Video SEO 101: How to Optimize Your Videos For Search

What is SEO?

SEO is a marketing tool that optimizes your product to be ranked a certain way on search engines through relevant keywords.

SEO is essential in video marketing as well as Youtube SEO. If done right, SEO can enhance your video traffic and bring more business to your website. If you are anything like I was starting off in the SEO world, here is a little video SEO 101 course!

Captions are secretly more useful to you than the viewer...

This video marketing strategy revolves around words; inserting a video transcript through your platform will give you an opportunity to even work with SEO. Captions may seem as if they are there to benefit the viewer but in reality, adding captions opens the door for SEO robots to pick up on the context, especially in Youtube SEO.

Thumbnail image is key

A thumbnail image is meant to hook the viewer in and is arguably the most important part of video marketing. If the thumbnail image is not intriguing, the video will potentially never be watched. The use of captions in entertaining fonts and colors also help draw the viewer, and the Youtube video SEO team in. When a video is paired with a strategically thought-out thumbnail, the click rates and other Youtube video SEO analytics will become stronger.

Watch VIDEO MARKETING IN 7 MINUTES to learn other skills with optimizing your production.

The video title and description fall under SEO metrics

Just like the video captions, enhancing your video title and description to match SEO metrics will place your videos higher on the search results. Research keywords that correspond with your video and use them often in your captions, title, and video descriptions. Pro tip: make use of the tags setting. Include both general and specific tags with keywords that accurately describe the video.

Have a goal behind each video

If your goal for one video revolves strictly around high traffic control, prioritize that video throughout your entire brand and website. Having more than one video on your website page is probably not the best idea if your goal is to optimize that one video SEO. Keep the goal in mind as you create the rest of your brand. Have a target audience in mind and make sure your video aligns. The last thing you want is to put a great deal of effort into a video with hopes of it reaching a large audience, only to have that audience struggle to even find your video within your maze of a website.

While video SEO is a cost-efficient video marketing strategy to produce organic growth, remember it must be done well to be worth your time. Put in the research, invest in the time, and see the organic growth it produces.

Read our blog: Video Marketing: Everything You Need to Know to find more marketing tools for growing your business.