While it may seem to be an interesting fact that YouTube has more number of searches than Yahoo or Bing, online videos have undoubtedly seen significant growth over the last couple of years. By 2017, it is estimated that online video content will account for 69% of the total internet traffic. Not only on the popularity front but video marketing can also add as an effective component of SEO. To add, even Google and other search engines consider the substantial role of online videos while ranking websites.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to the process of obtaining traffic from the non- paid, free and organic search results on search engines. The process of SEO highly depends on the organization’s content marketing strategy. However, the SEO experts have realized lately that the long term marketing goals cannot be achieved only through creating a large number of links and backlinks. The success of your SEO strategy entirely depends on creating high- quality and user- friendly pieces of content. Here comes the importance of video marketing as visuals are the best way to capture your audience’s attention. If used in an appropriate way, video marketing can become one of the most significant channels in your marketing strategy. Also, various search engines prefers websites with videos on their search engine rankings.

Let us have a look on how to ensure a strong video marketing strategy helps in Increasing Seo Rankings-

• Ensuring Video Identification– It is very important to provide a catchy but accurate title and SEO friendly description to your video. The description or title should be to the point and never misleading.
• Effective Keyword Placement– Relevant keywords should be used to define the video. Keywords should be placed in titles, file names, descriptions and tags. Keywords play a vital role in increasing SEO rankings by reinforcing those used on the website.
• Embedded Video Links– Another point to keep in mind is ensuring to get the correct embed code to place the video directly on the relevant pages. Adding another link on your video on YouTube won’t help much as the traffic will navigate from your website. You can also create a YouTube channel and insert your web page into your channel profile.
• Sharing on Social Media– Though YouTube will be your main social media channel in video marketing, you shouldn’t ignore the role of other platforms, especially, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. This helps in getting more people to like, view or share your video, thereby increasing your online presence.
• Relevant Tags and Transcripts– Having a transcript of the audio section of your video is a great idea as it enhances the chances of appearing in searches. However, the over optimization of tags should be completely avoided and kept minimal, while including only the relevant keywords.
• Creating High- Quality Video Content– Sales focused video is a big no for Google. It is advisable to prepare instructional videos with high quality of informative content to ensure good page ranking.

Apart, in order to avail maximum SEO benefits, it is advisable to keep the video short (4 minutes or less).  One video should deal with only one topic and rich video thumbnails should be made. It is also advisable to place the video on the site map so that Google can index it. According to a survey, an average internet user stays on a webpage for not more than 8 seconds. And therefore it becomes extremely indispensable to grab his attention by placing something really exciting and happening on the webpage. Placing a link to a landing page on your website is yet another great way to enhance SEO results. The expectations of your target audience should always be kept in mind, and the video should be made in such a way that it is less sales oriented.

With the above practices, you can stay ahead with your video marketing strategy, while ensuring high SEO rankings and an effective Digital Marketing strategy.