Video content is an exceptional method of attracting customers to your website, getting them to stay longer, and increasing the chance that they’ll purchase your product. It isn’t only visitors to your site who are influenced by video content, however, search engines are also heavily impacted by video content. This means that by adding video content to your business promotional efforts you are increasing your audience and you are improving your search engine ranking.
4 Ways That Video Content Can Improve Your SEO Efforts
1. Social Shares Are Important!
Video content is visually appealing and when you make sure that that content is also engaging, you are ensuring that your website visitors stay around longer. By sharing this content on your social networks you are also attracting the attention of new clientele and spreading the word about your brand to audiences who may otherwise not be aware of your brand. Not only that, but you are increasing the likelihood that watchers of your video content are going to share that video content with others via social sharing.
All in all, video content is a powerful tool for increasing your exposure and that increased exposure will increase your website traffic. This, in tandem with the fact that video content keeps visitors on your site for longer, increases your search engine standing.
2. The Power of YouTube
YouTube is a search engine in its own right, in fact, it’s the second largest search engine after Google. Due to the way that YouTube is structured, however, you have much more control over how your video content is seen and what key terms it is linked to.
By creating your own YouTube channel and uploading your video content to your channel, you are carving out your own section of the YouTube search engine territory. Doing this doesn’t only mean that your video content is listed in the YouTube search engine results though, it also puts you in favor with Google.
YouTube is owned by Google and when it comes to search results, Google has a preference for YouTube content. So, for example, if you have a video promoting a dog grooming business on YouTube and another business has a website dedicated to dog grooming, Google search engine is going to give your content preference because it is linked in the YouTube search engine.
3. Video Content Keeps Website Visitors Longer
You will notice that I have mentioned the fact that video content keeps website visitors longer more than once. Why does video content keep your website visitors longer though? What is it about video content that gets people to stay on your site longer than written content?
When you present written content on your website you have a single sentence to grab the attention of your readers. You then have to keep your readers engaged with nothing but the written word. This can be difficult, to say the least, and it does little to give your readers a true picture of what your brand is about.
When you use video content on your website, however, you can cram much more information into that initial first few seconds of exposure. You can also engage your website visitors with visual, audio, and informational content which is much easier to do than using the written word alone.
How does this affect your search engine ranking though?
The longer visitors stay on your site to watch your video content, the longer the average time spent on your site per visitor. When your website visitors stay on your site for longer periods of time Google takes this as a sign that visitors trust your website. This then increases your authority and improves your Google ranking.
4. Rich Snippets For Video Content Attract More Clicks
Rich snippets are the content that search engines provide for search results in addition to the meta description that you provide. Rich snippets may include reviews and pricing information as well as other pertinent information for consumers. When you use video content on your website, Google search results then show a screenshot thumbnail of your video along with the video description. This information serves to draw in Google visitors, encouraging them to click through to your website. The more people click through to your website the more authority your site has in the eyes of search engines.
Need Help Putting Video Content to Work For Your Small Business?
If you need help putting video content to work for your small business, give me a call at 727-475-6460! I offer all of my clients a free consultation, all you have to do is pick up the phone. Let me tell you how I can make your video content a driving force for your small business online presence.
