The Bullet Point Guide To Video SEO

Check out our bullet point guide to video SEO.

• Video can be an extremely powerful form of content and make a significant contribution to your overall SEO strategy
• Define your goals – what do you want to get out of video? eg conversions, traffic, links etc
• Main goals for SEO are to build links/social shares, and increase conversions

• To get links your video has to offer something to the viewer eg make them laugh, educate them, amaze them, shock them, or annoy them etc
• Make sure you generate a strong enough emotional reaction that they’ll want to share it, either by clicking the Tweet/Share button or by writing a post about it on their blog/website (e.g. Dollar Shave Club)
• Pair videos with a PR/outreach strategy… you need to get influential sites to comment or share it

• Embed videos on landing pages
• Videos increase time on pages (which is good for rankings)
• Product/app videos give people more confidence to purchase
• Add rich snippets for videos (schema.org) so they stand out in search (eg Yoast plugin for WordPress)

• Self-hosting videos can be great for video SEO but it does have a downside in that it’s more difficult to get exposure
• It’s a lot harder to rank a self-hosted video than a YouTube video
• We still recommend hosting on YouTube so we can build your company brand

• Most YouTube views come from suggested videos, most people only get 15-20% on views from organic (google and youtube) search, so keyword research is different to on page research
• Use YouTube suggest for keyword research – searches are different than on Google. Go to Youtube and start searching for topics… you’ll see the suggestions
• Tag your videos appropriately
• Use YouTube analytics to see what you rank for – add tags for related words and add the term to the video description (eg use bullet points explaining what the video covers)

• The single most important thing for video SEO is the quality of the content
• YouTube looks at session time, total watch time, audience retention and CTRs when evaluating how good a video is
• Create longer videos to increase total watch time (on average people watch 40% of a video)
• Maximise audience retention by focusing on the first 15 seconds of a video… YouTube even mentions this. The first 15 seconds is when most people drop off.
• Use ‘interrupt’ patterns to ‘reset’ viewers’ attention (1-2 per video) so they stick around
• Session watch time is the most important YouTube metric – they reward videos that keep people on YouTube.
• Increase session watch time by creating playlists, including links to other videos at the end of each video (eg use YouTube’s end screen or annotations)
• Increase user engagement (this is the number of likes, comments, shares etc that a video receives) by asking people to comment on something specific (people love to give opinions but don’t like to think), adding a subscribe CTA at the end of videos, and make sure you always reply to comments

• You need to optimise your video content around keywords
• Include your keyword in your video title
• Video title should also maximise CTR
• Write a 200+ word description of your videos – longer descriptions help Google and Youtube understand the content and target audience
• Tags are less important now than they used to be but are still helpful – aim for 5+ Tags
• Say your target keyword in your video 1-2 times – YouTube analyses the content (but isn’t perfect yet)
• Upload a transcript of the video to Youtube
• CTR is an important metric for ranking – use your target keyword in your video but the rest of the title should be based on getting people to click and stick around (remember retention is also important)
• Use eye-catching thumbnails – make a custom thumbnail that stands out
• Use an attention-grabbing description – the first 125 characters should encourage people to click

• Brand your page and make sure it stands out from the crowd
• Add a slogan/phrase the encapsulates what your target market is talking about
• Be consist in the content you publish and ensure it supports your slogan
• Include an overview in your about page that explains what the channel is about, who it is for, and include your target slogan/phrase
• Add playlists to your channel
• Build your number of subscribers (potentially use a service like GetFans.io for a kickstart)
• Ask people to subscribe at the end of every video
• Link to your YouTube channel from your website

• Build videos targeting keywords that already have video results (it is more difficult to rank for words that don’t already have video results… go figure)
• Put the video at the top of your page
• Publish a transcript of the video at the bottom of the page
• Use Video Schema (mentioned above)

• Mention new videos in your emails
• Share new videos on all your social channels
• Embed videos in blog posts (embeds are a youtube ranking signal)
• Promote other videos at the end of each video
• Set a featured video on Youtube
• Share your videos on sites like Quora and other forums (include text too)

[UPDATE] Take a look at our sister company Paper Planes Productions if you are interested in video production.