You came up with the perfect idea for your company’s next video. You hired all the right people. Now, you’ve created a quality video that will make viewers laugh out loud, share with friends, and ultimately, purchase your product.
You post the video to Facebook. One week later, you’re disappointed with the results: one share (your own) and a minimal amount of people reached.
Your video is awesome! What went wrong? What’s missing?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about building trust with search engines. SEO helps your video climb to the top page on Google or YouTube and reach more people on Facebook. Understanding SEO can be a bit daunting, but follow this quick guide and watch your video’s placement on the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) climb.
Optimize metadata
YouTube is the second largest search engine with more than three billion searches monthly. Since YouTube, Google and other search engines can’t watch your video to see how great it is, you need to make sure the title, description and tags catch their eye…or filter. Don’t forget to include both short keywords, which are generic and simple words, as well as long-tail keywords, which include specific phrases, in the title and description.
Plan marketing efforts
Marketing goes beyond “make a great video.” Therefore, plan out the next several months (or however long the campaign will run) and detail how the video will be marketed. Sharing on social media can be effective, especially with a few advertising dollars behind it. However, there are plenty of other ways to include video in your strategy and reach your audience such as including a link in your email signature, adding the video to your website, using it in your e-newsletter or featuring it in your blog (or an influencer’s blog).
Focus on link building
Speaking of influencers… A successful video will generate links, also known as link building. These links may be found in articles, other blog posts or on social media. Link building becomes more likely with a high quality video and an effective marketing and SEO strategy. Share your video with journalists, bloggers and influencers so they are aware of it (and how great it is) and will share it. Google really likes it when this happens.
Engage the audience
Include a call to action that engages the audience such as “follow us!”, “visit our website!” or “share with your friends!” Social shares can generate a large number of clicks to your website. You just have to ask. The more times your video is shared and the more clicks to your website, the more Google will trust you.
Make it good
Users upload more than 6 billion videos to YouTube daily. To stand out, you need an exceptional video and a great marketing plan. Your video needs to offer something to your viewers. Make them laugh, educate them or shock them. The longer it holds the viewers’ attention, the more popular it becomes on search engines.
It’s no doubt that people love video, especially if it’s well made and keeps them engaged. Make sure your video is reaching its full potential. With these SEO tips, users will be able to easily find your video and share it with their friends.