It’s no secret that video marketing is a very effective strategy, it attracts attention, it’s engaging, and it keeps the viewer long enough to deliver your message.

However, the success of the video is dependent upon it being seen by the right people, so how do you get the right audience? This is done by using SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) of your video as you would with a web page.

Videos can rank higher than a website on search engines so they can be used to drive traffic to your website. There is even a specific search dropdown in Google just for videos.

As a search engine, YouTube is now nearly as big as Google; it’s parent, so it is an excellent place to feature your products and services, but it’s a bustling market place, so SEO on your video is essential.

As a video production company we, like to make sure that our clients get the best out of their video, so here are our top five tips for getting a better ranking on YouTube for your video.

1. KEYWORDS AND DESCRIPTION

Add keywords in the title of your video. The title needs to be relevant to the video and contain your keywords. The description should give a brief, accurate overview of the video and also contain your keywords.

In the example, the keywords are related to what someone searching would type into the search engine. Then the description again contains these keywords but elaborates giving the viewer a more detailed overview of what the video will cover.

2. ADD A THUMBNAIL

The thumbnail this is the picture that appears on the page, and it can make a difference. Not necessarily to the SEO directly, but it will attract viewers to click on your video, and the more clicks you get, the higher you will rank. Consider uploading a specific thumbnail and not a screengrab. In the example, they have taken time to produce images that relate to the content, look great so they will attract your eye and have some text description.

3. SAY YOUR KEYWORDS

These days search engines search for sound as well as text, so if you can say the keywords in the opening minutes of the video, it will help them to rank higher. This is not always possible, especially if you don’t have audio, but if you can prepare your script so that the keywords feature in the first sentence, it will help.

4. RESEARCH YOUR KEYWORDS

There are lots of sites you can use to research the best keywords and lots of blogs giving great advice. I suggest using this is a good starting point. However, for a video, they need to be relevant to the content. So if your video is about soap then soap needs to be a keyword. If your keywords are very general and overused you will find it hard to rank, so maybe add a specific like natural hand made soaps.

5. VIEWER RETENTION

The longer you can keep the viewer watching the video, the better. Viewer retention is important and is measured by the search engines, meaning that longer videos will rank higher because they will have more viewer retention. Most videos are around one to three minutes, but if you can keep viewers for five to 10 minutes, you will obtain better ranking. I have an upcoming blog that will help you learn more about how to keep people watching your video for longer. Follow us to make sure you catch it.

If you do put these into action on your next production, do let us know if it made a difference. Please follow this blog for more tips on improving your video marketing.