Video SEO: How to optimise your videos for better visibility and ranking

7 mins read

LAST UPDATED 10th July 2024

PUBLISHED 21st April 2023

youtube video analytics

In today’s digital age, videos are an essential part of any marketing strategy. However, creating a great video is not enough. To ensure maximum visibility and reach, your videos must be optimised for search engines.

This is where video SEO comes in. Video SEO is the practice of optimising your videos for better visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). In this article, we will discuss how to optimise your videos for better visibility and ranking.

Start with keyword research

Keyword research is the first and most important step in video SEO. You need to find out what keywords your target audience is using to search for videos related to your industry or niche. You can use various tools like Google Ads or Semrush to find out relevant keywords. Once you have a list of keywords, you can use them in your video title, description, and tags.

One of the primary benefits of conducting keyword research for videos is that it can help businesses understand what their target audience is searching for online. By knowing what keywords people are using, businesses can create video content that is tailored to their audience’s interests and needs, which can increase the likelihood that they will engage with and share the content.

Furthermore, keyword research can help businesses identify gaps in the market that they can target with their video content. By identifying keywords that are being used by their competitors, businesses can develop unique video content that targets those keywords and stands out from the competition.

conducting keyword research for video seo optimisation

Create keyword-rich video titles

Video titles are a critical component of your overall video content strategy, and they play a crucial role in improving visibility and SEO rankings. A well-crafted video title can help attract viewers to your video, increase engagement, and ultimately drive more traffic to your website.

Including relevant keywords in your video title can help search engines understand what your video is about and improve its chances of appearing in search results. Conduct keyword research to identify the phrases and terms your target audience is searching for, and incorporate them into your video titles.

Also, a concise, descriptive title is more likely to catch viewers’ attention and encourage them to click on your video. Aim for a title that’s around 60 characters or less, and be sure to communicate the main topic or theme of the video clearly. This coincides with being specific, as this is key to a great video title. Specificity helps you to stand out from the competition and provides clarity to your potential viewers.

In addition, including a clear call-to-action in your video title can encourage viewers to engage with your content and take the desired action. Whether it’s to visit your website or share the video with others, a strong CTA can make a big difference.

keyword rich video title

Write a great video description

Video descriptions are an important element in improving the visibility and SEO rankings of your video. A video description is a brief summary or explanation of the content of a video, usually written in the form of text and included in the video’s metadata. When done correctly, video descriptions can help to increase the visibility and exposure of your videos, making it easier for people to find and watch them.

‘But how can you write the perfect description?’ I hear you ask. Well, providing context is a great place to start. This helps viewers to understand what the video is about. This can be especially helpful for people who are searching for specific information or topics, as they can quickly scan the description to see if the video is relevant to their interests. Including keywords in the description can help improve the visibility of your video in search results too. When writing your video description, be sure to include relevant keywords that people might use to search for the video, such as product names, industry terms, or common phrases related to the topic.

Furthermore, the descriptions also attract clicks and encourage engagement from users. It will entice people to click on the video when it appears in search results. So, by providing a compelling and informative summary of your video’s content, you can increase the chances that people will choose to watch it over others. This swings nicely to users engaging more, as the informative and extra content you write will encourage them to find out more information about your products or services.

video seo

Add video tags

If you’re not sure what a video tag is, then don’t worry – we will explain. A video tag is a keyword or phrase that describes the content of the video and helps search engines understand what the video is about. By using relevant and specific video tags, brands and creators can make their videos more discoverable to their target audience and increase their chances of appearing in relevant search results.

Video tags are a great way of enhancing the discovery of your video. When a user types a keyword into a search engine, the search engine matches the keyword with the relevant video tags and displays the most relevant videos. Thus, using relevant and specific video tags can help creators reach their target audience more effectively.

When using video tags, it is essential to use relevant and specific keywords that accurately describe the video’s content. General or vague tags may result in lower engagement and visibility, as they are less likely to match user search queries.

adding tags to youtube video

Include a video transcript

A video transcript is a written version of your video’s audio content. Including a transcript can help search engines understand your video content better. By including video transcripts on your website or video hosting platform, you can improve the visibility and SEO rankings of your video content.

A great benefit of using video transcripts is you can make your content accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. There are many people who struggle with their hearing and more often than not, they’re not able to fully understand a video due to there being no transcripts to follow along. So, including one will go a long way, and help reach a wider audience too.

Think about the video length

Furthermore, one way that video length can improve visibility is by increasing the amount of time that users spend on a website. Longer videos tend to keep users engaged for a longer period of time, which can increase the average time that users spend on a website. This, in turn, can signal to search engines that the website is providing valuable content to users, which can lead to improved rankings.

In addition, longer videos often provide more opportunities for keywords and other SEO elements to be included in the video. This can help improve the relevance of the video and increase its visibility in search results.

It’s important to note, however, that the length of a video should not come at the expense of quality content. Longer videos should still be engaging and informative, and should provide value to the viewer. If a video is too long and fails to keep the viewer engaged, it can actually have a negative impact on the video’s visibility and SEO ranking.

Overall, video SEO is a crucial part of any marketing strategy. Optimizing your videos for search engines can help increase visibility, reach, and engagement. By following the steps mentioned above, you can create videos that are optimized for better visibility and ranking. Remember to conduct keyword research, optimize your video title, description, and tags, include a transcript, and consider video length. With these tips, your videos can achieve better visibility.

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