{"id":18897,"date":"2014-06-13T15:39:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T19:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.shareaholic.com\/?p=18897"},"modified":"2018-03-01T13:30:40","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T18:30:40","slug":"video-marketing-seo-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/video-marketing-seo-results\/","title":{"rendered":"How Video Marketing Creates Immediate SEO Results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You can trace video marketing as an SEO tool back to <strong>May 16th, 2007<\/strong> \u2013 the day Google introduced \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-20-google-universal-search-11232\" target=\"_blank\">Universal Search<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, we take blended search results \u2013 video, text, PDF, blogs, and images \u2013 for granted, but just a few years ago people used to have to <em>dig<\/em> for video online. I know, it sounds barbaric.<\/p>\n<p>But what\u2019s more shocking is that here we are, seven years after blended results changed the way people search, and most marketers <em>still <\/em>haven\u2019t realized how important video is for SEO.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pixel77.com\/author\/rob\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rob Toledo<\/a>, a user engagement and bounce rate specialist at Shutterstock, says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>No longer just an interesting add-on, video has become an important feature for anyone concerned with SEO, conversion rates, or brand recognition. That\u2019s pretty much everyone, then.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So how exactly does video marketing affect your site\u2019s SEO, and how can you use it in your content marketing strategy? Below are four key SEO metrics, and some best practices for using video to climb the search engine rankings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Improved SERP rank<\/li>\n<li>Higher CTR<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/how-to-lower-bounce-rate\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lower bounce rates<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Quality backlinks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Videos Rank in SERPs<\/h3>\n<p>Ranking on the Google\u2019s first page is an SEO\u2019s top priority, so it is difficult to ignore the 2009 Forrester study that says \u201cpages with <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.forrester.com\/interactive_marketing\/2009\/01\/the-easiest-way.html\" target=\"_blank\">video are 53x more likely<\/a> to rank on the first page of Google search results.\u201d Yes, that study is five years old, but the point remains \u2013 Google SERPs prioritize video results.<\/p>\n<p>Why is video marketing 53x more likely to rank than plain text content? A number of factors influence ranking, but a big one is a recent Google search algorithm update \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/229926\" target=\"_blank\">Hummingbird<\/a> \u2013 which prizes \u201cquality content\u201d over keyword optimization.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Sui at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/230898\" target=\"_blank\">Entrepeneur.com<\/a> describes the shift in search results:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Google now cares less about whether you\u2019ve optimized each individual page on your site to a particular keyword and more about whether your page\u2019s content answers the question presented by the search user.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Gareth Davies at WordTracker, claims that as much as \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wordtracker.com\/academy\/video-for-seo\" target=\"_blank\">80% of the video content served up in SERPs are informational videos<\/a>.\u201d So, the results aren\u2019t simply viral <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lolcat\" target=\"_blank\">lolcat<\/a> videos, but rather useful content that answer queries. Enter the explosion of explainer video marketing.<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s Head of Web spam, <a href=\"http:\/\/idearocketanimation.com\/3611-matt-cutts-uses-explainer-video\/\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Cutts<\/a>, estimates the Hummingbird update in September 2013 affected over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-hummingbird-algorithm-impact-17858.html\" target=\"_blank\">90% of search queries<\/a>. The way that most people use the internet fundamentally changed, and the shift toward helpful video content in SERPs is still in full swing.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Best Practices for Video SERP:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/wistia.com\/blog\/does-length-matter-it-does-for-video-2k12-edition\/\" target=\"_blank\">Keep Your Video Short<\/a> <\/strong>\u2013 Less than 4 minutes (engagement rates fall after 4-5 minutes).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create <a href=\"http:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/time-come-actually-create-video-rich-snippet\/90953\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rich-Video Snippets<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 This is the thumbnail beside the description of the content on the page. Follow this nitty-gritty guide to create a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.distilled.net\/blog\/video\/creating-video-sitemaps-for-each-video-hosting-platform\/\" target=\"_blank\">video sitemap<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/moz.com\/blog\/transcribe-all-the-things-benefits-strategies-more\" target=\"_blank\">Transcribe Your Script<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Even though Google is getting pretty darn good at parsing video content for meaning, transcribed text helps the spiders crawl your content for relevance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18899\" title=\"Video Marketing SEO 4 Key Metrics\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Video-Marketing-SEO-4-Key-Metrics.jpg\" alt=\"Video Marketing SEO 4 Key Metrics\" width=\"560\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Video-Marketing-SEO-4-Key-Metrics.