Everyone is talking about video creation and marketing these days. The benefits of marketing are obvious: videos spread well, generate engagement on social media, and are still capable of grabbing attention in our world of information overload.
But can videos also improve your SEO strategy?
Well, we don’t know all about Google’s ranking signals, so we can’t be sure there’s a direct factor there. Whether Google “likes” pages with videos on them more than pages without videos remains a secret.
But there are more indirect SEO benefits that are contributing here:
1. Real estate SERP
Videos are taking up a lot of space within Google’s search results pages, on both mobile and desktop devices. Google uses so-called “video carousels”To view related videos for many search queries.
In fact, on a mobile device, a video carousel takes up the entire screen, and for many search queries it takes some time to scroll past:
Image source: author’s screenshot
According to Mozcast, video carousels are displayed for the third of the search queries. There are many SEO opportunities to dominate your target SERPs!
If you brand your video well e optimize your Youtube video pageone of these videos in a carousel will remind your target customer of your brand and increase your chances of conversion.
2. Rich snippet
A video-rich snippet is an advanced search snippet that displays a video thumbnail next to your link. It’s a good way to make your search snippet stand out.
Image source: author’s screenshot
Rich video snippets are also surprisingly easy to obtain.
Unlike video carousels, rich video snippets send traffic to your site, compared to the YouTube video page. To make it easier:
| Rich video snippet | Video carousel | |
| Do you need a video? | Yes | Yes |
| Is it part of the organic results? | Yes | No |
| What does it generate? | Clicks to your site | Video views (click on the video page) |
The best scenario is when you manage to capture both: a rich video snippet on the first page of organic results and your video within the video carousel on the same page:
Image source: author’s screenshot
This will help you generate more brand awareness through a video thumbnail and generate video views and clicks.
To increase your chances of getting a rich video snippet, you need to:
- Embed a video on your page. This doesn’t really have to be your video, but remember that Google will display the channel name under your snippet on the desktop, so it makes sense to use your brand’s channel.
- Use the video scheme. Here is a practical video pattern generator to do it. There are also several plugin which facilitate this step.
Image source: author’s screenshot
For desktop video rich snippets, keep in mind that they also extract the date you uploaded the video, so make sure your video it’s fresh to prevent your snippet from looking out of date.
When embedding a video on your page, don’t forget to double check the loading time of your page. Surprisingly, Youtube videos negatively impact page performance when embedded, even if Youtube belongs to Google (so publishers usually assume it is optimized for Google by default).
To demonstrate the impact, here’s my page score without an embedded YouTube video:
Image source: author’s screenshot
And here is the same page with a Youtube video added:
Image source: author’s screenshot
You can do it by using makeup described here which worked wonders in my case above.
One of the unexpected benefits of using this method was the related videos that Youtube shows at the end of each video when you embed it. Using the steps in that tutorial, I found those related videos disappeared and my video appeared in its place.
Before
After
Finally, don’t forget to use Google search console to find out how rich snippets of your videos perform.
In the “Performance” section, create a new “Search Appearance: Video” filter to see which queries are triggering rich snippets for your site and monitor the CTR for those queries.
3. Engagement on the page
There is no official confirmation that Google is using page engagement as a direct ranking signal. In fact, I believe they denied using such a signal.
Still, getting people to take a break and do something on a page has many marketing benefits that are normally part of an SEO strategy. These include:
- More conversion possibilities
- Less chance of them bouncing or returning to search results (which, again, may or may not be a direct ranking signal)
Videos are great boosters for page engagement, so if you feel your page fails to trigger some sort of action, try embedding a video about it. Again, pay attention to your core web vital elements when doing this.
4. Referral traffic
Just like on-page engagements, referral traffic has never been confirmed as a direct SEO signal. We know that Google likes it when a link is clicked, but we don’t know if a page with 0 referral traffic from external sources has lower authority in Google’s eyes than a page with high quality referral traffic.
Still, referral traffic increases a page’s chances of getting backlinks and shares. And good traffic conversion is always good, whether it’s from organic search or from another site.
Youtube doesn’t make it easy to build referral traffic from your videos. You can have your link clickable in the video description that is rarely read or even seen (especially on mobile devices).
You can also link building direct traffic using Youtube by providing your domain name in the introductory and final video. Here’s how to create a engaging Youtube release.
But then again, you should really find your relevant and / or awesome video to type your domain name into the address bar after seeing it in the outro.
That said, Youtube sends traffic to a site, but only if you’re doing a great job of creating great videos and then using verbal CTAs within the video to encourage clicks from the video description or direct typing.
One great thing about Youtube traffic is that while it’s hard to get, it’s highly relevant, so you’ll see highly engaged clicks that become your subscribers and customers:
Image source: author’s screenshot
Conclusion
Using video is a solid way to help your SEO strategy. While there may be no confirmed direct signals involved here, there are some indirect SEO benefits of investing in video creation and marketing.
