When I hear about people making millions of dollars on YouTube for playing video games, my first thought is: I should have played video games.
Content used to mean the words on a website page; today video is the most consumed content on the web. With one billion unique visitors per month and over 100 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube – which is owned by Google – has become the choice of the next generation.
Why Do I Need Video?
That’s a great question. Maybe you don’t. The time, effort, and cost that go into making a high quality video can often outweigh the potential reward for many small businesses. But as I thought about the websites that G.1440 has built in the past two years, about 75% have embedded video on their site.
Video serves a number of purposes. How-To videos are incredibly popular, and helpful (not to mention widely searched), but outside of informational purposes, video is simply entertaining. If you run a plumbing business, a few instructional videos for DIY tips and tricks could be a hit with your customers. If you’re a bank, a video about outlining the steps of the loan application process could establish a bond of trust between you and the prospective client.
When considering video as part of your marketing strategy, one rule trumps all:
Make a Video People Actually Want to Watch
A cat playing a piano is cute, but is that the type of video that’s going to help your bottom line? I recently bought a used bike box to travel to a race with my bike. I went to the company’s website and they had a video for each type of box and how to pack a bike (or whatever the box was intended for). Not only was it helpful, but I’d likely recommend this type of box now based on that experience.
While search engine algorithms have come a long way, they still aren’t able to index images or video (yet). In the same way there are factors that impact rankings for the text on a website, certain factors play a part in how videos are indexed and ranked.
YouTube SEO Factors
Rather than list every single one, I’ll highlight a few of the notables:
- Content – file name, video title, video description
- Reach – number of subscribers, number of videos, number of views, frequency of posts
- User Reactions – comments on videos, thumbs up/thumbs down (likes)
- Sharing – how many times a video has been shared
- Audience Retention – length of video, how long a user watches the video
Video Optimization Best Practices
Content Matters for Video, Too
If you have a YouTube channel, think about all the opportunities to add content. The name of your channel, the file structure of the video, the title of the video – these all play a part in how that video is indexed. The most valuable content is the video description. Write as long and keyword-rich of a description as you can. Consider transcribing the video or adding closed-captions. Once you build your video library, create playlists and make titles that contain relevant keywords.
Keep Their Attention
The video’s length is also considered in rankings. While some would say make it as long as you can, you also need to serve the interests of the user. If I see an hour long video, personally I’m less likely to watch any of it than if I saw a 3 minute video. When Google figured out that people were using bots to falsify the number of views, they realized a better signal would be the length of time someone watches the video. The longer you keep someone engaged, the better that video can rank. Think of the audience retention factor as the “video bounce rate.” Add calls to action during and after the video – a video that leads to a channel subscription adds to your rank!
Sharing is Caring
What good is making a video if nobody sees it? Promote the video where you can: embed it in your website, post it to your social media pages, add it to your email marketing. Get as many eyes on it as you can. Sharing is another ranking factor, and this is driven by those watching the video. Not every video goes viral, but you’ll know if you produced something good if your customers are sharing it on your behalf.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering – these same rules apply for videos posted to Vimeo. But there are far fewer searches for “vimeo seo” than “youtube seo” – so naturally I went with YouTube!
Ryan McGrath is a Marketing Consultant for G.1440. Full disclosure: he doesn’t watch videos online, and can’t stand when he clicks on a news article expecting to read something and a video starts to autoplay. He can be reached at 410-843-3880 or by email at rmcgrath@g1440.com.