody can find your content, then you won’t experience any conversions – simple as that.

While we all know how to slap a tag onto a video and perhaps use a keyword or two in the title, there are far more effective and higher result-yielding ways to optimise your videos.

Let’s start right at the beginning though, and understand exactly how YouTube “categorises” and ranks your video content.

There is no particular department which YouTube basis its rankings on. You cannot solely rely only on keywords when it comes to YouTube optimization. There are various areas that YouTube takes into consideration, but there is no precise hierarchy as such. Here are a few areas you could focus on while optimizing your video.

• Flagging
• Views and frequency
• Like and dislikes
• Shares
• Subscribers
• End-screen video linking
• Favorites
• File name– First things first, before you upload your video and optimize it, ensure that the file and the title of the video match and that each word is separated by a hyphen. Your first bit of optimizing begins right here.
• Keywords– As always, the usage of keywords help identify words that match to the video you are looking for. Keywords should be included in the video title and description.
• Tags and categories– During the process of uploading a video on YouTube, you are given the option of uploading it under a particular category relating to your video that it is most likely to fall under. Tagging helps identify your video from the various categories. For example, if you’ve typed “SEO agency in Bryanston”, you can tag it with words like ‘agencies’ or ‘Bryanston’.
• Video Title– Apart from containing approximately 50 characters, the title should also include relevant target keywords linking the content. This gives you more of a surety that the video title will show up in search results. Along with an engaging title, your video needs to be descriptive so that it can be easily found amongst the million videos it is competing against.
• Video Description – You can write your video descriptions liberally as the description has to be written within 160 characters so that the video can show up in the search results. Start by adding a link to a website before your detailed description. Along with a large, informative description, add short text at the beginning of it. Include relevant keywords in the text.

h/t to unamo.com for these great insightful tips.

Now that we have a better understanding of how YouTube ranks content, let’s look at how we can create, edit and render content that will get our videos where we need them to be:

1) Optimize Your Content

Yes, the typical stuff like creating video’s that are related closely to long-tail and short-tail keywords will work wonders. It’s still important. To optimize your content, make sure it is “shareable” and “linkable.” In other words, provide relevant and informative content that gives people the impulse to share and encourages publishers to link to. Your video must be high-quality, engaging, and valuable to the reader to get the most organic growth. By producing content optimized for sharing, you will have a greater chance of achieving such results, which will then give your video more authority on Google.

2) Add a pop-up form or call-to-action on each video

So you’ve managed to get traffic to your video’s and get views, but what then? Adding a form, which you can add to YouTube video’s by adding a hyperlink to your description and telling viewers during the video where to look for it, will not only help engage with customers, but also offer them specials deals, like we see in this example:

You are then able to guide a lead through each stage of the buyers journey and eventually land yourself customer.

3) Focus on Mobile Optimization

Mobile optimization is no longer just a part of video SEO; it is the central focus. Two years ago, mobile video viewing surpassed desktop viewing, and the gap only continues to widen. Although desktop video remains a key aspect of driving traffic, your video SEO campaign will die without mobile optimization.

Optimizing your videos for mobile consumption isn’t as difficult as it used to be. Make sure your website and video player is responsive to mobile viewing. Many hosting services automatically offer mobile optimization for all your content. Also, publish your videos on YouTube, Vimeo, and similar platforms that are automatically optimized for mobile viewing.

Because over half of all digital video is viewed on mobile devices, optimizing your native video for mobile consumption will maximize traffic and search engine rankings.

4) Upload to Multiple Platforms – Crossposting

Do not resort to only self-hosting your videos. This is problematic for several reasons. If done properly, self-hosting can help with your website’s SEO, so including a video on your landing page is also highly effective in increasing conversions.

But all of your videos should be at the very least uploaded to YouTube. YouTube is the key to getting your videos to rank. Additionally, to maximize your exposure and improve your rankings, upload or post a link to your video on all your social networks. Facebook allows for live video streaming – so if it’s physically possible, try to get someone to live record your video’s when recording traditionally. This is especially useful now, since the introduction of Facebook’s new algorithm to show people as first preference on your newsfeed  – read more about Facebook’s latest changes here.

The principle is simple: the more places you upload your video, the more times Google will recognize it and the more chances users will have to find it.

5) Use the Right Format

WordPress and Google tools allow you to embellish your video’s markup with as much relevant information as possible.

Video formats that provide the most contextual information are one of the best video SEO tools available. This is for the same reason why adding captions to your video is so important. The more content presented in a format that search engines can detect – essentially, text – the higher your potential is to rank.

Using a specific video format will give your video more authority on search engines, in addition to adding more context to your videos.

6) Use the Right Platform

As mentioned earlier, uploading to YouTube is a must. YouTube offers universal video playback, maximizing convenience for both you and the viewers. Additionally, YouTube’s mobile web playback and app provide for effective mobile optimization.

However, the platform you do not want to use for videos is Flash. Search engines cannot even identify your video if it plays on Flash. Additionally, Flash is an annoyance for many internet users. Beyond videos, you should try to get rid of Flash on your website entirely for a more user-friendly experience.

Using outdated platforms may make your videos invisible. Uploading your videos to third-party video-hosting platforms will maximize your video SEO ranking.

7) Research

That’s right. Splendid results come with hard work. You cannot slap together a video marketing campaign and expect it to be as successful as a thoroughly researched video SEO strategy. You’ve already started your research by reading this article, so kudos to you.

The next steps for learning more SEO tips for YouTube videos include reading up on video marketing and SEO blogs.

Check out forums and social media groups for fresh video SEO tips and marketing ideas. Even if you decide to let someone else take care of your video SEO, having a basic knowledge of what you’re getting into can still come in handy.

8) Prioritize Viewer Feedback

Achieving success is difficult, even impossible, for the self-absorbed businesses. The more you focus on your consumers – your audience – the better your video SEO will be in Google. Think about it: your search rankings have everything to do with your audience and whether they care enough to watch your video content.

YouTube’s ranking formula takes note of the number of likes, comments, and shares a video receives. No matter how good your video SEO on YouTube is, your videos cannot rank unless people enjoy watching them. Encourage viewers to leave positive feedback so YouTube and Google will value your content accordingly.

The more positive viewer feedback your videos receive, the more search engines will reward you with influence.

h/t to advancedwebranking.com for some tips sourced for this article!

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