Using Video to Improve Your SEO: 3 HUGE Benefits (And How to Do it)

It’s no secret that video is a rapidly growing trend in digital marketing.

Video content offers many benefits over text-based content, such as being more engaging and memorable.

But why should you focus your resources on video content?

The answer is simple: video can do GREAT things for your SEO.

As you probably know, Google analyzes many aspects of your website to determine where it will rank for a given Google search.

Video content can directly influence some of the most important Google ranking factors.

Wondering how this is possible?

Let’s check out how video can impact the following three major ranking factors.

1. Dwell Time

Dwell time is the amount of time that a user remains on your page before bouncing back to the search results page.

You can usually increase your dwell time by writing longer content and making it more engaging for the visitor. But the truth is, nothing is better for dwell time than a video.

A video immediately captures a user’s attention, and ideally, keeps them engaged for the duration of the video.

You can notice improvements in dwell time that go beyond just the length of the video. A study performed by Wistia discovered that users spent over twice as much time on pages with video content than on pages without.

Google interprets dwell time as your website providing value to its visitors. As a result, Google will place your website higher on the SERPs, earning you more organic traffic!

2. Page Quality

If you want your pages to rank on Google, they need to offer valuable, high-quality content by combining a variety of media.

You may already know that pages with longer content will rank better than pages with short content, but why not add videos to further increase the amount of content on your page?

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If you limit your webpages to strictly text-based content, you’ll continually be outranked by pages with stronger and more diverse content. Incorporating text, images, and of course, video, is a great way to boost your page quality.

A page that is more informative and unique thanks to the inclusion of video content will receive a higher page quality rating by Google. Needless to say, a higher page quality means higher rankings! You can learn more about page quality and Google’s search quality guidelines here.

3. Backlinks

As we mentioned before, embedding videos onto your webpages will increase the overall quality of your website.

As you provide more value with this content, an increasing number of websites will begin linking to your content.

One study found that having both text and video on your webpage can nearly triple the number of backlinks it receives.

On top of that, when you host your videos on YouTube, Vimeo or other platforms (we recommend YouTube – more on that later), you can place links back to your website in the description. That means with each video you create, you’ll secure yourself a new backlink.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Videos

The SEO benefits of video content are glaring. Now that you know these benefits, you’re probably wondering how you can get the most out of your video content. Use these tips to maximize the reach of your content.

1. Plan your videos around relevant, educational content

First and foremost, your video needs to provide value to your website’s visitors. Otherwise, it will have very little benefit.

You need to create your videos with a purpose in mind, whether it is to educate customers about a product, help them solve a problem or shed some light on your brand.

You probably already have content that does this – and that’s a good thing!

Try modeling your videos after popular content from your blog or other pages on your website.

2. Upload your videos to YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with over 2 billion active monthly users.

This is a huge audience that you may not be taking advantage of yet. By uploading your videos to YouTube, you’ll tap into an entirely new traffic source.

If you are linking back to your website with each upload, you can get a huge increase in traffic through YouTube alone.

Not sure how to get started with YouTube? Don’t worry. We’ve got a simple step-by-step guide for you.

3. Add a title, description, and tags

During the upload process, you should be filling out every detail of your video!

This provides both YouTube and Google with extra information about your content.

Once these search engines know what your video is about, they will be able to properly rank it in search results.

Make sure to fill your title, description and tags with relevant keywords to help it rank as high as possible!

4. Embed videos to your website

Embedding your videos is one of the most important aspects of using video content!

Embed each video onto a webpage with similar text-based content. This will help relevant webpages rank better in Google while also fueling traffic.

You’ll want to embed your video content using the embed code from YouTube instead of uploading it directly.

The presence of links between YouTube and your website is what creates all of these benefits!

5. Create and Upload Videos Consistently

Any SEO strategy is incomplete without consistent effort!

You need to consistently make videos and add them to your website in order to achieve all of the results that video content can offer.

Once you get the hang of the process, it can help to make a schedule for your video productions.

Aim for regular uploads – once a week, for example – to keep yourself accountable.

Conclusion

If you stick to these simple rules, you’ll be on your way to successful video content in no time!

Of course, not everyone has the time or the ability to churn out SEO-optimized videos week after week. If you fall into this category, but would still like to enjoy all the benefits of video content, then you are the perfect candidate for HOTH Video.

With HOTH Video, we take your existing web content and turn it into a high-quality video that is optimized for SEO. You don’t have to write, shoot or edit a thing. All you have to do is provide us with a link to your content, and we take care of the rest.

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