If you are a video website, then you must know the importance of optimizing your videos for search engines. Google is now giving more preference to video content than text in SERP’s. So it is very important that you optimize your videos well so that they get maximum visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs). In this article I will share with you some effective tips and ideas about how you can optimize your best videos for better search engine rankings.
The main objective of any online marketing campaign is to drive traffic to the website. And the first thing that gets the attention of visitors is the design of the site or the landing page. If you have an attractive layout that attracts visitors, then there is no doubt that you will get a good number of people visiting your site. But if you do not have any design at all, then you will see a lot of bounce rate from your visitors.
So one of the most important aspects of website optimization is designing a user friendly and attractive website. This is particularly true for websites that are dedicated to video content. You want to make sure that your website is appealing to users as much as possible. The design should include as much information about the company, its products and services as possible. So that when your visitors land on your website, they feel comfortable using your website and interacting with your company.
Now coming back to the point; after having a good looking website with excellent content, how does your site rank on the search engine? The answer is quite simple – by adding relevant keywords to your website content. As mentioned earlier, Google is giving more weightage to videos than traditional text-based content. So if you are using videos as part of your website content, then your chances of getting high search engine rankings will be much higher.
But the question that comes to mind now is what kind of keywords are required to be added to the video content so that it can benefit from the increased preference given to video content on the search engine results pages (SERPs)? The answer lies in the following points:
1. Use Long Tail Keywords – Use long tail keywords instead of generic keywords. Long tail keywords are those that have less competition than other keywords. For example, let us say you are selling a product called “Grocery bags”. If you use the keyword “grocery bags” as your main keyword for your website, then your chances of ranking in the top 10 positions on the search engine results pages (SERPS) may be very low. On the other hand, if you use the keyword “grocery bag”, then the chances of your website appearing on the first page of Google search result increases significantly.
2. Add Videos – Video content is considered to be a great way of capturing the attention of visitors. So if you add videos to your website, you will increase the chances of attracting many visitors. It is also easier for visitors to read the content on your webpage while watching the video clip.
3. Include Social Sharing Links – Including social sharing links on your videos will increase the chances of getting more traffic to your videos. When users watch videos on YouTube and other social media sites, they share them on their social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. So by including these links on your videos, you will be able to reach out to a wider audience and drive more traffic to your videos.
4. Include Keyword Rich Titles – Using title tags is another effective method of optimizing video content for the search engine. A title tag is used to describe the video content on your website. For example, if you are running a video blog related to food blogging, then your title tag can contain the word “food blogger” or something similar to attract more visitors to your website.
5. Include Descriptive Tags – Another effective way of driving traffic to your videos is by using descriptive tags. You can use the word “video” followed by the name of your video in the description box. These tags help Google understand what the video is all about. They also play an important role in improving the overall quality of the video content on your website.
6. Upload High Quality Videos – There is nothing like high quality videos. If you upload poor quality videos, then you will lose a large chunk of your potential web traffic. So always remember to upload high quality videos.
7. Post Regularly – Once you upload your videos into YouTube, Vimeo etc., it would be a good idea to post them regularly on your website. By posting regular updates, your visitors will keep coming back to your site which means more chances of getting targeted traffic from your website.
8. Add Meta Data To Your Videos – Adding meta data to your videos is yet another effective tip that can help you maximize your videos for search engine optimization. Meta data includes the title and description of the video which helps Google better understand the contents of the video.
9. Add Good Quality Backlinks – Having high quality backlinks to your videos is another effective way of increasing your visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPS). Backlinks are basically links pointing back to your videos from other websites. Adding backlinks to your videos will give Google some good signals regarding the value of your videos and will help you improve your search engine rankings.
10. Have a Unique Design – Creating a unique design for your videos will help your website stand out from the crowd and draw more traffic to your videos. People love to visit websites that look different from the rest. So always work hard to create a unique design for your website and videos.
11. Take Care Of Your Mobile Visitors – The world has changed drastically over the past few years. More and more people prefer to access the internet through mobile devices such as smartphones. So always try to design your website and videos so that they are viewable on mobile devices.
12. Promote Your Website – In order to promote your website, you need to spend time writing articles and submitting them to blogs. By doing this you will be able to gain backlinks to your website and this will eventually help you increase your search engine rankings.
13. Increase Signals From Social Media Sites – One of the most effective ways of gaining search engine rankings is by creating backlinks to your website from social media sites. So whenever you publish new videos on your website, you should also post them on your Twitter feed or Facebook page. Doing this will increase the chances of gaining more backlinks to your website and thus increase your search engine rankings.
14. Get Featured In Blogs – You can also get featured in blogs by publishing videos that are related to blogs. If you have written a blog yourself, then you can submit your videos to other blogs. This will help you get more exposure and will help you build relationships with other bloggers.
15. Submit Your Videos To Online Directories – A quick and easy way to increase your search engine rankings is by submitting your videos to online directories. It is always helpful to get listed in online directories since most people use the search engines to find relevant videos.
These are just a few of the effective tips that you can use in order to optimize your videos for better search engine rankings. As you can see, there are several different methods that you can use to optimize your videos for the search engine. All it takes is a bit of effort. Just remember to follow the above steps carefully and you will surely see positive results in terms of increased search engine rankings.