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Guest Post by Digital Consultant, Kate Murray
Did you know that each month, more than 2.5 million people do a Google search wondering how to get more traffic to their website? SEO (search engine optimization) is a hot topic, and because Google often changes their algorithm to maintain their status as the world’s largest search engine, it’s essential for bloggers to keep the forward momentum going to be successful.
One particularly effective way to generate growth for your blog is through video and video SEO. It’s no secret that video has been growing as a popular form of online marketing year over year, but creating a video strategy isn’t just for those with big budgets! You can do it too!
Video has become a mega-trend, with a whopping 258% increase on Facebook over the past two years (Source: HubSpot).
If that’s not enough to stand out as a statistic worth paying attention to, according to Twitter’s blog, people are more than six times more likely to re-tweet a video because the perception is that video is more organic in their social feed. Sometimes a strategy just makes sense, so much so that you wonder why you didn’t start using it sooner.
Here are 5 ways to get started increasing engagement and traffic to your blog through video:
1. Add a Video to Your Blog
Adding a video to your website can increase your ranking on Google. Why? Because 93% of online experiences begin with a Google search (source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/).
When visitors watch your video, it reduces bounce rate by keeping people on your website longer. (Bounce rate means the percentage of people who land on one of your website pages, then leave without clicking anywhere else). Having a low bounce rate is a strong indicator to Google that people find value in your content.
Start by creating a short and compelling video (anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes) that introduces people to your blog and lets them know what they can expect to find on your website.
Here’s my video embedded straight from YouTube! No coding required – just copy the link from YouTube, add a YouTube block and paste the embed code in the space. Presto!
2. Properly Research Your Video Topic
SEO for video keywords is just as important in your video as they are in your blog posts’ meta-data. I recommend using the free Chrome Browser Extension Keywords Everywhere to research your video topic. This tool allows you to type a search term into Google and see the volume and competition of the word or phrase that you’re searching for.
The objective is to zero in on a particular phrase that has a lower search volume than the term your audience is searching for. By knowing the word’s search volume, you can then narrow your focus to a keyword phrase that more accurately describes your topic.
3. Optimize Your Video for SEO
Once you’ve created your video, you want to be sure it’s optimized for SEO. Here are the tactics to implement to ensure your video is seo optimized:
The video title should be repeated in the file name, description box, and tags. The keywords used in these places should be well researched (use the above-mentioned Keywords Everywhere browser extension).
Click here to watch a video about optimizing your video for SEO.
4. Optimize Your Video for Conversion
One of the most important but overlooked strategies is to optimize your video for conversion in the same way that you would write a blog post. An engaging video can be used to help convert your website visitors into leads.
Aim to create videos that offer tactical advice, a product demo, or an in-depth educational “how-to”. You can then provide your opt-in, purchase link, or affiliate link to whatever product or service you’re talking about in the video.
Because a video can display functionality or convey emotion in a way that a written article can’t, it’s a very effective medium for engaging your audience and promoting your topic.
5. Group Your Video Content into Collections
In the past 30 days, more video has been uploaded to YouTube than the U.S. Television Networks have created in the last 30 years!
But creating any old video isn’t enough. Video marketing is a lot like other forms of online marketing…you want to think about your audience first, and create videos that will help them achieve their goals.
Batch your video topics together into categories so that your audience instantly recognizes value in learning more about the topics that you’re introducing. This helps to create an ongoing relationship with your audience and establish credibility for the topic you’re teaching them about.
Once you’ve started producing videos, there are some other factors that are important to consider. YouTube SEO uses a combination of something called “watch time” as well as “views” to determine how your video will rank in their search results.
Keep in mind this is slightly different from Google’s search results but equally important. Like any of the social networks, YouTube wants you to remain on their network for as long as possible, so keeping people interested in your video all the way until the end is key. This is what they mean by “watch time.”
In addition, pay attention to your “hook” which is simply the introduction of your video. You want to give your viewers a reason to keep watching all the way until the end. Engagement (such as likes and comments) also help to influence the ranking factor of your videos.
Subscribing to a YouTube channel is not like a blog “email list.” Instead, it simply works like an old-school “tv guide” in that whenever you visit YouTube, a channel that you Subscribe to will be added as a choice in your channel lineup so that you can easily find it later.
Want to learn more about using video to help draw more traffic to your blog? Be sure to head over to my YouTube channel and click that Subscribe button! [https://youtube.com/voguemediareading]
What questions do you have about online marketing with video? Post them in the comments below!
