How Video Can Boost Your Blog’s SEO

You can’t deny that video has started to dominate the internet. According to one forecast, 74% of all internet traffic will be video content in 2017. That’s sure a lot of buffering!

As you might have noticed, I’m slowly starting to incorporate some video into my blog posts. If you are doing the same or are thinking of including video, here are a few strategies to boost your blog’s SEO with video content.

What is SEO?

As a refresher, SEO (Search Engine Optimization)  is the process of improving your website so you rank higher on search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. When your website ranks highly on a search page,  people become more likely to visit your site. Therefore, the higher your site ranks on Google, the more free traffic will visit your site!

If you are an SEO newbie, don’t miss the beginner’s guide to SEO.

How Google Determines Page Rank

The Google Search Algorithm is shrouded in mystery. Google doesn’t want to give away their secrets because they want everyone to have the opportunity to be at the top of the search results.

But last year, one of the top dogs shared the top three factors when determining page rank. They are:

1. Content. Google is looking for original, quality content that is published on a consistent basis.
2. Links back to your site. When someone else shares a link to your website or blog post on their site, Google takes notice. They are more concerned about quality over quantity when evaluating backlinks.
3. RankBrain. Google has created an artificial intelligence program to process search terms. The goal of RankBrain is to provide relevant search results.

So, why did I just tell you all of that? Because when you use video correctly on your website, you will incorporate all three of Google’s top page rank factors. Hooray!

So, How Do I Do that?

First, make sure your content game is strong. Do you have an editorial calendar? If you do, make sure you stick to it so you are publishing consistent content that resonates with your audience. If you don’t have one, set a schedule that you can stick to so you can produce new quality content on a consistent basis.

When it comes to content, Google is more concerned about the quality and consistency over quantity. If you create a lot of content that isn’t high quality, then you won’t rank on Google. If you put out content sporadically, then Google isn’t sure if it can trust that you are a good source of information.

Google considers low quality content:

• Non-original content.
• Pages written for search engines that are filled with keywords.
• Content taken from other websites.
• Pages filled with spam or malicious activity.

When you create awesome video content, people will be more likely to share via social media or their websites. The more content you create, the more often others will share it, creating many links back to your site.

When you create videos that others want to watch, you should also create a transcript or summary of the content. This will help your RankBrain because you are giving Google more content to review since Google can’t watch a video.

Be sure to keep your transcript/summary to at least 300 or more words. That will ensure there is content to show up in a search and it makes your website more accessible, which Google likes as well.

Now that you know that high quality video can help to increase your SEO and make you more visible, I hope you add some video to your content calendar!