VIDEO SEO
Using the power of video, images, and words to connect humans across the world.
SEO is no longer just a word game. Video is being pushed to the forefront of search engines.
The game of SEO, or outranking your competition for competitive keywords has changed entirely due to recent updates by Google and Microsoft. These changes were spearheaded by the implementation of artificial intelligence and the way these search engines deliver responses to inquiries.
It is important to understand that to truly access the power of Video SEO and its ability to own the market share of your competitive keywords, that Video SEO works by using video, images, and written words (or standard SEO practices) in unison to deliver a powerful punch. For the first time, single responses to inquiries are being generated from multiple sources and formats, video, images, and words. Artificial intelligence is the genesis for this change in the process used by search engines to place the right content in front of the right individual.
To better understand Video SEO let’'s take a look at some images and documentation provided by Google.
In looking at the image below provided by Google on their Video SEO page, we see various ways video is now outranking word-based content and appearing first on Google. Responses to inquiries by potential customers are now placed front and center of search engine results. Video is no longer just appearing on the “Video” and “Images” search tabs of Google.
Image provided by Google demonstrating various ways Video SEO may appear on its search engine.
The most drastic change to search engine results as seen above is video being promoted on the “All” search tab which historically promoted only text based responses. Google was of course founded as a text based solution to search inquiries, this is the evolution of search, where video may provide a better solution to an inquiry according to artificial intelligence being used by search engines.
Image provided by Google demonstrating video displayed on the “All” page.
Above we see a visual representation of the power of Video SEO.
Google is pulling video, images, and text to promote a webpage as a response to a search inquiry.
What makes the update to Google’s AI search engine new and groundbreaking is video often appearing first on the “All” page.
Historically video has only appeared as a response to a Google inquiry in the “Video page”. YouTube, the world’s second largest search engine, was the source of responses here. Now with video appearing first on many searches, video can be accessed by bypassing the user having to request the video.
Google is showing video as a response to inquiries regardless of whether the user is asking for video or not.
Google is not offering the user a choice, it using AI to provide the content that it thinks will be the most helpful to the user. Though the technology behind this beautifully simply concept is quite complex, the fact that remains that often, quite often, Google’s AI thinks that video is the most helpful response to many inquiries.
One may ask why is that? Why does Google think video is so valuable?
Worldwide, people spend an average of 6 hours and 40 minutes per day on screens. In the US, the average screen time per day is 7 hours and 3 minutes.
Video is being consumed at rates never seen before in history. It’s no wonder why AI would declare video as worthy as presenting it as a response to an inquiry. Video is a deeply desired format by humans. What this means for businesses is that they can capitalize on this change to rank for keywords in a way that was never before possible, using video.
The similarities between historical word-based SEO and Video SEO are strikingly similar.
Look at this verbiage directly from Google using the word “Key Moments” to describe a feature that scans videos similar to how words are scanned to understand the subject matter of video. This bears a striking resemblance to “key words” and how they are used to provide responses to inquiries.
“Key moments - The key moments feature is a way for users to navigate video segments like chapters in a book, which can help users engage more deeply with your content. Google Search tries to automatically detect the segments in your video and show key moments to users, without any effort on your part. Alternatively, you can manually tell Google about the important points of your video. We will prioritize key moments set by you, either through structured data or the YouTube description.”
Google is looking at spoken dialogue in the exact same manner it is looking at words when it comes to Video SEO. The search engine reviews the video and if it is considered valuable, essentially highlights the video the way you see words from your search inquiry highlighted upon a text search.
WORDS, IMAGES, & VIDEO COLLECTIVELY DETERMINE POSITIONING RANKING.
In this video provided by Google, Video SEO Best Practices for ranking on Google are explained. Watch the video if you need a better understanding of what Video SEO is.
Rank higher on search engines and engage your audience using video.
The technique that ranks media deemed worthy by Google’s AI helpful first approach may require a new word.
At this time the term Video SEO is the best way to outline the ranking strategy presented here for one main reason. The strategy only works utilizing video. “Media SEO” be it a word that is not widely used now may be the best word to accurately describe this ranking strategy. By combining words, images, and video, you are providing search engines and their AI three separate forms of media, that when combined deliver powerful results.
Outrank the competition and expand your digital real estate to be found by customers across the globe.
VIDEO SEO STRATEGY
Let’s look at how we implement Video SEO for our clients.
Discovery Meeting
A discovery meeting will always occur first. Before we address various ways Video SEO can help your brand and business outrank the competition for competitive keywords and “key videos” we analyze your current digital marketing efforts and (SERP) Search Engine Results Page for industry videos and keywords.
