Search engine optimization is becoming incredibly challenging and unpredictable. As search engines are integrating generative AI and learning to surface more diverse results, creating a strategy to rank your pages in the top 5 takes a lot of trial and error.
Video marketing is almost equally challenging. Gone are the days when you had to invest in professional equipment and hire an editor to be able to create a video. These days anyone can create great videos at home and edit them using affordable software. The competition is insane.
Videos are very search-friendly if you optimize them the right way. In this post, we’re going to look at the ways you can optimize your videos on the top networks, YouTube and Vimeo, for increased search rankings and views.
When it comes to organic search, there are two distinct opportunities we are targeting here:
- Video rich snippets (these are usually earned when you embed your Youtube code on your page)
- Video carousels (or video packs): These are separate sections within organic search results, and they are pretty easy to capture. All you need is a traditional SEO.
Here is how to best optimize your videos on YouTube and Vimeo for better search rankings and increased views.
Titles
The title is one of the primary elements of optimizing your video for search as it is equivalent to the SEO title for the video page on YouTube and Vimeo. Therefore, the standard rules apply.
Keep it under 65 – 70 characters, including the main keywords you want it to rank for, and make it appealing for visitors to encourage more views. Think of your video title just like the headline for your blog posts – eye-catching and SEO-friendly! Keyword stuffing is not advised. Using ChatGPT to brainstorm better video titles is a great idea.
If you are using videos as a way to boost your personal reputation or the reputation of your business, be sure to include your brand name.
Descriptions
The description of your video is important for a couple of reasons. For starters, the first 160 characters count as the meta description for your video page on YouTube and Vimeo. While meta descriptions don’t necessarily help with rankings, they do come up in search results in both the major search engines and the networks’ own search results.
The descriptions also come up as a snippet when you share the video on Facebook and other social networks. This makes the description highly valuable for encouraging views.
As an added bonus, you can include links to your website in the video description. You just need to try to include your links earlier on in your description as most of the description gets cut off at a certain length on both YouTube and Vimeo, and visitors will need to click on the See More / Read More to see them if they are past that point.
Transcription
Is it important to say your primary keywords, name, and business name in a video? It just might be. YouTube automatically transcribes your videos. This means they can make search results for videos more accurate by indexing the video content itself.
On a side note, if you’re curious about any verbal ticks you might have while speaking during a video (like using a lot of um’s), they will be more noticeable in the interactive transcript.
Thumbnails
Take advantage of the ability to choose a thumbnail for both YouTube and Vimeo videos. A good thumbnail could encourage a view the same way a bad one could discourage a view, especially when your video is jumbled in with others in search results.
Embedding
If you want to increase your video views, allow your videos to be embedded. Better yet, add a Creative Commons license to them in the Advanced Settings on both YouTube and Vimeo. This will encourage more people to share them, and potentially increase the links to them as well. It is a good idea to use Youtube gallery plugins on your site to showcase your video content on your site.
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