For example, in Australia alone, it is estimated that 15.7 million adults spend an average of over 24 hours on YouTube. That audience is comprised of a diverse array of people aged between 18 to over 55 years old.

That’s on YouTube alone.

This presents numerous opportunities for companies and their marketing teams, especially when it comes to their SEO efforts.

But why use videos for your online campaign?

Advantages of videos

Why are people drawn to videos? Why should companies from diverse industries invest in this platform?

Here are a few important reasons why.

Videos are an effective platform

Whether you are onboarding new employees, answering questions about your products through an animated explainer video, or providing helpful tips for your target market, videos Rank as one of the best platforms for different goals.

The reason is simple – with videos, you can encapsulate a large amount of information into a short, easy-to-digest form. As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Videos draw people’s attention

People are naturally drawn to stories. By its inherent nature, a video is meant to tell a story in an engaging manner because it involves the senses of sight and sound.

At the hands of a master, a story can be told through text. But given a choice between watching and reading, most people will choose the former.

And because videos are multisensory, viewers can retain more information compared to other storytelling platforms.

Videos are accessible

Videos can now be viewed on different platforms, from desktops and laptops to Mobile Devices. In Australia alone, 72 percent of people watch videos on mobile devices.

Google is watching

In response to these and other related trends, Google has tweaked its algorithm to respond more to users’ Search intent over keywords.

How do videos figure into all of these?

This means that if you put out a well-made and informative video with the help of experienced animators, your videos can rank significantly higher. Content that provides helpful information that satisfies the searcher’s intent rank well on the search engine, often cropping up in the main search page, as a suggested clip, or as an instant answer.

How can your business use videos?

Used on your website, videos can increase the amount of time spent by visitors on your web pages.

Compared to text and pictures, videos have a significantly higher impact, encouraging your visitors to peruse more of your content.

And the longer visitors spend time on your website, and the more search engines attach value and trustworthiness to your pages.

Videos are also an invaluable tool for increasing click-through rates. When searchers see your videos on search results pages, they are more likely to visit your site compared to other websites that do not use videos.

You can also earn back-links every time your video is shared by people who watch it, whether you post it directly on your website or a third-party site like YouTube.

Optimizing your videos

Merely putting out videos on your website or social media won’t allow you to reap the benefits mentioned above.

To reap the maximum amount of benefits, there are a few essential things that you need to do.

Keep it short

There are plenty of things that are vying for the attention of people, so the last thing that they need is a lengthy video.

Longer videos tend to be overlooked by most people. And when some people do click and play those videos, a significant amount of them disengage.

Keep the running time of your videos below three minutes. There’s a time and place for longer ones, but as a rule of thumb, the shorter, the better.

Don’t forget the nuts and bolts

Along with a great story and compelling visuals, you will need to make sure that your video is SEO optimized, especially if your primary goal is to rank well for a specific set of keywords.

If you do not have an in-house team for this task, enlist the help of expert video production company.

Make sure that your videos are viewable on different platforms

One of the worst mistakes that you can make is failing to optimize your videos across different platforms. Here, it is crucial to remember that your videos may be accessed via PCs, laptops and mobile devices without compromising quality. If these cannot be viewed on various platforms, you run the risk of losing potential customers.

Add captions

Cover all your bases when it comes to providing information with the use of captions. You do not need to provide captions word for word. You can simply use captions to highlight specific information and keywords you wish to rank higher for.

Expand your SEO toolbox

Videos are another tool that you can add to the bigger toolkit that is SEO. Ignore their benefits and the prevailing market trends, and you risk lagging behind the competition.

AUTHOR BIO

Anthony Lam is the founder of Punchy Digital Media, a creative agency that helps organisations grow using animated videos and creative visual content. Punchy has a team across Australia and Asia and has worked with clients such as Apple, Westpac and the Australian Government, running campaigns and reaching millions of people.