Elevating your brand through audio and visual digital media has never been more critical. Studies show that consumers prefer video content over any other type of content on the internet. In addition, nearly 90 percent of video marketing experts are satisfied with the return from their investment. While creating high-quality videos for people to watch and relate to is undoubtedly a big deal in today's technologically advanced world, it's not just about posting video content online. The key is to optimize your videos to gain more viewers and garner the extra attention your business wants and needs. If you'd like to improve search discovery via YouTube and Google to get more viewers, be sure to take a strategic, detailed approach that helps you reach your goals.
Make Sure You're Using the Right Keywords:
If you want to optimize your videos, you need to use the right keywords, which requires detailed keyword research. Doing the extra research will make it easier for you to understand the specific terms people commonly use when looking up things that relate to your niche. Start by creating a list of different niche-related topics to get a few ideas for the keywords you need to use in your content. Next, use convenient tools, such as RankIQ and Wincher, to perform extensive research on the words and phrases you should use when labeling your video content. The tools used will offer greater visibility on some of the high-ranking words worth using.
2. Add Your Keywords to Everything:
While keyword research is a start, the next step involves adding specific keywords to everything. No, you don't want to overstuff your content with dozens of keywords to the point that it doesn't make sense or looks spammy. However, you want to use the right words when saving the video file, adding a title to it, and creating the description that people may read before they decide to click on the play button. Your video title is the most important and should be a few words long and include the major keywords for which you want to your video to rank. If you're putting the right words in different places, it will make a difference.
3. Create a Compelling Description for Videos:
The description of your video is more important than you might realize. Even if most people are skimming over the description before watching the video or ignoring the written content altogether, it's still going to help you rank better on Google and YouTube, so take your time writing it. Create a detailed, keyword-rich description that compels people to want to watch. It should briefly explain what the video entails without giving anything of importance away. Also include a live backlink to your website, if you have one, up front in this format http://www.yourwebsite.com. If you want local business, put your city first, and then phone number. Your most important keywords should be towards the beginning. If you're not good at writing and don't know how to create the perfect description to use for videos you've made, get help from a professional. You can hire a freelancer to write descriptions using your specified keywords.
4. Include Closed Captions in All Videos:
Every video you create should have closed captions included. The closed captions and subtitles can improve rankings because of the added text to your video. However, it's more than just that. When adding closed captions to each video, you're providing a more inclusive experience to the hard of hearing.
5. Don't Forget to Add Tags:
After you've uploaded a video to a site like YouTube, you need to add tags to it to make it easier to find. You shouldn't add any random tags that come to mind. Instead, it's important to use the keywords you've researched and know will rank well online when tagging your video. Not only does it help improve visibility for your business and brand, but you're also more likely to reach your targeted audience when you're using targeted keywords that relate to your niche in the tags section.
6. Add YouTube Videos to Your Website:
Even if you're regularly posting video content on YouTube, it’s very important to embed some of those videos on your website. Google spiders scan your website and YouTube videos that are linked back to your website, which helps with optimization. It's also a great way to increase the number of views you're getting on each video, which also helps you build a larger following. In addition, when you have videos on your website, it keeps people entertained for extended periods, so consumers might end up staying on your site for an hour or more because they're tuning in to the videos you've embedded from YouTube.
7. Use Some Hashtags When Posting Video Content:
When posting videos to different places, such as YouTube and various social media sites, including Instagram, always use a few hashtags. While you don't need to go crazy with the hashtags by adding hundreds of them to each video posted, it's in your best interest to include a minimum of 10 hashtags with relatable keywords that will make it easier for the consumers to find you. The goal is to get more consumers to see your videos, learn more about your business, and then land on your website, where they can purchase what you have to offer.
The Importance of Optimizing Your Videos
If you're going to post video content, you need to optimize it to get the most traction. While creating high-quality videos with meaning behind them is a start, you can't expect to see the best results possible if people don't know your videos exist on the internet. If you want to gain hundreds and thousands of views from people across the country and possibly even worldwide, you must put the time and energy into optimizing videos that will boost your business and allow you to make a name for yourself.
With the right strategy to optimize videos, you can make sure the right people see the content you've created. You can expect to achieve better results when you can get the content in front of your targeted audience. It leads to more traffic to your site, more followers on social media, and a drastic increase in sales coming from those who've found and watched several of your videos.
Optimizing videos for better search discovery on sites like YouTube and Google may seem like a challenge, but there is a step-by-step strategic approach you can take to achieve outstanding results. If you're willing to do the keyword research, write out descriptions, use tags, and take other video optimization measures, expect to make significant progress while increasing visibility for your brand.
References https://searchengineland.com/video-optimization-not-underestimate-power-youtube-234618#:~:text=Video%20optimization%20can%20empower%20your,branding%20power%20available%20on%20YouTube.
Play Google’s Game by Greg Bright.