Can Video Help SEO?
It’s a common question among marketers and businesses in today’s digital world. Can video help SEO and search engine rankings? Absolutely. But, simply embedding a few videos from YouTube into some of your web pages won’t do the trick. The process of using video correctly takes significant time, strategy, and effort to implement properly. Here’s how video helps your website fare better in the world of search.
1. Google Loves Video
Google loves video because they see how users across the web are interacting with it at such a high rate. Ultimately, Google wants to provide the most appropriate, high-quality content for users when searching online. There’s a reason Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. They identified how much people wanted video, and they’ve been wanting to satisfy that desire ever since. As a result, websites with video are looked upon favorably. A video is evidence of quality content. So, search engine crawlers will see that your site contains rich media.
2. Increase Engagement for SEO
Google keeps track of the average amount of time that users spend on your site and the bounce rate (a bounce is when a user visits your site but leaves after only viewing one page). It doesn’t just do this for fun. It may not be a direct ranking signal, but there’s strong evidence that Google’s machine learning algorithms have created a ranking system that rewards sites with high levels of engagement. If users enjoy your site, they’ll stay on it longer. Remember, Google wants to provide users with the best possible experience for their search queries. So, the time spent on your site is a helpful indicator.
A video comes into play when you’re trying to increase the amount of time people spend on your website. 55% of people consume videos thoroughly. That’s the highest amount of any type of content. It doesn’t matter if it’s podcasts, blogs, or news articles; video beats it all. With people taking the time to watch your video thoroughly, it means that they’ll be spending more time on your site, which is definitely a good thing.
3. Video is Highly Shareable
Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. Why does this matter for search engine rankings? For example, say you have a video that’s shared multiple times, increasing the reach of your video. If your video post has a link to your site, all of a sudden those shares through social channels could be driving considerable traffic. A study by Moz found a correlation between traffic and search rankings. The more traffic a site received, the higher it tended to rank.
Another more direct way, other websites can ‘share’ your video with their users and link back to your page or site. Those links from other websites absolutely influence SEO.
Use Video to Enhance Your SEO Strategy
There are major incentives for businesses to increase their video production in the coming years. Video is becoming increasingly accessible and affordable for local businesses. And with users’ hunger for video only increasing, there’s plenty of opportunities for local businesses to make video work for their marketing strategy.
Brew City Marketing offers quality video production for small businesses. Take a look at some of the videos we created for Milwaukee area businesses. Contact us today!
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