How to Optimize Your Website With Video Here's how you can better use video on you site.
By Syed Balkhi
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Today, people spend an average of 16 hours a week watching online videos, and 84 percent of them have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching the video. YouTube says that 70 percent of video consumption is happening on mobile devices. That's a lot of videos being consumed every day.
Businesses who aren't using video on their websites are missing out on a lot of potential traffic, customers and revenues. Most marketers will optimize their videos for search, but there are other ways to improve your website's search results with video. So, if you're starting with video on your business website or looking for help optimizing it, keep reading.
Here are seven ways you can optimize your website with video and reach a wider audience.
1. Encourage video client feedback
Sometimes it's just easier to talk than type, so tools like Typeform's VideoAsk platform make it easy to do. People can create and submit videos with these tools pretty quickly. Marketers can use these videos to go beyond data analysis and get invaluable information from people's facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.
2. Answer client questions
A video-based FAQ can be a creative way to answer client questions. You can still provide customers with the information they're looking for and build more trust with them. Seeing the faces of your employees helps humanize your brand and products, deepening the relationship and trust. Be sure to keep each video short and focused on a single topic to deliver the best results.
Related: 5 Reasons Businesses Should Focus on Creating Video Content
3. Foster brand loyalty with thank you videos
Saying thank you is an integral part of any relationship. It can improve the customer experience and foster loyalty to your brand. For example, when someone downloads a lead magnet or subscribes to your newsletter, thank them with a short video, then ask them to complete one additional task, such as filling out a quick survey. Video is a powerful tool when saying thank you because Vanessa K. Bohns writes in the Harvard Business Review that people are 34 times more likely to respond to any requests made in person than in writing.
4. Increase time spent on page
From an SEO perspective, videos can have a significant impact on your website. They can increase the time spent on-page, which is a ranking factor for Google. Further, by including keywords in the video and related transcriptions on the page, you'll also increase your rank for keyword searches.
5. Choose the right hosting platform
Your choice of video hosting platform will depend on what you want to achieve by adding the videos. Are you looking to generate more website traffic or leads? Or are you trying to vary your content formats to appeal to a broader audience?
- If you're concerned about anything other than traffic, you can host your videos on any platform you like, such as Vimeo or Wistia.
- If you're looking to increase traffic and views, upload your videos to YouTube because Google is more likely to rank videos hosted on YouTube above all others in search results.
The key action here is to embed the videos on your website regardless of the platform you use to host them. Doing so ensures your site also gets the SEO boost from it being hosted elsewhere. Further, these platforms make it easy to embed the videos on most website platforms like WordPress or Drupal.
Related: 17 Ways to Get More Views, Engagement and Shares on Your Facebook Videos
6. Place the video at the top of web pages
No matter where you include video on your business website, ensure there's only one video per page. If you're looking to get a particular one indexed by Google, make sure to put that one at the top. Google typically only indexes one video per page and usually does the first one it finds on the page. Keep this in mind if you've collected videos on a single page, like an archive page or long landing page.
7. Create human-centered thumbnails
Video thumbnails can help catch people's attention when they're scrolling your website or search results. They're static ads for the video that should encourage people to click play. And they don't even have to be a frame from the video to be effective.
Moz does a wonderful job with this on their Whiteboard Friday series. They create individual, fun photos to use as a thumbnail for their videos.
An integrated video strategy for your website can boost traffic and SEO while delivering great value to your audience. The videos give life to your brand and present a human face to your business. The bottom line is this: Video can drive results across your website, no matter where you use it.