Author Bio:
Kate Murray is the founder of Vogue Media, a creative digital consultancy passionate about helping bloggers make an impact and grow their traffic through the use of video and content marketing. Connect with me on Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Links:
Vogue Media: https://vogue-media.com
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/KateMurrayVogueMedia
YouTube: https://youtube.com/VogueMediaReading
Instagram: https://instagram.com/KateMurrayVogue
Thank you for the encouragement to add video to my blog! Video can add so much learning to a simple “how to” post or tutorial.
You are so welcome, Shauna!! I say jump on and just do it… I love videos in how-to posts!
Great tips! I never thought about adding a video to my site. Thanks!
Thank you! I’m so glad that you found this helpful!
I just started my YouTube channel and didn’t think to put the actual video in my blog post. I only used the link to it. Thanks for the info. I will use that tip for future post.
Oh yes! Absolutely embed those videos right to your post! I’m glad this was helpful for you 😉
What if A person doesnt think they are video worthy photogenic? I enjoyed reading this. Thanks
Hey Robert, thanks for reaching out :). Although I’m sure that this is not the case, people rarely are watching a video for the looks of the presenter- they are focusing on the content being provided. If you aren’t comfortable in front of a camera, don’t worry – lots of people are this way in the beginning. Once you have a few under your belt, you’ll be great!
Funny you say that, Robert…I think we all tend to be the most critical of our own self! Sasha is totally on point, most people are searching for answers to their questions, not so much what the presenter looks like. The more you do videos, the better you’ll get at it and the less you’ll care about what you look like.
I think this might be a great way to hopefully bring me some traffic. Do you suggest uploading to YouTube first always. I’m not currently using YouTube still trying to learn all the other social media outlets and not too sure how many videoed I will actual make but willing to give it a try.
I think it’s a great way to reach a new audience for sure! I load my videos to YouTube first send then embed them into my post with a YouTube block.
Thanks for reading Jenn! YouTube is a search engine in and of itself, and since it’s owned by Google, it’s always a great idea to optimize and add your videos there and on your own blog/website. ?
Thanks so much! I guess it’s time I get rave and venture into YouTube eek! Honestly before you said it Kate I never really thought of it as a search engine but wow I can’t even say how many times I’ve searched things on YouTube! Great advice thanks again ❤️
This is wonderful! I started to learn how to use video early on and I definitely see the impacts of it to grow business! Awesome relevant and directional post! You are right on the Gold girl!
Thank you, Marie!! Kate has some amazing tips here for sure! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post!
Thanks Marie! Glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing blogging tips on increasing engagement and exposing traffic Sasha! Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome, Tam! So glad that you found Kate’s post helpful 😉
Thanks Tam! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for this! I know I need to get more video to my blog. I’m working on figuring out how and this is helpful. Thanks!
Thank you, Charlene! Kate has a ton of tips on her YouTube channel as well! Make sure to check it out 😉
Thanks for reading Charlene!
I always love reading your guest posts! So much valuable information. Thank you for this post!
You’re welcome, Jess! Kate is definitely a video guru!
haha, I don’t know about guru, but thank you both! ?
These are some great tips. I need to try using video more often!
Thank you, Julie! Yes! Kate has some amazing tips about video. Make sure to check out her YouTube channel as well 😉
Thank you! This is so helpful.
Your welcome, Sue! I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
Perfect timing for this article! We’re starting to ramp up our video… and one of the ways we need to do this is with better SEO! Thanks for the help ?
Awesome Lisa!! Kate’s video skills are wicked!! So glad this came at a good time for you 🙂
Great to hear Lisa! Video SEO is often overlooked, so glad this is helpful for you!
Not quite there, yet. But this is a great idea, especially with travel. Although, really great with anything. It gives the blog a personal touch. People love that.
Absolutely, Jenny! Any time you can add a personal touch to something in your blog, it will help build those relationships.
Wow, these are really good tips to increase blog traffic. I’ve been dabbling with SEO but haven’t really thought about doing videos on my posts. I’ve bookmarked this so I can use this post to try my hand at a youtube traffic strategy.
Thank you, Marco! So glad you found these tips useful! Using video in your blog posts is like getting a double-whammy in terms of traffic and SEO from Google! You’ll have to let us know how things turn out! 🙂
Thank you, very informative post. I thought to adding videos, but I still have one question when viewers watch the video on the blog does the watch hour count as YouTube watch hour? Or how does it work?
Thank you so much!
Hi Nilakshi! If the embedded video was from YouTube, then the stats would show up there as well even if they watch it on your blog. Does that answer your question?