Planning
Based on your current digital marketing we develop a unique plan to optimize current webpages, blogs, social channels, and additional platforms such as business listings that are discoverable by Google.
We start by developing a key word strategy.
Wait a second, I thought this was Video SEO, why are we starting with key words? Ultimately Google will scan your video and analyze the spoken words when considering displaying it as a response to an inquiry. Keywords are still a vital part of Video SEO, the only difference is the words are spoken in video where the words a written for standard SEO. With our goal being ranking your business higher on search engines, we use keywords to make sure the videos are discoverable.
The reality is that video, images, and words all collectively work together to provide responses now. Google examines all three, and often provides responses to inquiries including images, video, and words.
If you have an individual or agency managing your social media and website, we work with your team to develop copy, competitive keywords and topics for videos using your current subject matter expert currently writing copy for your business. If you do not have an individual or business managing your website or social media, we can host your website, media, and copy.
Assigning a subject matter expert
Let’s remember the number one rule from Google’s AI updates. Helpful first.
Though we can supply data on keywords and rankings, each industry is unique. By assigning a subject matter expert we have a team member that understands your unique industry and can write copy with a full understanding of potentially complex topics. For example, though one can simply ask ChatGPT about various law questions, AI is not an attorney and may not understand the various nuances of law. A subject matter expert ensures your content is indeed helpful for someone looking for an answer to a question or a solution to a problem within your industry.
Subject matter experts can be an individual employee within your business or an individual we recruit that is en expert in your unique industry.
Developing topics and writing copy
With a subject matter expert in place, we begin the writing process of developing the topics of content that will be produced. We start by developing content that’s crucial for every business marketing themselves online by looking at the main pages on your website and developing videos and images for each of the existing pages. In most cases, this includes the home page, about us page, testimonial page, product page, process page, or any page prominently featured on your site.
We start with the pages most prominent on your site as this is the digital face of your business and often times where most traffic will be funneled to. The goal of Video SEO for businesses is ultimately to convert individuals into paying customers. By having a website utilizing videos on prominent pages of your site, you not only increase your chances of ranking these pages higher, you’re also increasing the chances of the individual purchasing simply by including video on landing pages, as video can increase conversion rates by up to 84% according to Forbes.
These videos and webpages, what we call “hero pages” and “hero videos” are the pages that serve as the face of your business. We often invest more in the production of content for hero pages and videos because they are front and center.
Once the copy is written for these hero pages and hero videos, we enter production on the videos and images that will be used in your Video SEO plan.
Production of hero video content
With copy in place to be featured on your pages using historical SEO practices for written words and responses to inquiries, we can develop screenplays for video content that’s featured on the page.
Let’s take a look at a client example of hero videos in action. Palmer Square Management is a real estate and hospitality company. They own apartment complexes, a hotel, and a luxury outdoor shopping center in the heart of downtown Princeton.
First, as with every client using our services, we advise producing hero videos first like this profile video seen below. It summarizes Palmer Square as a whole, the services it provides, and encourages the public to visit Palmer Square which results in our client profiting.
Here is an example of a “hero video” done for Palmer Square Princeton.
From here, we proceeded to produce “hero videos” to be placed on top of web pages for dedicated channels of revenue for the business.
We produced a commercial for a webpage dedicated to a hotel owned by the business.
We produced a video for the apartment complex owned by the business.
What these videos all have in common is they are primary drivers of revenue for the business. Often, videos that are considered hero videos come with larger budgets than other videos. The reason being it is often the first thing a website visitor sees when coming to your website. Making a video that catches attention and converts is vital.
7. Production of supporting content
Once we have developed the content for home pages, main pages, and pages that are high in traffic and key drivers of revenue, now is when Video SEO begins to shine.
Staying with Palmer Square as an example, to better extend the presence of the business online we produced videos for each one of their tenants in the outdoor shopping center. The website for Palmer Square contains individual web pages for over 30 stores and restaurants for which it leases property to. By producing a video for each one of the stores in the complex we were able to drive foot traffic to Palmer Square which in turn leads to our client profiting. We achieved this by featuring each video on a unique web page dedicated to the topic of the video and provided images that supported the written words and videos.
Supporting videos are videos that are found on pages not directly linked to in your navigation or footer, often used in blogs which may or not be promoted on a website. The purpose of these pages is of course ranking in search engines.
In the case of the examples below, these videos for Palmer Square are highly vertical and support the hero videos, thus increasing your chances of a potential customer buying your product or service.
