If you own a website, online magazine or blog, you would have probably heard of the term search engine optimization, also known as SEO. However, most online business owners are unaware of the fact that incorporating video into their website could significantly boost their search engine optimization efforts. Thus driving more traffic to their websites.

Video is rapidly changing the face of online marketing, an Internet marketing strategy that does not include video is missing a vital traffic generation component.

Before we dive deep into the reasons why video can enhance your search engine ranking, it is necessary to explain the main idea behind search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization focuses on the steps you take to boost your positioning on search results pages. The aim is to increase page ranking, the higher the ranking, the more chance of people visiting your website. When potential visitors type a phrase into a search engine, if your page ranks well for that particular search term, there is more chance of them clicking through to your website and purchasing your products or reading your content. Therefore, paying particular attention to your on-page and off-page SEO is vital.

When people search online they are looking for something specific therefore, if you optimize your site to improve search engine visibility, you will ultimately boost traffic and improve your online business.

If you are fully well versed on search engine optimization, you would have probably created lots of articles and other written content to enhance your SEO. Writing content is effective too however, one of the most powerful ways of boosting traffic and increasing Search engine ranking is by incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy.

Video and SEO

Video is becoming the most prominent method of consuming information. Therefore, Google’s algorithms are placing video at the top of the list when it comes to search engine queries. Facebook’s algorithms also prioritize video content therefore, when you are planning your content, it is vital that you include video into your content marketing strategy. The aim is to get to the top of the search query list, research has shown that websites that appear in the top three get 55 percent of the traffic.

How does video enhance SEO? Including video will help to improve your search engine results page also known as SERP. How does video do this?:

• Video will increase the amount of clicks you get by increasing the traffic you receive from search engine results pages.
• Lowers your bounce rate: When you include video on your page, it doubles the amount of time people spend your page consuming content. Written content is effective but without video, your visitors are more likely to leave your site without consuming content. When you produce high quality video content, visitors will be more likely to share your content. Great SEO and excellent video content will significantly boost traffic to your website. When you do all the right things, you create that special type of content, that unicorn content that will increase your search engine ranking and increase your click through rate at the same time.

Remember that simply placing video on to your site will not magically increase your search engine ranking. SEO is a process. High quality content is necessary to increase the amount of time people spend on your site. If you just place low quality videos on your site coupled with low quality written content, people will certainly not stay on your page for very long. Substandard content can actually have a detrimental effect on your search engine optimization efforts. Why? Because when visitors enter your site, the amount of time they spend consuming content is crucial. If they spend a few seconds on your site and leave, it sends a negative message to the search engines.

How to Create High Quality Video Content to Enhance Your SEO

Publish Videos on Your Website

Include videos on your website, if you post videos on YouTube, make sure you publish them to your website as well. Video content will keep people on your page for longer.

Surround Your Video With Relevant Content

Embedding a video on to your site with no relevant content to connect it to is pointless. Make sure you create high quality written content that connects with the video content to give it some context.

Educate

Educate people with your videos, answer questions that your potential customers or readers need answers to.

Be Consistent

Consistency is key, it builds trust and eventually your content will become authority content. Lack of consistency creates a negative perception and people will stop coming to your site to look for information if you only post once in a while.

Don’t Ignore The Technicalities

When you upload your videos to YouTube for example, there are certain necessary steps that you need to take. The right tags, title and description content is crucial.

If you want to drastically boost your search engine optimization, you need to understand the dynamics of both Google and YouTube.

YouTube is the best place to post your videos if you want your videos to rank. Host the videos on YouTube first and then embed them into your site.

YouTube and Google work differently when it comes to search engine ranking however, and it is vital that Internet marketers understand this:
YouTube utilises the meta data such as the title and description to measure relevance, then it monitors the amount of time viewers spend watching the video to work out the ranking.
Google looks at things differently although the meta data is still important, if you want to rank highly on Google you need to do the following:

• Produce interesting content that people will watch from start to finish
• Produce videos that make people want more
• Utilize playlists to make viewing your content easier, also include videos from other channels on your playlists to add value
• Embed your videos on your site
• Encourage people to share and embed your video into their sites too
• Think about using paid advertising to boost traffic and increase visibility
• Promote the video on various social media platforms to increase traffic and build awareness

Video can drastically improve SEO and enhance your digital marketing strategies however, you must fully understand the steps you need to take to make your video content marketing efforts worth it in the end.