If you don’t know by now, video is a great way to boost your marketing efforts. From YouTube to Facebook video, there’s plenty of ways from plenty of people who can confirm this as fact. Yet, can you believe there’s something even more valuable? There is and it’s a strong SEO strategy behind your video marketing strategy. Because what’s the point of making your video and people can't watch it?
Create an awesome video they’re sure to love and then get your SEO in order. Learn how to help your audience find your content online with the following SEO best practices for a successful video distribution process.
Host your videos on your website.
Of course you will want to upload to YouTube, the second largest search engine, but you can't stop there. Hosting content on both your website and YouTube will open a myriad of marketing moves for your company to best leverage your video content.
The idea behind this is to build a YouTube community by uploading your marketing videos onto that platform. However, the challenge then comes down to bringing them back to the original content on your website. One way you can do this is creating a call to action to your website and saying it within your videos. You can also link your website within your YouTube video description box, use the Youtube card at the top right corner of your video, or use the annotations and place them throughout your video.
You can also embed your videos into a blog post—creating a more in-depth experience while giving your viewer’s valuable information both from your video as well as your written content. It also allows for intersectionality between your blog audience and your YouTube audience.
A great example of this concept is Marie Forleo. Although her videos are on YouTube, she makes a point to call out to her viewers to visit her website. In fact, watch the following video on “Four Online Marketing Mistakes Local Businesses Make (and How To Fix Them)“ and see for yourself:
Another example of hers is that she has a great visual call to action that goes hand in hand with her verbal and that also welcomes more engagement with her audience to join her on her website for further discussions on her blog in this video,”Branding: 5 Steal-Worthy Strategies”:
Produce informative, insightful, and valuable information.
This information should address problems that your buyer personas are experiencing, questions they have about products or services, and industry insight that will help solve their problems or address their pain points.
Delivering information on a product, service or company through video can help to keep your audience’s attention longer and make what you have to say more easily understood.—Savannah Stewart
Display your videos in a manner that is easy to find and that your viewer can easily sort through.
Having an organized way of sorting through videos on your website and an easy way to search the content and context of your videos is a must for both your SEO and user experience. You may have a great message, a high quality video, and a winning strategy behind them both, but if your videos can’t be found by Google or by individuals when they are searching for a solution to their current need, you’ll lose out on potential engagement opportunities. Present your videos in a well-organized and strategic manner. For example, our partner Wisita does an exceptional job with presenting their videos in an organized and easy-to-surf through fashion.
Do the leg work before publishing a video on YouTube, your website, or anywhere for that matter.
Just like any other piece of content, keyword research, content strategy, and content goals should all be a priority prior to production. Without a strong strategy backing you up, you may end up casting your net to wide while ignoring the benefits that come from creating targeted or personalized content. Do your research first in order to get the most out of your video marketing efforts.
A formal inbound video marketing strategy doesn’t have to be an arduous in-depth project, however, some campaigns do require more hands-on planning in pre-production than others. It is important to understand the framework of a successful inbound video strategy in order to better your campaign performance and your video marketing efforts overall.—DirectImages
Include a strong call-to-action (CTA) in every video.
There are many ways and reasons you can include a CTA in your video. For instance, you may have developed a lead generation video that is performing well but doesn’t have a call-to-action to guide the viewers to the next piece of content. Including an effective call-to-action is imperative to meeting business goals and not content goals. A CTA may need to be A/B tested to ensure it is performing in the manner in which you intended.
So whether if your CTA is to get your YouTube viewers to your website or to join your email list, just continue to keep adding value and watch as your audience will help return the favor.
Zero-in on the accuracy within your metadata.
If you are not applying relevant SEO best practices to the information you are supplying in the search engines, your video will lose credibility with your audience and search engines. It’s a lose-lose situation if you don’t develop the proper metadata to hook your audience in.
Content comes in many forms; we tend to think of written content when the term is used, but the reality is, video and image content can be more useful when it comes to influencing search and social results.—Debra Mastaler
If you follow these steps, you'll be well on your way to producing and distributing valuable videos that your audience can easily find and enjoy.
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