How to Drive Engagement, Traffic and SEO with Videos

What does the stat that YouTube is the second most visited website after Google mean? It means that now more than ever before, web users are consuming more video content. And for marketers, this is an opportunity that should not be missed; every keyword you are using to target the market is an opportunity for video now.

Video marketing could be great for your SEO needs. Statistics point to web users growing love for videos. According to HubSpot, the proportion of people who watch videos online daily is 55 per cent. YouTube is now the second most visited search engine, and it reports a billion unique visitors each month.

Data even shows that YouTube outperforms cable networks among the 18-34 demographics in the U.S.  Therefore, including short, helpful YouTube clips to your blog post is surely going to boost your engagement.

Videos help web users consume more content quickly and increase conversion rates by 86 per cent. So, vlog on fellas here is how to drive engagement, SEO and traffic using videos.

The reasons to add videos to your website

The digital world is fast; everyone is on the move looking for a helpful yet exciting experience online. Sites no longer have to be a collection of related static brochures. Web users’ great affinity for videos is clear and here is why you should consider adding videos to your blog posts:

Videos keep visitors on the website for a little bit longer

So, your blog visitors have been taking off after a few seconds on the blog pages? Did you know you could keep them for about 3 minutes using video marketing?

The online cyberspace is full of snap judgements and split-of-a-second decisions. It only takes 0.05s for web page visitors to form opinions about a website. But consumers now mainly consume content through videos. The surest way to reduce bounce rate is to post videos alongside blog content.

Videos are now shown as part of google search results

Every performing keyword now is an opportunity for video marketing to boost the chances of web users finding you using certain keywords. Google now shows video content among search results. And video marketing is a gift that keeps giving because not only will you be visible for specific keywords, but if you do it properly to engage customers for longer, you will rank higher. The reason is that Google ranks pages depending on how long visitors stay on them.

Videos help create compelling brand experiences

Videos are freaking memorable. If you want to exercise your brand’s influence and reach prospective audiences, use video marketing. Successful businesses are using videos to demonstrate how products work, share expertise and tell the story behind their brand. This way, they manage to engage prospects and build connections that lead to brand loyalty.

There is a high chance of people remembering video content more than text. 8 in 10 people who watch videos retain the information for more than a month. Videos can also be used to pack a lot of information. A one-minute video, for example, is equivalent to 1.8 million text words; how cool!

Videos are engaging and share-friendly

Sometimes showing is easier than telling. If you want them to stay on the page just a little bit longer and consume more content, create more dynamic content using videos. Web users get bored easily by long, static brochure sites. Videos, on the other hand, elicit feelings while communicating value at the same time.

Videos are also share-friendly; there’s a high chance of a post going viral. Statistics show that more than half of people who watch blog videos follow this with actions such as sharing the video with friends, reposting, googling the brand, checking out the recommended items etc.

The transition from text to video is not going to slow down anytime soon. Video content is predicted to make up 82 per cent of consumer internet traffic in 2020. Failure to wake up and start posting helpful videos alongside your static blog content is the surest way to lose the online business.

But not all blog post videos are created equal…

If you are thinking that you can keep web users on your site by merely putting together mixed messages, you are wrong. In as much as everybody loves to watch videos on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and more, consumers only respond to videos that are easy to follow, short and helpful with a clear call to action. Want to know not to fail your 2020 video marketing objectives? Here are the practical tips for powering up your blog stats with videos:

Creative sources that could inspire your next video

Have you run out of ideas to vlog about on your business website? Your next video marketing content doesn’t have to come out of the space; the following could just serve as good video marketing ideas:

·       A short video announcing the next big business deal.

Instead of merely tweeting your next big deal choose to spread a video about it on social media. The advantage here is you can add personality to the big announcement and even make it fun using animations.

·       A spin-off of something popular.

A parody of current trending topics, clips and videos? Why the butts not? As long as you can make it relevant to your business/brand, don’t let the excitement die down without mining it. Add a new twist to what’s currently trending and let your business benefit.

·       A revival of the old content

Do complementary videos to blog posts to improve their ranking. While at it, update the text and keywords a little then publish. Reviving old posts using videos is the only way to make it attractive to visitors and let google know that the content is still relevant.

·       Testimonials

Turn footage of loyal customer interviews into customer happiness videos that act as brand endorsements. Videos add credibility to testimonials, bringing the customer history with your brand to life.

·       A video walk-through on how your products work.

Sometimes showing is easier than telling. Videos are a great opportunity to showcase hand-on-approach how customers can use and benefit from your product. So, don’t just tell, show them how.

·       A Question-Answer session.

Thinking of vlogging a little on your business website? Now is a great opportunity to hold those questions-answer sessions. I’m sure your customers have questions about your business, take these into a livestream and make things engaging and personal.

·       A behind-the-scenes sneak peek on your business operations.

Introduce your team, show the creation process, etc. such video clips make customers feel special as if you are sharing you secretes with them. It creates a feeling of inclusiveness. And who doesn’t like to belong?

Other ideas for video marketing include street interviews, self-help videos, vines, product reviews, unboxing videos etc.

How to optimise video for success

Learn how to make your video engine-friendly. Simply using trendy keywords as the video title and or description is not all you can do.

·       Keyword research is important

Yes, every keyword for targeting an online audience is an opportunity for video marketing, but the key is to remain catchy if you want to go viral. Use trendy keywords that people are searching for; you can find performing keywords using YouTube’s autocomplete feature, KeywordTool.io, or just sneak a peek at your competition or what’s trending on YouTube.

What are the video formats people love? What are the current hot tags? What are people confessing about?  Once you know the top trending keyword, figure out how to make it relevant to your blog content. Get to brainstorming now.

·       Keep the video length about 2 minutes

Blog videos should be short but pack a ton of information. Please keep in mind that 33% of web visitors stop watching videos after 30 seconds, 45 % switch off after a minute, and 66 per cent won’t go beyond the second minute.

·       Include video transcripts

A search engine won’t pick a video that is missing a transcript. So, your blog video failed to perform? Maybe it’s because you failed to add transcripts. Transcripts are used for indexing by search engines to rank video content. Online tools such as GMR Transcription can help caption every video you upload.

·       Add relevant tags

Do you want search engine algorithms to understand your video to rank it better? Include all metadata – tags, title and descriptions for the video. Tubebuddy, for example, can help you add cards and annotations to videos with just a few click.

·       Add Subtitles

85 per cent of videos are watched with no sound on, so consider making the experience enjoyable by adding subtitles. The advantage is that subtitles can be in any language to capture different demographics.

·       Repurpose videos to create extra content

You could turn the video into a text article for your blog and boost your SEO status. You could also strip the audio and create podcasts from it too. Tweet bits of the clip too or post short clips of it on Facebook and other social media channels.

·       Autoplay vs looped

Web users like to exercise their freedom, allow them to replay a video instead of putting it on a loop. Otherwise, you risk losing 80% of web visitors if the video is on a loop.

The take-home, current web users, have a very short attention span, the surest way to keep them engaged to brand online is through videos. Videos can be fun, memorable and shareable. But not all blog videos are created equal; execution matters, don’t sell too hard, try to be authentic too; have a clear call to action and promote the hell out of your video.