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How many times have you spent hours scrolling through YouTube videos? It may come as no surprise that YouTube is the second most preferred platform for watching videos. With more than 2 billion active monthly users, over 500 hours of video content is uploaded every minute.
Further still, YouTube is one of the largest search engines on the internet—second only to the powerhouse that is Google. 
Not only is it a preferred video platform, it's just as strong of an SEO opportunity.
Videography is an engaging way to create brand awareness, educate your audience, or simply provide entertainment to those interested in your product or service. While you're busy cultivating aesthetically interesting videos, you may not realize that videos present you with an opportunity to build your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Understanding how your videos work to build your SEO helps hone in one the multitude of benefits video content provides for your business. Let's take a look at what exactly is SEO, how your videos enhance it, and what you should be doing to optimize this content.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important tool to be included in your digital marketing strategy. SEO is the process of boosting your search engine rankings by using keywords and relevant content to drive organic traffic to your website. The more relevant your content is to a search query, the more likely it is to populate on that crucial first page, driving more visitors to your website and (hopefully) converting more customers.
Google receives over 75,000 searches per second and with that, the first five organic search results generate 68% of all the clicks. The higher your content ranks on search engines, the more likely your target audience will be able to find you online.
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Video content helps your business in a myriad of ways, but for the sake of time, we're focused on increasing those rankings. To be clear, a video alone will not have any SEO benefits. Simply posting a video online won't give you the boost you're looking for. Instead, you’ll provide value within the video material along with the included metadata, descriptions, and tags for optimal results.
Examples of metadata include:
It doesn't stop at the written content, however. Create a thumbnail to go along with your video that captures the main point and maybe even includes the title of the video. Publishing your video to sites such as YouTube and Vimeo will allow you to embed the video into various sites and webpages. This not only helps with the speed of your site, but the algorithm will also pick up the different types of media and content displayed.
Google’s algorithm favors sites that have various types of content. If your site features optimized content, an embedded video helps to increase your ranking.
Time spent on page is another valuable metric to show how your site is performing. The lower your bounce rate and the higher time spent on the page, the more Google likes your content. Users are more likely to spend time watching videos along with skimming through your written content.
Video content also presents another opportunity for link sharing. Including a link, or multiple links, to your website helps continue the conversation with prospects who've already shown an interest in your content. There's no limit to which links you include in your description, so feel free to include multiple links when it makes sense.
When everything is connected to each other, it’s easier for users to be directed to the right places, and they'll be able get familiar with your content, products, or services. This will improve your conversion rate, and also build upon your brand awareness.
Video marketing is consistently growing in demand and accessibility. Many consumers love video as it is easy to watch, listen, and digest. It’s 80% more likely for visitors to convert on a page that includes video. Utilizing video in your SEO strategy will ultimately increase engagement and view time on your pages, helping you rank higher in search results.
To begin adding video content into your marketing strategy today, reach out to the team at Modern Driven Media by clicking the button below.
