Search engine optimization (SEO) is how brands push their content over the edge and increase organic site rankings. When most people think of great content, long-form blog posts, snappy social media quips, and functional landing pages typically come to mind. Yes, all those examples are of content that can make SEO a worthwhile investment. Yet, the latest SEO-winning content is already here and will only become more prominent. Video marketing is an excellent way to build your brand and help your site gain a loyal following. Clickable, watchable, and likable videos are essential, but what can you do to ensure they make it in front of your target audience? If you’re creating videos, there’s no doubt you’re putting a lot of time, money, and creativity into your branding. Make sure Google ranks and indexes your videos! Follow our six tips for mastering video optimization as you explore the latest horizon in SEO.

1. Always Put Quality in Front of Your Audience

We’ll start by saying that this doesn’t mean going out and buying the latest multi-thousand-dollar piece of filming equipment. Quality videos always matter to your audience. Yet, a great video can be just as lucrative when filmed from a smartphone attached to a tripod. Good audio, good lighting, and an entertaining/educational message are all you need to succeed. A quality video will have all three qualities and give relevant advice to its audience, making their time watching worthwhile. Answer their questions, address their concerns, and show them why your video can improve their lives today! If your video hits these notes, audiences will likely love and share your content. However, if you review your video and don’t have the urge to spread the word, it’s probably time to hit the drawing board again and improve your quality.

2. Don’t Drop Your Keyword Research

Keyword research is a crucial component of SEO, no matter what type of content you create. Once you know the kind of video you want to make, use a keyword research tool like SEMRush or YouTube’s auto-complete search function to learn more about the terms people use surrounding your topic. Now that you know what keywords are gaining clicks, you can use the big rankers and semantics to optimize your video’s script, description, and metadata to help it rank.

3. Transcribe, Transcribe, Transcribe!

Your video should be entertaining and accessible to mass audiences and Google crawlers. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through a video transcript. Not only does a word-for-word transcript of your video increase its accessibility for viewers with hearing limitations or sensitive roommates, but it makes your video easy for bots to index. Transcriptions serve as additional content and help you get those additional keywords and descriptions into your video that can positively impact its rankings.

4. Find the Right Video Host

Identifying who to use as a video host is key to reaching your goals. Hosts like YouTube and Vimeo are great for branding opportunities but aren’t the best place to grab an audience. These hosts catch viewers and prompt them to view a similar video afterward. If you’ve built a library of content across these hosts, they can be a great way to bring relevance to your brand. However, if you want to drive traffic to your website where you’ll use video content for conversions, a host like Dailymotion or Facebook may be a better choice for reliable hosting. The bottom line is that research is paramount in finding a video host that meets your needs. Ask questions, work with your SEO team, and find out what hosts your competitors or related creators are using.

5. Focus on Your Thumbnail Image

Let’s face facts, no matter how excellent video content is, if it doesn’t have a captivating thumbnail, you aren’t going to give it a click. When Google indexes your video, the thumbnail you create is the viewer’s first impression of your content. You want your thumbnail image to be high-quality, engaging, and tell the story of your video. Remember, you can use words within a thumbnail, but a great thumbnail should sell your content with a well-crafted, clever image.

6. Optimize Your Video Title and Description

Yes, even in the video sector, optimizing titles and meta descriptions means there is no escaping keyword research. Research and creativity should be your driving force behind creating titles that describe your video for readers and Google crawlers. Your video description should give you more freedom to use valuable keywords and semantics to sell your video to an audience. Remember that while keyword use is essential, keyword stuffing into titles and descriptions makes your post seem like a red flag rather than clickable. If you read your title and description and think, “Hey, I’d like to see more,” your video content is on the right track.

Press Record and Hit Record Rankings With Dallas SEO Dogs

If you’re already at full speed with an SEO strategy but need help implementing newer content approaches like video in your repertoire, the experienced team at Dallas SEO Dogs can help. Our SEO professionals have excelled at video creation and video optimization for our clients already using the practice. We’ve helped brands from several industries rank quality, entertaining, educational videos. Let us show you how much a little showmanship can push your rankings.   About the author: We started as a small SEO company with 4 employees in 2006. Today, we’re a comprehensive digital marketing agency with a staff of 30+. Dallas SEO Dogs is one of the leading digital marketing agencies in the United States. We are a close group diverse in ethnicity, gender, age, personality, interest, and religious background. Team members have different experiences, perspectives, and insights into a wide array of business types and audience demographics.