Video could be a game changer for your business. 93% of businesses reported gaining a new customer as a direct result of a video posted on social media (Animoto), and of businesses using video marketing, 76% reported an increase in traffic due to video (Wyzowl).
Video is so effective because users like watching video content. It gives prospective customers an easy way to learn something new or get information about your brand. If the video is on your website, it also decreases the bounce rate as it encourages users to stay on that page for longer. And the longer visitors stay on your site, the better-quality your website will be perceived by search engines.
You SEO can also get boosted by video content. If you want to make a difference in your site traffic with video, try following these tips:
Consider hosting your video on YouTube
YouTube is owned by Google, so it’s easy to see why Google may reward you for using their video service. If your video is on YouTube, it will show up in the Video results tab for search results, which gives you more opportunities for people to see your content.
Plus, it’s easy to embed YouTube videos on your website, post to social, and use wherever else you want to put a video. And by hosting the video on YouTube, and not uploaded directly to your website, you can help reduce load times.
Use Text Intelligently
As smart as Google is, it can’t use the words in your video to help you rank. So that’s why you need to take advantage of al lthe copy available to you. Provide as much information as possible to the search engines with your titles, file names, descriptions, and tags. Use keywords in those titles as well. If you put the video on your site, surround it with relevant content that provides a better summary of the video.
Add Subtitles/Captions
Adding subtitles is practically a necessity. This will help encourage people to watch your video and spend more time on the page. Videos are frequently watched on mobile devices where people don’t have headphones, so make it easy for people to enjoy your content with subtitles.
This is another advantage of uploading your video to YouTube, as they will add captions automatically. It won’t be perfect, but you can go in and edit the captions yourself. You can also upload a caption file, which can be time-consuming.
Facebook will also add auto-captions to videos you upload to the site and can be edited as needed.
Add a Video Sitemap
While the information on your video sitemap might duplicate some of the keyword labels used to identify the video, it is a separate process. Video sitemaps are an extension to the general sitemap of your Web property. Metadata that may be customized include duration, rating, view count, age appropriateness, whether the video may be embedded and other useful information.
Link to Your Website From YouTube
All descriptions of your videos on YouTube should include a link to the relevant page on your website. This will encourage those who find your video online to get to your website, which increases traffic.