SEO Guide | How To Optimize Your Video For Google Search?

Video content has long gained popularity among the audience, and among business owners as a consequence. This type of content is perfect for promoting goods and services in a way that appeals to modern users but for the video to be discoverable, you need to pay attention to its promotion. Fortunately, most SEO best practices can be applied to video content optimization as well. 

So, how to create a video SEO strategy to get high Google or Youtube search rankings? What tips and tools of SEO for video content in 2022 should you use? Let’s find it out.

Getting Started with SEO Video Marketing

Before getting started with promoting your video with the help of SEO tools, make sure you understand the essence of video marketing as such. The smarter strategy you have from the very beginning, the easier it would be for your video to reach the top and appear in front of the target audience. 

The matter is in the fact that each of your videos should correspond to the sales funnel stage. For example, a brand advertising video is a tool for creating awareness at the top of the sales funnel. A product video, in turn, should be used in the consideration stage. How-to videos and tutorials are great for creating engagement in the post-purchase stage. 

It was the essence of video marketing but what is SEO video marketing? SEO video marketing, in turn, is the promotional process that implies using the SEO best practices, tips, and tools but in the framework of video promotion. 

Similarities Between Video and Photo Optimization 

The basic principles of video SEO are similar to optimizing photos and images for Google Search. For video optimization, there are additional options, which are described below. Now, for understanding, let’s look at a simpler example, in photographs: 

• Uniqueness. And so, we know that Google loves uniqueness. The uniqueness of photos cannot be increased with the help of retouching services. Likewise with videos, applying filters and adding a splash screen won’t make a video unique;
• Quality. If the photo quality is at least at an average level, there will be no problems with its ranking. Advice for those who for some reason use JPEG format instead of WebP or AVIF – edit photo with compression at photo retouching studios. They are able to reduce the size of the photo as much as possible without losing the quality, more significant than your site’s CMS or Photoshop;
• Text. A very important role (besides the alt attributes) for ranking images and videos plays as the text attendant to them. Try to use the keywords you need in it; 
• File name. It has a minimum value, but it is better not to neglect this possibility and use the keyword in the file name as well (for separators, use a hyphen instead of an underscore).

Top Ways To Get Your Video On High Google Rankings

Video SEO optimization involves promoting video content through the use of keywords and backlinks. This is an opportunity to get a high ranking in the search results. But it is worth considering that each search engine has its unique algorithms and there is a need to use SEO approaches right. If we talk about ways to get backlinks, it is possible to use link building software. In addition to promoting blog posts in such a way, there are also several tactics to promote a video. Plus, you have to use the quick win keywords that will help make your video better discoverable, and more visible, so let’s move step by step. 

Optimize Titles and Descriptions

How do optimize headlines to get to the top of Google search results? The best practices of video SEO show that you can trace the following combination of keywords in the titles of the top videos:

• [keyword] video
• How to [keyword]
• [keyword] tutorial
• [product model] review
• [product] [brand] video

You can also add the name of a company or an online store, which will allow you to stand out in the ranking among YouTube videos in the search results. What’s more, your video script should also contain the necessary keywords so that the algorithm understands that your content matches the request. 

And here is how to use the keywords in the titles and descriptions of your video. The title of your video can contain at least 5 words including the key one. As for the description of the video, it allows search engines to understand its content. Here’s what to consider about it:

• The main key must be in the first 25 words.
• The length of the description should not be less than 250 words.
• Use the keyword 2 to 4 times.
• Tags are an important promotional tool on YouTube. It allows you to appear more often in recommendations among similar videos.

Create Subtitles

Subtitles can play a decisive role in video ranking. This is because subtitles will be displayed from text files that will be indexed by search engines. Also, the presence of subtitles will play a role in user behavior. That is, the presence of subtitles in the video allows you to capture more audiences than without them. This is a good way to reach an international audience and enter new markets if we talk about the use of a video as a tool to promote business. 

Image optimization for preview 

Thumbnail affects the ranking of your video. The same as with the description for the site, where it affects the CTR, and the CTR affects the position of the site. Only the description role of the video is performed by the image used for the preview. If you have enough design and Photoshop skills, you can prepare your thumbnail photo yourself. If not, you can order it from the studio to prepare a thumbnail for Youtube based on your image. If the budget is tough, order thumbnail creation from a freelancer on UpWork or People per hour.

Post on Popular Platforms

Using external sites to host videos is a way to get effective and high-quality backlinks. By posting your video content on platforms like Dailymotion, Veoh, or Flickr, you will get external links and strengthen your SEO strategy. External links are taken into account when indexing your video in search engines.

Analyze The Core Metrics

Every SEO strategy needs performance analysis, and your video promotion isn’t an exception. Below are the key performance indicators you should track. 

• Video comments. They demonstrate the interest of the audience in this video.
• Subscribe after viewing. However, this does not only apply to videos on YouTube. But if we talk about YouTube, then this is a confirmation of high-quality and interesting content.
• Video sharing. This has a positive effect on rankings and also increases traffic to your website or video channel.
• CTR. To increase the click-through rate, you need to create compelling previews. Pay attention to pixstacks.com to get insights about the logo. 

Wrapping Up

Promoting a video with the help of SEO tactics isn’t very difficult. The core task is to pick and use the relevant and winning keywords, enchant your SEO strategy with backlinks, add your videos to text content, and engage with your audience to make them share your videos, increasing organic reach.