This first example was made for a webpage that already existed but had no video. This is the case for many of our clients. They have developed a large amount of blog posts or web pages for SEO purposes but have not linked video and images to the pages thus hurting their ability to rank. The page is less helpful according to Google. Producing simple and lower budget videos that add value to a page is a surefire way to signal to Google that you’re providing the assets and information needed to generate the desired response to an inquiry.
This example of a video for a restaurant demonstrates the simple form a video can come in to support SEO.
This video below was placed on the careers page of Palmer Square.
Video SEO doesn’t always have to be used to increase revenue through sales. Many businesses face staffing issues as one example, using video to help the careers page rank higher for Palmer Square is an example of using Video SEO to meet specific goals for a business.
Take a look at the recruiting video produced for Palmer Square to see how we used Video SEO to help Palmer Square recruit.
Video SEO can be fluid. On the “events page” for Palmer Square who hosts various family fun events on their green, this video is used in the summer. When December hits and the ice rink is opened up and activities are not occurring on the green due to cold weather, the videos are simply swapped on the website allowing for a more desirable search result.
Supporting videos like the ones above can be discovered for simple inquiries such as “Fun events near me” or “Retail jobs in Princeton” or “Upscale restaurant”. Video SEO in its most simplest form can be seen here through these videos. The web pages for recruiting, the restaurant, and events at Palmer Square already existed, we simply made Google more likely to index them on its search engine by adding video and images to support the copy on the site.
Let’s take a look at another example of Video SEO in action for a client.
For AccuForm Manufacturing five videos were created in total, one for each main page on the site. A Home Video, Team Video, Parts Video, Service and Capabilities Video, and Quality Systems Video, combined with new copy and images hosted on a newly designed website yielded a 300% increase in quoting activity for AccuForm.
Below you can see the video playing in “Zone 1”, or the top of the webpage, which is the proper area to see the effects of Video SEO as Google and search engines take into account the position of videos when determining the importance of a video as it pertains to an inquiry. When video is the focus of the page, featured in “Zone 1” the video is deemed to be of importance.
Video SEO in practical use. Upon completing the video, a form appears inside the video as a call to action allowing the viewer to click on the video and supply their information.
7. Production of images
Images have always historically been a crucial part of SEO and that remains true to this day. Images have accompanied words since the creation of books, the two go hand in hand. Typically, you would see images accompanying words on blogs to help explain or show something visually, or to provide context. It’s one thing read to read about the Golden langurs, one of the rarest animals on the planet, but seeing an image allows you to see the subject at hand. Google has found this simple logic of “show don’t tell” helpful in the past, and with its “helpful first” approach, continues to display images in search results.
With the new changes to Google’s search engine and AI promoting video more heavily than ever, images have taken on perhaps an equally or greater role to supporting videos and articles. When videos appear first as a response, images are also appearing first through the video thumbnail attached to videos.
As an example of a video thumbnail let’s take a look at one below for Shades Studios.
This video thumbnail which currently is featured as a thumbnail for a hero video has appeared as an image beside a text search for “Shades Studios”, this business. The image is coded as a thumbnail for the video, but Google recycled the image to present it as context for a text based search for this business. This summarizes the fluidity of Video SEO and the new ways in which Google is answering search inquiries. It is pulling from words, video, and text, combining all three together in whatever way it best thinks will serve the user.
Though we bring in photographers in many cases, still images can be taken directly from the video footage we film for your Video SEO plan. The cameras which are Netflix approved film in a resolution and quality that rivals the output of a still camera designed to produce a single image. This allows us to pull images from the videos without quality loss.
The images we produce are designed to either provide context, help the user of the page, or be utilized as a thumbnail for your video, and now, an additional image to be served for relevant text based inquiries.
8. Building a content index
Upon completion of the production of your video, images, and words (copy accompanying the words and images) are placed in an index built by us serving as a central base for the files that will be distributed together for your plan. We also store the raw footage files which often reach above 30 terabytes per client due to the size and amount of content the program involves producing. This allows us to recycle the footage and repurpose it as we continue to produce more videos to expand your Video SEO.
9. Distributing your content and implementing Video SEO.
With an index in place and content easily accessible by all parties to be used and distributed, the video, images, and articles are placed your website, social media, and other applicable platforms such as review sites, Google business listings, and blogs.
You’re ready to reap the rewards of Video SEO as search engines now have the content it wants and needs to display your site to interested customers.
We live in a world where video is promoted by search engines because it is deemed helpful.
Video is a platform that when combined with written copy and images in a manner where it solves a problem means you are helpful, or deemed helpful by search engines!
Video SEO is here to stay for the foreseeable future. With video consumption on an upward trend and AI using and promoting videos your business will benefit by providing helpful content.
Want to speak with us about Video SEO and using it to rank higher on search engines or achieving other business goals?