Search is evolving. And it’s creating new opportunities for businesses willing to think differently about SEO. More specifically, video SEO.
You and the competition are likely following the same set of best practices for text-based search. The problem is that when everyone is following the same playbook, there’s no differentiation. This makes it really hard to impact your rankings in any sustainable way.
Video SEO is a current battleground for savvy businesses and content teams.
While it is being embraced by early adopters, it won’t be long before they become best practices. Until then, there’s still time to boost search results before these strategies go mainstream.
Page 1 on Google – It Really Can Be Done
Is video SEO worth it? It’s not uncommon for companies that take it seriously to see fast results and climb to Page 1 of Google rankings. In fact, StoryTap customer Kari Gran got there in 3 days while Canadian Tire achieved it in 45 days. These were huge wins for their businesses and their eCommerce teams.
So, what do you need to know to put video SEO to work for your business?
Video Content is now King
SEO has always been evolving since its introduction in the late 90s. While search engines never completely reveal their algorithms, SEO experts have identified best practices that have been effective for the past decade.
What’s changing now is consumer search habits.
While the written word has always been the coin of the realm on the Internet, it’s starting to be supplanted by video. Why? 40% of online users will provide a more favorable response to visual content than plain textual content. Video is more memorable, engaging, and compelling. It tells a richer story faster and more effectively than text. And it taps into emotions, the real—and often unsung—driver behind most buying decisions.
Search Engines are Prioritizing Video Content
Search engines now grok the impact of video and consumers’ preferences for it. That’s why Google indexes video content separately. Do a standard search on Google today to see how it highlights and breaks out relevant videos:
Google also offers a video-specific search with the addition of a Video tab to its search bar menu, making it easier for people who want video-only results.
Still not convinced video is gaining ground?
Consider this: the second largest search engine is YouTube. With 30 million daily users spending an average of 40 minutes a day on the platform (including watching an estimated 50,000 years of product videos), it’s impossible to underestimate the power and reach of video with today’s consumers.
The Video SEO Window is Open…But for How Long?
What does this mean for SEO? Because video primacy is still in its early days, there’s a huge opportunity to get the high-ranking search results you want with Video SEO. (And we’re talking about the type of results that have become nearly impossible or too cost-prohibitive with written content.) Video SEO is still in its infancy for most businesses, so there’s still time to have a big impact.
The trick? Adding Video SEO to your marketing strategy now.
So, What Exactly is Video SEO?
Just like traditional SEO, video SEO helps your content rank better on search engines. While there’s overlap between the two, it’s important not to shortchange this SEO opportunity by simply applying traditional SEO practices to your video content.
Video SEO presents new and different opportunities for search engines to index and rank your content. This includes standard things like video title, tags, and description. But it also means adding elements like captions and transcripts so search engines can crawl every word of your video content.
In fact, it should be part of your marketing mix—and have its own slice of the budget. Include it in your general marketing planning and calendar, and work it into specific marketing objectives as well.
But there’s one thing you need to get right for Video SEO to work: creating SEO-worthy video content.
Video SEO with StoryTap
Looking to inject video SEO into your marketing strategy but not sure where to start? StoryTap is a patented video creation platform that helps brands create authentic, engaging videos starring customers and staff – product reviews, testimonials, self-service FAQ videos, and more. Video doesn’t have to be time-consuming or budget-busting: Our automation tech makes it easy to create volumes of content at a fraction of the cost of studio production. All videos include SEO metadata added by our savvy team and are fully owned by you to share across multiple channels and add to your site (with light code and ultra-easy integration).
Looking for more information about video SEO? Download our ebook: Improve Search Rankings With Video SEO.
Want to learn how StoryTap can help boost your Video SEO game?