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Video-Marketing-SEO-4-Key-Metrics-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Video-Marketing-SEO-4-Key-Metrics-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Videos Make People Click<\/h3>\n<p>An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aimclearblog.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">aimClear<\/a> study shows that search results with video have a \u201c41% higher click-through rate than plain text.\u201d This happens primarily because of rich-video snippets beside search results.<\/p>\n<p>These video thumbnails advertise quality video content and make results with embedded video stand out in a text-only wasteland.<\/p>\n<p>YouTube automatically creates these thumbnails (they understand how powerful snippets are), but don\u2019t rely on YouTube to do the dirty work for you. Rich video snippets from your YouTube channel take users directly to YouTube \u2013 not your domain. You don\u2019t garner any SEO benefits from lost traffic, even if you\u2019re getting loads of views.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve worked hard to create a valuable video, so reap the rewards (read: traffic) by embedding the video directly to your site \u2013 like on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wordstream.com\/blog\/ws\/2014\/03\/17\/what-is-a-good-conversion-rate\" target=\"_blank\">landing page<\/a> with a clear call to action. YouTube, Vimeo, and self-hosting providers like Wistia, offer increased reach, but nothing beats the SEO benefits of landing page video marketing right on your domain.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Best Practices for High CTR:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/10-video-seo-tips-to-improve-serp-rank\/\" target=\"_blank\">Embed Video Directly to Your Site<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Don\u2019t let your video host monopolize your traffic.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Add Rich Video Snippets<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Entice your readers into clicking with an engaging preview.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Videos Make Your Pages \u201cSticky\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.statisticbrain.com\/attention-span-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\">average online attention span is less than eight seconds<\/a>. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/mobile-website-traffic-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\">high bounce rate<\/a> \u2013 people leaving your domain after viewing a single page \u2013 will hurt your site\u2019s SERP ranking, not to mention people leaving isn\u2019t the best way to sell a product. Video is the easiest way to make people stay.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, Google introduced a new metric into their search ranking algorithm called \u201cdwell time,\u201d which monitors the amount of time users spend on a website after click-through from the SERP. The longer a user spends on a site, the more likely the content is relevant to their query. Google gives relevant sites more clout via \u201cPage Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, Moz released their most recent <a href=\"http:\/\/moz.com\/search-ranking-factors\" target=\"_blank\">Search Engine Ranking Factors<\/a> \u2013 a comprehensive look at what makes pages rank well. The #1 SEO factor?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Page Authority.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While dwell time isn\u2019t a perfect system for determining Page Authority (or the only factor by a long shot), it greatly enhances the algorithms\u2019 ability to identify quality content \u2013 a key metric in the Hummingbird update. Video buys your site those crucial seconds that make all the difference.<\/p>\n<p>One <a href=\"http:\/\/www.invodo.com\/resources\/statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\">comScore study<\/a> of retail sites shows that \u201cvisitors who view video stay <strong>two minutes longer<\/strong> and are <strong>64% more likely to purchase<\/strong> than other site visitors.\u201d Combine high dwell time with low bounce rates, and you\u2019ll have a killer one-two SERP ranking punch (not to mention increased conversion rates, but that\u2019s a story for another article).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Best Practices to Reduce Bounce Rate:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.business2community.com\/online-marketing\/7-simple-but-effective-tactics-to-dramatically-reduce-your-bounce-rate-0558038#!RaKML\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Embed Video \u201cAbove the Fold\u201d<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 The fold is the imaginary line where users have to scroll to see additional content. On most browsers it\u2019s around 600 pixels.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use Accurate Video Titles<\/strong> \u2013 Don\u2019t deceive users with sensationalized headlines. No one likes being lied to and if they feel betrayed, there&#8217;s no way they&#8217;ll return for a second visit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t Panic<\/strong> \u2013 A 50% bounce rate is ok.