The use and popularity of video has increased dramatically on the web in recent times. It's not hard to see why. After all, video helps simplify complex topics, and it's very popular with online users and when done right it improves conversion rates.
Video is a powerful addition to the toolbox of Content marketing from anyone. More than 60% of users say they are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. Video also helps with link building – pages with video get on average three times more inbound links than pages with just text.
If you've decided to embed video into your WordPress site, it's a decision that will likely pay off, assuming of course that you optimize those videos for search.
It doesn't matter where your videos are hosted, you want them found, so search optimization is crucial to your success.
Let's take a look at the basics of optimizing videos for your WordPress site.
How to add videos to your WordPress site
Right now, you have a critical choice to make: where will you host your video?
You can, of course, upload the video directly to your own site. This is Probably a big mistake (unless you have a powerful TOO server). Instead, host your videos on a site such as YouTube or Vimeo.
Why ? Well, On the one hand, video sites use multiple servers that are configured to meet the unique requirements of streaming video, while your server may not be.
YouTube is probably the most popular choice here. It's the second most important search engine (after Google), and it's free. It is also relatively easy to download a video, even for a first-time user.
Additionally, YouTube's simple integration tools, shown in the previous capture, make it easy to share your videos on your WordPress site, even if they are hosted on YouTube's servers.
It's usually easier to rank videos on YouTube than for those hosted on your own site.
Fundamentals of Optimizing Videos for Search
The fundamentals in SEO for videos are not as different from the basics of SEO for heavy web pages. Everything is driven by keywords and user intent. (Here, “user” means the end user – the person who consumes your content, whether text or video.)
Just like Google, YouTube presents some factors in its search ranking algorithm, including:
- Number of views that the video has earned
- The total average time the video is running (i.e., if a ten minute video is usually zapped after the first thirty seconds, it will work against it in the ratings)
- How often is video added to users' playlists
- Positive reviews and comments (total and percentage of total)
- How many subscribers you have on YouTube as a creator
- Number of times the video has been embedded on the web pages
In each of these factors, there is only one underlying factor that will help you rank highly: a high quality video. So, the first and most important SEO video schema is to create the highest quality video possible.
Keywords also matter, just like the SEO based on the text of the pages. That's because while videos are primarily a graphics medium, there are still many aspects of publishing a video that rely solely on text – primarily the title, description, and tags.
Do a little research of keywords before uploading your videos, preferably before you even create them. In this way, you will know with greater certainty what types of videos your users and prospects want to see.
You don't necessarily need to shell out a lot of money for keyword research services. The Google AdWords keyword planner tool will suffice in most cases.
Above all, your keywords and the surrounding text in these fields (title, tags and description) should sound natural to you. Don't fill in your keywords in-text multiple times or words that your users won't use to describe what they're looking for.
Use the keywords in three places, but mostly in the title and description. If this happens naturally, try putting your keyword phrase at the start of the title. The second best place is at the end of the title. Avoid the middle if possible, but don't sacrifice the flow of conversation in favor of placement or order.
Check with a quick Google search for your selected keywords before posting your video. Do videos appear on this first results page for the keywords in question? If so, that's a good thing. If not, change your keywords until you get a positive result.
Spend a little more time on your title. It's the first thing people will notice about your video, especially if it's hosted on YouTube, so it's good to make sure your title invites people to click and watch.
With your descriptions, you can get a little more creative. But you should aim to include keywords in this area in a thoughtful and strategic manner. Especially since your description should do its main job: i.e. describe the video itself.
One way to do this, while it's a method that probably lends itself better to shorter videos, is to provide a transcript in the description. It helps you include your keywords naturally and also helps your viewers at the same time. This is especially useful for videos on complex or confusing topics.
Read descriptions and titles aloud before finalizing the essay. This is the best way to identify problems with your keywords. If the copy naturally flows to your ear, then you've probably hit the right spot.
Promote your video once it's live. The more views the video gets, the higher it will rank in search results (on both YouTube and Google). So it's like a self-feeding loop that actually works to your advantage.
WordPress Plugins to optimize your videos for SEO
Yes, there are plugins that will help simplify SEO video work.
One in particular, which is recommended, mostly because it's from a developer who created what is perhaps the most popular SEO plugin of all time: Yoast SEO. The plugin in question is called " Yoast Video SEO for WordPress ».
It costs $ 69 for a license for a single site and $ 129 for up to five sites. But it does take care of all the SEO work for the videos, whether you upload and host them on your own site or on one of the supported platforms (including YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia).
That's all for this tutorial, I hope you will now know how to optimize your videos. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to share them with us.
