Video, it has been said, is the new text. I agree.
There is a growing contingent of practitioners who feel that websites should adopt content that not only embodies what is most important to the user but also enhances the user experience by seamlessly informing, engaging and informing through audio, text, imagery and video – everything but text.
I believe that a site owner who doesn’t add video is missing out; that they are missing a very big trick by not incorporating content that has the capability to connect with their intended audience.
People are no longer satisfied with a website where you can view content that’s just more links and click on hyperlinks to other pages. In today’s world, people search for content on their phones.”
People want to see images that are enticing, engaging, and telling in all the right ways. When they do that, they stay on the site more. They experience the content, have an emotional reaction to it and are more likely to click on a link and head to a different page that brings them to additional content.
Video is the perfect medium for this, especially with real people who are relatable to the material they are looking for.
Adding video to your content is a simple undertaking that only requires consideration of where the video will be placed on your site. My team recommends positioning video during the initial content sections of the site and instead of in the left-hand column, say the Topics or Categories of content pages.
If you have a good strategy for what you are trying to accomplish when you do something like this, and you follow your strategy, you will find that the more people who come to your site from viewing video, the more people you will convert to customers, and vice versa. The main benefit to adding video to your content is that you will not have to add a new code to your site which will save you hours of time.
Another big reason for adding video to your content stream is that search engines like Google and Bing/Yahoo are giving video a higher ranking (all other SEO being equal) and delivering video for search closer to the top of the organic Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).
The SERP’s show the user that a search result is video using a thumbnail image and user studies show people are more likely to click on an image link than text link. Video is more likely to get engagement and you deliver your message most effectively.
From a pure SEO perspective, video can be used to create high value inbound links to your site, which will create more site activities and interactions, leads etc. that you want from your site such direct as shares of that video.
You can use the Video to teach people about something or to encourage a call to action such as “click here for more information” or “Download our white paper” or better still “Contact Us for more information on our products and services”. Video has show.
People ask me “Can Google index a video?” According to Google Support, in order for Google to index a video, we must be able to see the thumbnail specified in your structured data or sitemap, the page the video is on, the video itself, and any JavaScript or other resources needed to load the video. Make sure that your robots. txt rules do not block any of these video-related resources.
You can choose to structure an SEO campaign on your own, but you can also turn to a professional who will save you a ton of time and utilize their experience to optimize your content and ads for you. If you’d like some assistance in coming up with the best video for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I can refer you to someone who can help!!
Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Great Toronto Area with over 25 years of experience in implementing marketing plans for small businesses.