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Videos Build Links<\/h3>\n<p>In the same Moz 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factor study, the next 12 top factors directly related to SERP ranking had to do with links. Casey Henry at Moz summed up video marketing\u2019s role in creating links when he said, &#8220;<strong>Having a video compared to just text will almost triple the average number of linking domains<\/strong>.\u201d Awesome, video generates links. But why?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/drive-quality-links\/\" target=\"_blank\">People are the ones<\/a> creating links to your content \u2013 not bots \u2013 and people like video.<\/p>\n<p>As much as us SEOs like to get in our own world of optimization, it is easy to forget that all the content we create is for users (you know, those real life people reading things everywhere).<\/p>\n<p>In a world where even thoughtful articles get scanned and skimmed, videos are beacons of brevity, but also a signal of intent that yes, I want to communicate something to you. This \u201ccontent\u201d is going to be something you enjoy. Videos are informative, but easy to consume.<\/p>\n<p>In another Forrester study, Dr. James McQuivey said, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/idearocketanimation.com\/4293-video-worth-1-million-words\/\" target=\"_blank\">A video is worth 1.8 million words<\/a>,\u201d and he wasn\u2019t just being cheeky. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and video shoots at 30 frames per second, then a 60-second video really does contain the equivalent of 1.8 million words.<\/p>\n<p>But a video\u2019s value goes further than just being information dense or shareable. People like video because it is useful.<\/p>\n<p>Josh Hardwick published a great <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kissmetrics.com\/guide-to-video-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\">video SEO article at Kissmetrics<\/a>\u00a0and in it he\u00a0urged companies to make \u201cvideos that offer something to the viewer.\u201d He goes on to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>People don\u2019t link to or share any old rubbish these days. So, to get the success you\u2019re looking for, it\u2019s important for you to really think about who you want to share the video and who you want to link to it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Video communicates useful information quickly, and allows people a chance to sample content before committing to lengthy articles, but quality video with a specific marketing goal creates great backlinks to your site.<\/p>\n<p>Gemma Holloway at Koozai wrote a brilliant post on using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.koozai.com\/blog\/social-media\/video-marketing\/video-introductions\/\" target=\"_blank\">short video introductions to increase engagement<\/a> with her written articles.<\/p>\n<p>Her experiment compared two posts \u2013 one featuring a 25-second video introduction and another on the same topic with only text. The video introduction post received <strong>200%\u2013300%<\/strong> more pageviews <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/social-share-counts\/\" target=\"_blank\">and social shares<\/a> (Facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Twitter) than the text-only article.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Best Practices for Link-Building:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Embed Your Video<\/strong> \u2013 Building links to YouTube won\u2019t help your SEO.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Focus Your Video on a Single Topic<\/strong> \u2013 Niche videos get shared.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create High Quality Video<\/strong> \u2013 Amateur video makes you look unprofessional.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Quality video marketing will improve the way you approach SEO. That alone is worth more than all the search engine hacks, tips, and secrets you can dig up.<\/p>\n<p>Thoughtfully supplement your inbound marketing strategy with video, and watch your website&#8217;s search rankings climb the charts.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><strong>About the author:<\/strong> Shawn Forno is the Content Manager of <a href=\"http:\/\/idearocketanimation.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">IdeaRocket<\/a>, a NYC based animation studio.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Calling guest contributors:<\/strong>\u00a0Pitch story ideas (and remember to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/guest-blogging-guidelines\/\" target=\"_blank\">read our blogger guidelines<\/a>\u00a0first).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a style=\"text-align: center;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/shareaholic-email-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/shareaholic-newsletter-cta.png\" alt=\"Shareaholic Email Signup\" width=\"300\" height=\"120\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Our team is growing. <a href=\"https:\/\/shareaholic.com\/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Want to join us too<\/a>?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shareaholic.com\/careers\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can trace video marketing as an SEO tool back to May 16th, 2007 \u2013 the day Google introduced \u201cUniversal Search.\u201d Today, we take blended&hellip;&nbsp;<br \/><a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/video-marketing-seo-results\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":18899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[521],"tags":[581,888,443,664,665],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shareaholic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}