How Do SEO and Videography Work Together to Build Your Digital Presence?
Taking on the duty of ranking on the first page of a search engine may have you racking your brain for local SEO solutions. As with many digital marketing components, SEO efforts require consistency and patience, and you shouldn’t expect to see results over-night. If you’re running a small business and find yourself wearing too many hats, then outsourcing your SEO development process may be in your best interest. Should you decide to outsource this endeavor to an advertising agency in Lafayette, or your local digital marketing agency wherever you preside, you’ll quickly find out that a big part of SEO is content marketing, such as blogs, articles, and videos.
It’s no secret that video is a phenomenal source of content. Photos are great- and sure, they can make us feel things- but video heightens feelings, thoughts, and emotions substantially. Video also gives way to certain elements that photos or text just can’t do justice, such as music and animation. On the basis of digital marketing, it’s been known that video increases social media engagement by a long-shot. On Instagram, for example, it generates the most engagement than any other type of content (and Instagram only started allowing video starting in 2013.) Because social media has grown astronomically with the content allowed and sought-after, we can ultimately see why video content is just as important for an SEO strategy:
1.Video can increase time spent on your website
Search engines look at hundreds of factors when ranking your site. While some aspects of SEO remain a mystery due to intricate algorithms, there are certain qualities that are still taken into consideration when showing results to the end-user. Videos can play a key role in particular factors such as boosting dwell time, which is how long someone spends on your page after clicking on it from the search engine’s results page, or decreasing your bounce rate, which is the percentage of visitors who navigate off of your website after viewing only one page. Adding a video to a landing page can increase the time spent on your website, which is a great way to let Google know that the information on that page is relevant and worthy of being shown.
2.Video is a rich form of content
One of the most important factors for ranking on a search engine is the quality of your content. Most websites make it a priority to include some form of video due to the usefulness that comes with diversifying content. When uploading videos to your website or on social media, the goal should be to educate or provide value. Due to the popularity and ever-growing industry of video production, Google and other search engines have taken note of this importance. Consumers aren’t letting go of their demand for quality video, which means its influence will continue to rise.
Because video acts as evidence of the quality content you’re pushing through your website, search engines will take this factor into consideration as well. Not only is video great for content, but if your website consistently provides videos that are informational or deemed valuable in any sense to the end-user, traffic will continue to pour in as users depend on it. And with good content, comes returning users. Higher traffic results in a higher ranking and this is inherently true for any piece of content. Content is such a valuable piece of the SEO equation and when done correctly, especially with video, the payoff is well worth it.
3.Video can contribute to a user-friendly experience
Don’t forget that video can also advance and enhance user-experience. For example: It’s a quick and easy step that may seem pointless, but uploading closed-captions to your video really increases your brand’s level of professionalism and is great for SEO. Writing video transcripts and adding keyword-focused captions to your video may also great options for utilizing keywords on your website.
Did you know that on Facebook alone, 85% of users watch videos with the sound off? If you allow Facebook, YouTube, or any other platform to auto-generate vital information, such as closed-captions, then critical and crucial information may be lost on its way to your targeted audience. As we’ve learned, good user-experience is a critical factor for SEO. Closed-captions work great because they increase users’ experience, especially for those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or simply appreciate the additional wording. Remember that each and every part of a user’s experience plays a key role in SEO.
Video is only part of the equation when it comes to a content-rich SEO strategy. If you look at your local SEO solutions like a puzzle, then make sure you don’t lose sight of the video piece. As mentioned earlier, if you outsource your SEO efforts to a local digital marketing agency, they’ll have the resources necessary to implement high quality video. Certain advertising agencies, including ours, have an in-house production team that is skilled in the art of producing videos that truly show off your brand and tell your story. Video production is a crucial component to any digital marketing strategy. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you!