The rise in popularity of video websites like YouTube, Metacafe, and Vimeo has meant the importance of video content to improve a website’s SEO, has been increasing rapidly. The fact that Google owns YouTube plays a large role in that, as do the ability for mobile devices to capture high-quality video images and the desire of those online to watch videos of all types.
It needs pointing out that whilst making videos and posting them on your website and other sites can help your SEO efforts, there are also additional steps you can take to maximise their impact. Some relate to the creation of the video and its content, whilst others involve how it is posted, which includes SEO elements on the page. We’ll start with those factors which can be undertaken as part of the video content creation:
Video Length – Long videos can be extremely informative, but the concern with longer videos is being able to keep the viewer’s attention. If someone lands on the page and then quickly moves on as they don’t have the time to watch it, then this can damage rather than help with SEO.
Transcripts – There are several benefits that can be derived from providing a transcript to your videos, apart from the customer-friendly aspect of making them accessible for those who have hearing difficulties. Transcripts allow for keywords to be used throughout if they are used in a natural way and give additional search terms by which the video may found on search engines.
Closed Captions – Many people watch videos in situations where it is not possible nor appropriate for them to do so with the audio turned on. Adding closed captions will allow them to follow the video without sound, and in Google’s view, this adds to the user’s experience.