SEO

Before we get too deep into how to optimise your YouTube videos, let us tell you the signals that search engine’s such as Google look for when ranking your videos:

•          Title tag information
•          Audience retention
•          Keywords in description tag
•          Tags
•          Video length
•          Number of subscribers after watching
•          Comments
•          Likes and dislikes

Now you have a brief understanding of what’s involved, we can continue to tell you five ways you can leverage these signals to get more traffic to your videos and website!

1.    Write long video descriptions!

When it comes to search engines ranking content, and especially videos, it’s important to remember that they can’t watch or listen to your video (yet).
This means that the only way they can understand what is happening in the video is through text. The more YouTube knows about your video, the more confidently it can rank it for your target keywords and phrases.

Out of all the text surrounding your video, YouTube uses keywords in the description to rank you for long tail keywords.

The best way, in our experience, to show search engines what is going on in your video is to write a summary of the main points in your video in the description, remembering to include all those keywords you want to rank for!

2.   Optimise around ‘Video Keywords’

Ranking in YouTube is great, but ranking in YouTube AND Google is even better!

Only certain keywords get an inherent edge in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) when it comes to Google ranking YouTube videos.

These keywords are called ‘Video Keywords’ because they tend to have video results on Google’s front page. For example, if a user is searching for cute cats, they’re most likely wanting to watch a video of cats being cute, instead of reading an article on this.

Before deciding a keyword for your video, check to see if there are video results on the first page, if there are then you should DEFINITELY use that keyword in your video description!

3.   Get more video views from Social Media

Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are perfect places to share your YouTube videos to increase the number of views on your videos!

But it’s not just the number of views that help you rank highly in YouTube and Google, it’s the quality of the views that really matters. This means that YouTube will value a video viewed 100 times from start to finish over a video viewed 1000 times but only for a quarter of the video.

To receive better quality views, target online communities with people that will be interested in the video. Here’s a few tip on how:

Facebook:

• Post your video to public groups related to your video’s topic.
• Use hashtags to filter your content into streams only related to that tag.
• Build an audience of users interested in what you offer.

Twitter:

• Create lists of users and share this content with them.
• Use hashtags like with Facebook.

LinkedIn:

• Find a question in a group and post your video if you think it will help answer the question.

4.   Encourage subscribing and liking

A lot of weight has been given to user experience signals by YouTube’s algorithm as it doesn’t use backlinks. If people enjoy watching your videos, the algorithm will look at this as a strong signal that the content is worth ranking higher.

The main ways YouTube determines user experience in a video is from subscribing and liking. When a user likes your video enough to subscribe after watching it, it sends a strong signal to YouTube that you have some killer content, and will rank your video higher depending on the number of subscriptions. Likes are much less important, but still count.

To increase these user experience signals, you can simply ask the viewers to like and subscribe at the end of the video by giving a clear call-to-action.

5.  Create keyword-rich playlists

Organising your YouTube videos is a great way to inform the algorithms about the content in your videos.

One of the easiest ways to get more YouTube traffic is to sort your videos into playlists. A keyword rich playlist not only tells the algorithms what is happening in your videos, but it also helps users find content they’re looking for. Having keyword rich descriptions for all the videos in a playlist is the best way to rank higher in YouTube and like we mentioned earlier, more text-based content = more views.

Recently, we ordered a new stabiliser for our Nikon DSLR to start shooting videos for our clients in Croydon. We’ve already started providing animated video and we’re excited to venture into film making.

You may have noticed a lot more video appearing across the web over the last couple of years, this is mainly due to the rise and the popularity of social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram allowing us to view video content whenever we want, wherever we want. As a marketer, video as a tool enables you to engage with your customers on an entirely new level, more than any other media has allowed you in the past. The rest of this article is going to cover in more depth, why video is such an important tool in online marketing.

Video is more persuasive

The main reason video is more persuasive as a tool than other types of content is your brain requires emotional input to make decisions. Currently there is no better method of conveying emotion than video.

Video caters to the brain’s visual and auditory systems, picking up on clues like body language, facial expressions, imagery and music. These will influence a person’s choices and actions.

Studies have shown that over 80% of people say they are more likely to buy a product or service after watching a video.

Video builds trust & credibility more effectively

Seeing another person on our screens connects you with them on a human level. It is the basis on which we build trust. Video enables you to engage with your audience, allowing you to reinforce your message using eye ‘contact’ and phrasing that lets you clarify your intention. They can see you, share your emotions and develop a relationship with you.

Search engines love video content

Search engines are a maze of intelligent algorithms trying to determine which content is best to rank in which position, they work out which websites have the most engaging content and rank this above the competitors, and nothing boosts engagement like video.

In fact, research has found that including video on a web page makes it 53x more likely to appear on the first page of Google. While those statistics are always changing, the principle remains consistent – Video increases the searchability of your content.

Video pages send strong ‘indicators to relevance’ to search engines like Google, which boosts the search rank of your content. Some of those tangible benefits for SEO include:
• Doubled time-on-page
• 3x more natural external links
• 200-300% more unique monthly sales
• 41% higher click-through rates from search

Video vastly improves email marketing campaigns

Email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing tactics out there. Marketers consistently rank email as having a higher return on investment (ROI) than any other marketing strategy, followed closely by SEO.

But what if you could double, or even triple the results of your email marketing campaign?

That’s what video does. It can increase email click-through rates by 200-300%, ensuring that your email campaigns get the highest ROI possible.

Content marketing agency

As a digital marketing agency in Croydon, Smart Cow Marketing can help your business grow with a content marketing strategy tailored to your requirements. If you need support in creating content for your business, get in touch with Smart Cow Marketing to discuss your needs further.

What is inbound marketing?

To put it simply, inbound marketing is about less interruptive methods of marketing like buying ads, buying email lists or cold calling. Inbound marketing focuses on earning trust using great quality, educational content that draws consumers towards your website where they can choose to learn more about your products/services on their own terms, without having marketing jargon stuffed down their throats.

For inbound marketing to work, you need to use these two fundamental concepts in order to attract new business.
1. Content: Create online content (blog posts, web pages, social media messages etc.) optimised for search engines and social media to get found by potential buyers.
2. Context: Understand why content draws your customers through the sales funnel using analytics, then utilise this data to your advantage to personalise what messages and promotions visitors see.

Why inbound works

There are three major reasons why consumers are sceptical about new brands, and why interruptive advertising isn’t nearly as effective as it used to be.

1. The proliferation of media: Over the past five Years, the media has blown up. There’s pretty much a magazine, tv channel, radio show and a gazillion websites for every common interest out there, and each of those channels have been stuffed full of ads.
2. A history of deceptive advertising: Consumers have become so used to hearing false claims that all ads – even the clever ones – are considered false.
3. Consumers empowered by technology: Through a long painful journey through dealing with annoying, in-your-face adverts, consumers have gained access to tools and information to dodge interruptive brand messages and instead seek information they want to see. Tools such as Caller ID, AdBLock, spam filtering software all evade the information they don’t want to see, making inbound marketing techniques all the more important.

Inbound marketing agency in Surrey

If you’re looking for qualified leads become a lead generation magnet with the help of Smart Cow. Take a closer look at our marketing services or book a consultation and we can discuss digital marketing strategy that is best to achieve your business goals.

We specialise in digital marketing for accountants as well as providing digital marketing services and web design for local businesses within Croydon. If you’re looking to grow your business, get in touch.