Optimizing Your Video SEO: 10 Tips

Video has become a crucial component of an integrated digital strategy. In fact, 85% of marketers say that video is an effective way to get attention online, and video has become one of the key ways for potential clients to obtain information. Speaking of getting attention, though: how do you ensure that your video gets found in the first place? This is where SEO for video comes in. Many marketers aren’t sure where to start, but we suggest following these quick tips to help your law firm’s videos gain more visibility.

What Is Video SEO?

Video SEO is simply the act of optimizing your firm’s videos so they can get found online in search engines. There are many different tactics firms can use to help their videos rank which we’ll get into in this article.

1. Host on a Third-party Platform

Though it’s possible to host your own video content (and doing so gives you a little more independence), it can tax your system and is often not worth the trouble. However, you can rely on a third-party platform, and there are several to choose from. YouTube is the most common and has the largest user base (and it’s free). Other free options include Dailymotion or Vimeo. Paid options typically make sense for more experienced content creators who need advanced features. Look at choices like Brightcove or Dacast. Once you’ve got hosting figured out, you can move on to specific SEO tactics. 

2. Optimize Key Presentation Elements

After you upload your video, you’ll have the opportunity to customize certain pieces that will be shown to potential viewers. Taking the time to adjust these elements can help you gain more views and improve SEO.

• Thumbnail image – The small picture that represents your video should immediately capture attention and communicate what your video is about. Make sure it’s easy to read and not ambiguous. 
• Title – This is probably the first thing that viewers will use to decide if they want to watch your video. Try to make the title reflect the main points of your video. It’s also important to include keywords that you’ve researched. 
• Description – Use this text to give more context to your video. The best descriptions are short and to the point, and don’t just reiterate what the video already says. Include a question that the video answers or a summary of what’s in the content. Keywords play an important role in this section as well, so make sure to do your research and include correct keywords (and exclude any that you don’t want to be associated with your content). 
• CTA – Make sure to include a call-to-action at the end of your video that will garner engagement.

3. Improve Your Transcript With Keywords

Including a transcript of your video is a great opportunity to insert your keywords. Keywords are an essential component of any SEO strategy. Many people do a great job of incorporating keywords into the video title and description but forget about the transcript. A transcript is an effective tool for generating traffic and views. That’s because every word in your video’s SRT files (containing closed captioning or subtitle text) gets taken into account by bots. The keywords help ensure your content is categorized correctly. You can create transcripts automatically by running speech recognition software on your content, or you can create them manually using a transcriptionist. 

4. Embed Videos on Your Website

Eventually, you’ll want to seamlessly display videos on your site. Watching it there is much more convenient than clicking away to another site, but the data from the views still tracks in a single spot for useful reporting. 

5. Pay Attention to Metrics

Every hosting platform will allow you to view various metrics around your video’s performance, and you should take advantage. It will be helpful for you to understand who is clicking onto the video, where they come from, etc. One of the most important metrics to keep an eye on is watch time, which is the percentage or fraction of a video that a user watches before clicking away or moving on to another piece of content. Lots of metrics can help you produce content that is more appealing to viewers, but watch time is one that is particularly relevant to search efforts. Though search engines take other factors into account, one of the main things that can help with SEO is how often the video is watched from start to finish. You can expect search engines to prioritize videos with stronger watch time statistics. 

6. Optimize Alt Text

If your video is being uploaded to your site whether it be on a blog or other page like a practice area page, make sure to include relevant keywords in the alt text. Alt text is an important aspect of your website as it makes it accessible to all, but it’s also important to have alt text on every video for SEO purposes. Not only does Google rank videos with alt text better, but it’s also an opportunity to include your keyword(s).

7. Include a Unique Thumbnail

Videos that include unique and engaging thumbnails are proven to get more clicks than other videos. Getting more clicks on your video means that it will be seen as more authoritative in the eyes of Google. Try these tips when creating thumbnails.

8. Don’t Embed in Multiple Places

Don’t embed the same video in multiple places. This will create a situation where your video is competing against itself and can lead to cannibalization in the end.

9. Don’t Rely Solely on Search for Promotion

As we mentioned above, more clicks on your video helps communicate to Google that your video is relevant. By promoting your video on other channels like social media and email, you’re taking a proactive approach to ensuring your video gets found and garners clicks and views.

10. Have an Optimized Title and Description

If your video is uploaded to a site like YouTube, make sure to include keywords in the title and description of your video. 

Takeaway: 

Different types of video content will require different SEO tactics to help you out-rank the competition. These tips can generally help your videos to be more visible, faster, but don’t forget to spend time promoting videos as well. 

If you are attempting to utilize SEO tactics alongside video marketing, we can be 

of assistance throughout the process. Contact us today for a free consultation.

This post has been edited and republished from Oct. 15, 2021.