The Critical Importance of Video SEO and Why it Requires Marketing Attention

It’s easy for businesses to acknowledge the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) for their websites. After all, viewers won’t find a website if it isn’t properly optimized. Yet, many in the addiction treatment space remain slow to appreciate the need for more than just general SEO in their digital marketing toolbox. In fact, nowadays video SEO is more important than ever. Given the greatly increasing popularity of videos, this fact should surprise precisely no one.

Although content still has its place, the power of video should never be underestimated. Viewers in many cases will pick video content before picking written content and Google, of course, knows this. That’s why search engine page results feature video thumbnails at the top of page one results. That very prominent real estate is being fought over, and the winners deployed effective video SEO to get there.

When thinking about video SEO, keep the following three things in mind:

It can lead to more views
It can greatly influence your website’s overall Google ranking
It can help any related web pages improve their ranking

Video and Ranking Power

Video consumption on mobile devices is increasing exponentially, which makes video SEO an important element for any behavioral health care website. Google is well aware of the fact that viewers remain longer on websites containing video content. They see video as something that web viewers find valuable, which means they’ll rank websites containing video higher.

In terms of ranking power, video outshines written content considerably. Studies tell us that a video is fifty times more likely to rank well than a piece of written content on the same subject (Karr, 2014; Cournoyer, 2013; Blue Corona, 2018). The reason is incredibly simple: far fewer videos are produced each day than written content. While written content is generated easily, videos take more time and effort, and usually require a greater set of skills to produce.

In short, a video stands a better chance of ranking simply because less is competing with it. That’s actually something of an understatement. The chances of a text page becoming a page one result on Google are roughly 500,000 to one. Contrast that with the chances of a video doing the same and it’s eleven thousand to one. It’s the difference in these odds that’s making those in the addiction treatment space look harder at the value of video SEO for website success.

The Fundamentals of Video SEO

As you strive to include more video content associated with your website, keep in mind the following with YouTube videos:

Titles

The title of a video is one of two main reasons that people will click on it (the thumbnail is the other). While it’s smart to always include an important keyword phrase, it’s meaningless if the title doesn’t catch the viewer’s attention. The only way it will do that is if it’s clearly relevant to their interests.

Video Descriptions

For many video creators, the description is an afterthought and little more than a nuisance. That’s a mistake. The video description field functions much like a meta description on a web page. It’s there that you want to include important keywords and phrases that are relevant to the subject matter of the video.

Although content still has its place, the power of video should never be underestimated.

Many video descriptions completed by video are just a couple of sentences. This is also a mistake. In fact, video descriptions can be as long as five thousand words. To put that into perspective, it would be possible to put a total of six, eight-hundred-word blogs into this space and still be a couple hundred words short of the maximum. Clearly, the video description space is ideal for detailed descriptions that are keyword rich. As with general SEO, the right keywords for video SEO will be found after extensive keyword research.

Thumbnails

In addition to the video title, the thumbnail is what determines whether people watch a video. However, it can’t be just any image. It must be something that grabs the viewer’s attention and won’t let go.

When a video is uploaded to YouTube, three entirely arbitrary thumbnails are generated for the video creator to choose from. More often than not, these random thumbnails aren’t the best possible representation of a video. That’s why it’s so important to upload a customized thumbnail of your own creation.

Think of the video thumbnail as you would a small display ad. It should be created by a graphic designer. Unattractive ads don’t work, and neither will unattractive video thumbnails. Seize the opportunity to add visually dynamic graphics to whichever imagery best represents the overall idea of your video.

How Embedded Videos and Web Page Content Help Each Other

Video SEO contributes to ranking when your video is closely associated with a corresponding page on your website that addresses the same topic. Fortunately, links to web pages can be added to videos at whatever point they seem appropriate.

Video Scripts

When you post a blog containing an embedded video, it’s wise to feature a transcript of the video’s audio within the page content. This matters for three critical reasons:

Transcripts of your video provided in body content help readers and may induce them to click on the video, or readers will jump to the text because they don’t wish to view the video at that moment.
By providing a transcript of the video, Google can see the words and understand the content of what was said in the video even though the algorithm can’t actually “watch” the video.
The video transcript is almost certainly going to contain a plethora of valuable keywords, which in turn help the web page’s ranking.

Video SEO is Integral For Increasing Google Ranking

Naturally, you want more traffic coming to your behavioral health care website. One increasingly effective way to do that is by deploying video SEO in all videos you post. Just as you invest time and resources in general SEO, you must also make video SEO a priority in your digital marketing plan.

References
Blue Corona. (2018). SEO statistics that every marketer should know in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/2017-seo-statistics/
Cournoyer, B. (2013). Six cool stats about video SEO (and what they mean to you). Retrieved from https://www.brainshark.com/ideas-blog/2013/August/
6-cool-stats-about-video-seo
Karr, D. (2014). Digital marketing and the impact of video. Retrieved from https://martech.zone/digital-marketing-video/

Dan Gemp

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Dan Gemp is the president and CEO of Dreamscape Marketing, a full-service digital marketing agency serving the health care industry based in Columbia, Maryland. A graduate of Villanova University’s School of Business, Gemp applies financial modeling to Dreamscape’s business intelligence campaigns to advise clients on a cost-per-action marketing model. He is a nationally recognized speaker on ethical health care marketing and maintains a year-round speaking schedule. Gemp’s unique perspective at the intersection of business, digital marketing, and health care has made him a thought leader and go-to contributor to many health care podcasts, webinars, and publications including Bloomberg and The New York Times.