VSEO (Video SEO) - Start Using Video for Your Business Today

Videos are a powerful tool to help you engage with your audience, present information, and enhance your offering. They can also be used to improve SEO – search engine optimization – by driving traffic to your website and improving the user experience. If you want to learn more about how SEO Company Sacramento can increase visibility via videos, read out the blog. 

Even though videos are not a (published) ranking factor, they can still help improve your page’s performance and enhance your overall SEO. Here are some ways in which videos can help your website:  

1. By providing engaging and informative content that will keep viewers on your page for longer 

2. By helping you rank for other keywords that you may not have otherwise been able to rank for 

3. By making your page more visually appealing and thus more likely to be shared on social media 

4. By providing an alternate way for people to consume your content if they prefer watching videos over reading text 

Use videos to support on-page content 

Although Google has not said that video content is an outright ranking factor, there are several reasons why it would help your SEO strategy to include videos as part of your website's existing content. Videos can support and enhance the written word, adding another layer of information for viewers who prefer to consume content in that format. In addition, videos tend to be more engaging and can keep viewers on your page longer, which is a positive signal to search engines that your content is worth paying attention to. 

Improve accessibility 

Videos offer an accessible way to consume page content for those who have difficulty processing written information. By providing alternative methods of accessing information, such as text-to-voice or videos, a greater number of people can engage with the content. Furthermore, videos can also help people to learn and remember information more effectively. Accessibility has been a growing concern for internet users and companies alike. We are seeing more accessibility metrics being used as ranking factors by search engines. For example, last year Google added core web vitals as a ranking metric. Google's goal is to make sure that the internet is accessible to everyone and that the results it presents can be accessed by everyone. 

Videos Can Decrease Your Bounce Rate 

With Google's algorithm updates, Panda and Penguin, the search engine is trying to promote websites it deems as high-quality and penalize those it believes to be of low quality. According to Google, "Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e., visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page). Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality, and a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages aren't relevant to your visitors." 

Content-rich videos are a fantastic way to decrease your website's bounce rate - which is important because a high bounce rate will tell Google that your site is low quality. Engaging potential customers or existing clients with videos that feature rich content will keep them on your page longer, reducing your bounce rate and making Google more likely to deem your site as high quality. So, if you want to decrease your website's bounce rate, make sure to provide engaging, content-rich videos! 

 Future algorithm updates may see further accessibility factors such as content, font size, and website design as ranking metrics. Creating a website that is as accessible as possible puts your website in the best position to succeed. Not only does this ensure that everyone can access your content, but it also maximizes potential. However, don't rely on videos exclusively as this can result in accessibility issues rather than enhancements! 

∙Video schema markup 

When including a video on your page, you can add video schema markup or structured data. This doesn’t directly improve rankings but is helpful when using videos for SEO. When done right, it results in a video thumbnail next to your organic search results. This drive clicks and could help to improve your organic click-through rate. 

∙Use videos to drive traffic 

If you don't want to include a video on your actual website, that's okay! You can still produce traffic-driving video content by hosting it on YouTube and ranking in the search results. Well-branded videos improve brand awareness, customer loyalty, and how often people search for your brand - which in turn can increase website and foot traffic. 

∙YouTube links 

While YouTube links in descriptions are set as ‘nofollow’ by default, meaning they won’t help to increase your website's link equity, they can still be valuable in other ways. If the link takes users to a page where they can find helpful information related to the video content, it can help to drive traffic to your website. So, including links in video descriptions can still be worthwhile even if they don't directly improve your website's SEO. 

Avoid common video SEO mistakes 

There are a few common video SEO mistakes that you'll want to avoid if you want your videos to rank well in search engines. Here are a few of the most common mistakes: 

1. Not including keywords in your video title 

2. Not including keywords in your video description 

3. Not optimizing your videos for specific keywords 

4. Not making your videos mobile friendly 

5.Not promoting your videos on social media and other websites 

Page speed 

Videos do have an impact on page speed, which is a ranking factor, but there are ways to help mitigate that. The best way to include video content on your page is by embedding content hosted on an external site, such as YouTube or Vimeo. This will take the strain off of your server and reduce the negative impact videos will have on page speed.  The alternative, of hosting the video yourself, usually results in a harder hit to your page speed, which could negatively affect rankings. To embed a video from YouTube, simply click ‘share’ on the YouTube video and then ‘embed’. This will provide you with the HTML code which can be inserted into your page. 

Conclusion 

If you're looking to take your SEO game up a notch, look no further - video for SEO is where it's at. While it's still fresh and not overdone like some other trends, now is the time to get ahead of the competition by implementing video into your SEO strategy. You're likely to see quick, effective results when SEO Company Sacramento will put you ahead of the pack!