Ah, SEO. The Dark Art. Your website’s position according to Google really does matter when it comes to being found and “clicked on”. Nobody really seems to know how it works yet a great many companies promise the earth: you WILL be on page one of Google fly to the moon, win a million quid on the lottery – and then it never quite happens AND you’ve paid out a great deal of money every month for nothing.
Google = YouTube
Well, there’s good news and bad news: the bad news is that Google may change their mind about the importance of video (but we’re pretty sure that they won’t) and the really good news is that Google owns YouTube. Yes, let’s say that again: the world’s biggest and most powerful search engine actually owns the world’s biggest video platform, which is, we think, a search engine in itself.
Nearly two thirds of Google searches return videos (not the ghastly paid ones that nobody trusts), so it makes a lot of sense to ask Echo Video to produce a fabulous video for you. The better quality the video, the more likely it is to be shared. Good videos drive traffic to your site as they get shared and guess what, Google notices that people are coming to your website…and staying on it. You get a big “tick”, in effect.
So…when it comes to video and SEO, consider the following:
Who is Your Audience?
Think about your target market and the purpose of your video. It needs to be compelling enough for people to keep watching and if it’s embedded in your site and shared, you’re onto a search engine winner.
What Makes a Good Video for SEO?
A really successful video entertains, instructs or provides useful information – sometimes all three. Given the appallingly short attention span of the average web user, you need to hit the spot first time. The content of your video will be key: it needs to be relevant and “add value” to whoever is viewing it. A home-made version may struggle. It’s quality quality quality every time. Ask a reputable company to make a video for you. Did we say that we do this?!
A Video To Provide Information and to Solve Problems
“How to” is a highly ranked search term, so ask Echo Video to guide you on providing expert advice on your subject matter of choice. A good user experience is approved of by search engines and gets your website higher in the rankings.
Provide a Transcription
You will need to transcribe (write out) the content of your video. Why? Because the Worldwide Wide Web Consortium, the people who set the Gold standards for the web (W3C) say so. Have a look here to find out more.
Getting Your Message Out There
Try to find the sites that appeal to your target market and find a way to get them to embed your video. You may find that people are happy to do this and they will link back to your website if the content is decent (see above!). You’ll also need to make sure that your internet site structure is set up effectively to help users locate your video. Ask your Webmaster about this.
You may even consider entering queries relating to your content into Google and then finding a way to get links on the pages that rank – a challenge, but worth trying. Try posting your video as a comment on the related YouTube channels. Just get your video out there and you’re cooking with proverbial gas.
Will and Andy run Echo Video. If you’d like them to help your website climb in the search engine rankings, contact them today to find out more.