You must be aware that YouTube has emerged the undisputed no 2 in the search engine space after its parent Google. Thus, Google’s dominance on the search space has increased even more with around 90% than of search traffic flowing through it and its subsidiaries.
Facebook Video is also gaining traction with around 500 million people watching videos on their Facebook accounts every day.
The importance of video is growing by the day. There are various estimates including one by CISCO which says that video will constitute 80% of search traffic by 2021. Users are already watching 1 billion hours of video content on YouTube as per statistics released by the video giant in February 2017.
The amazing thing is that viewers are more than eager to consume video, and they are looking forward to consume even more video content in the future.
Some prominent digital marketers have gone as far as to say that video is going to replace TV. With internet speeds getting faster and services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video catching on, a large chunk of TV audiences are already getting online.
There are many YouTube channels which get millions of views within days of releasing a video, and most of these are not really big brands but incredibly creative people using just a camera and a good idea and execution to entertain people.
Other avenues for videos such as Snapchat are opening up for marketers as it’s a platform that is used almost exclusively by the millenials. Snapchat users in April 2016 were consuming more than 10 billion videos per day. That figure must have increased substantially in the past 1.5 years. Take a look at this quite detailed guide by Hubspot on content marketing using the Snapchat app. But, this is a platform that greets you with its unique features and challenges, so you would do well to read this guide and other resources on the internet before jumping in.
All these statistics and anecdotal evidence indicate that video is an amazing opportunity and has been so at least for the past 2-3 years.
So, online businesses have no choice but to get on the video bandwagon. You need to immediately get going yourself or hire someone to create entertaining and engaging videos for you. The positive thing is that most people in the business world, especially the small businesses, have not understood this transition and are still sticking to the traditional SEO measures, so you can have an early mover advantage especially in your niche.
Video marketing can prove to be a very effective method to increase traffic, and converting this additional traffic into customers is something which you would be already doing. You do not need to buy ads for this, though YouTube advertising is also gaining currency, especially among the bigger marketers. The advantage of YouTube with its huge user base is that you can get a lot of views for free if you can create content that your users like.
Before you begin creating videos and sharing them on your website and social media, there’s few things that you should know.
Brian Dean and his team at Backlinko conducted a survey of 1.3 million YouTube videos and they discovered a lot of insights useful for potential video marketers. The main takeaways from the survey are that longer videos win the day. YouTube loves videos which keep users on its website so that it can generate more revenue from them!
Videos which generate a lot of feedback from the viewers also tend to rank high. So the higher the number of comments on a video, the better is the rank. Videos that are shared more on social media such as Facebook and Twitter also tend to have a higher rank.
HD videos tend to have a higher chance of dominating the rankings than normal videos. Also, videos with keyword optimized descriptions have a slight edge.
Earlier the number of viewers was the number one factor used by YouTube to rank videos but that has changed from 2012 onwards; and now as Dean has emphasized there are lot more factors that affect rankings than just video views.
Webcyonix has always been advocating the cause of video to our clients and that too at a time when YouTube and online video was just evolving and not the behemoth that it has become now. We have a list of SEO companies who can help your business with your video content too!
The reason of quoting all these stats was to make it clear that if you do not start using this avenue, then it might just get a little too late.
So, after all this insight, it is time for you to start creating a video strategy for your business; so that you can take advantage of all this great traffic which can go on and generate revenue.
First of all, define your objectives and goals specifically about what you want to do with video SEO and try and get going soon.
You should not try and reinvent the wheel in order to make your video stand out. Such a strategy has a very high chance of backfiring. Stick to your strengths and what you have been doing in your traditional SEO campaigns.
Get off the blocks very quickly and start making videos. You should start by making them yourself and see what the audience feedback is. You will get better as you go on! You might even start enjoying the process as you get into the groove with creating videos.
Use SEO tips which are specifically suited to the video sphere such as Dean’s comprehensive guide on video SEO to give your videos the boost they need. These techniques need to complement your usual SEO practices such as link building and blogging, etc. so try and integrate your videos as part of your content strategy.
It is very important to drive interaction on your videos, as it is an important YouTube ranking factor and share them on every social media platform possible and also embed it in your website. Encourage your users to share their feedback and incorporate it into your future attempts. You would hopefully get an idea of the content they desire also.
You can also share videos on slightly more unused platforms such as Quora; where you can get publicity if your video answers reflect your knowledge of your industry. If you can genuinely help people, this will help you drive traction indirectly and create a brand for your business.
Within 2 or 3 months, you can get an idea of whether going it alone is getting you any traction or not.
At this point of time, it is very important to do an objective analysis of where your attempt at creating video-based content is going. It may be that your attempt is not working, and then you should look at outside help to assist you in this. Talk with your SEO firm, and scour the internet (including the Webcyonix website) for options.
Creation of videos is a costly ask and that is the reason why we have suggested that you first try and go it alone. But get a good cost estimate from whoever you employ and then see if it makes sense. This would tell you if getting outside help is worth it.
Even if after 5-6 months of efforts, if your efforts at video content are not succeeding and you do not have the budget for seeking outside help; our advice would be to keep at it as it will not do you any harm, and no one can predict what can go viral at what point of time.
We hope that you would have got a decent idea of video SEO and why you need to go about it as soon as possible. This is a field that you will not get expertise unless you start trying it out and use the awesome resources on the internet to increase your knowledge further.
We would love to hear from you about your experiences of video marketing and SEO and as always your comments and shares are welcome!
