Discovering video opportunities to increase traffic, increase engagement, boost conversions, and create more useful content.
When we talk about developing a video strategy, most people think of getting found on YouTube. And for good reason: billions of people use the platform every month.
The inevitable counter-argument follows: “I don’t think my product or service is a good fit for YouTube.”
However, creating and marketing videos extends far beyond YouTube discoverability.
Videos can improve the quality of your content, make your product easier to understand, and make your brand more credible and relatable. Furthermore, for an increasing number of queries, videos continue to appear on Page 1 of Google’s search results.
A well-planned video strategy can also help your overall SEO efforts. This is how.
1. A more in-depth understanding of your customers’ purchasing journeys
Video keyword research enables you to discover which queries your target audience uses when searching for videos.
Knowing how your target audience searches for related videos can help you gain a better understanding of their purchasing journeys, problems they are attempting to solve, and tasks they are attempting to complete.
We tend to look for informational or entertaining content when we turn to video content, but we may also be able to uncover content opportunities that naturally solve the customers’ needs best in video set-up: how to use videos, product demos, assessments, and all others. A solid marketing strategy should always include both of these stages of the purchasing process.
When comparing Google and YouTube auto suggestions, you will notice that YouTube search appeals to a specific demographic. For example, if you search Google for Google Chromebook, the top results will be Google Chromebook laptop, Google Chromebook charger, and Google Chromebook price – all three clearly indicating commercial intent (i.e., start of a buying journey).
Some of YouTube’s top Google Chromebook suggestions include Google Chromebook won’t turn on and Google Chromebook tutorial for beginners, both of which reflect an informational intent, possibly for a current owner of the product.
However, not all YouTube suggestions are intended to be educational. According to YouTube autocomplete, people use the platform to find product reviews from current customers, unboxing videos, and information on specific models.
Nonetheless, YouTube-driven purchasing journeys appear to be very different from Google-driven purchasing journeys, which makes YouTube suggestions such a powerful addition to any keyword research strategy.
A similar pattern holds true for Google Video search, which frequently reveals a different angle or purchasing journey your target audience may take while researching their options.
The Google video section, like Google’s regular search, generates “related search” suggestions beneath organic search results. Again, video-related searches differ from those seen when using Google’s main search, indicating that people use Google videos for a variety of reasons:
As a result, Google Videos’ related searches enable you to discover keywords that you would have missed if you only relied on Google’s regular search results.
To summarize, researching video-driven search queries helps you gain a better understanding of your target market and where your product might fit in. Your overall SEO strategy becomes more knowledgeable than your competitors’.
2. Improved on-SERP visibility via video carousels
Google’s search engine results are much more varied, visual, and interactive today than they were a decade ago.
Google’s SERPs now include related images, instant answers, popular questions, and other features.
The section with related videos is one of the most visible.
Videos have gained significant visibility in organic search results, owing primarily to video carousels.
According to Mozcast data, videos appear in at least 30% of Google’s SERPs:
In many cases, video results are “blended,” which means they are included in a separate section that is not an organic listing but is added to SERPs as a separate element.
This is referred to as a video carousel.
What exactly is a video carousel?
A video carousel is a separate search element within Google SERPs that displays videos that are related to one another.
Video carousels are frequently included on the first page of search results, but their location may vary depending on the searcher’s intent.
When you search for “how to tie a tie,” for example, video carousels may appear right at the top of the SERPs. The video-only search snippet and video carousel take up the entire above-the-fold portion of the screen, especially when searching on a mobile device. The section may appear lower on a search result page for other queries.
YouTube videos are not always included in a carousel and instead appear as organic results. This is unique (a video counts as one of the ten organic links allowed on page one), but still rewarding: you can see a large thumbnail of the video, which is difficult to overlook, likely increasing the click-through rate for that rank position.
When accessed from a mobile device, this video can be played directly within search results in both cases (carousels and organic results).
In other words, well-optimized and thus high-ranking branded videos provide additional visibility to a brand, allowing it to dominate its target search result pages with more than a single organic listing in both of these cases.
3. Improved organic search visibility with video-rich snippets
While YouTube video pages can serve as organic listings, giving you more exposure, earning video-rich snippets allows you to rank your own page in the same SERPs.
Video rich snippets are enriched organic search results that include a video thumbnail from the page, making the result more difficult to overlook:
Unlike video carousels, which provide brands with indirect exposure (people who click a video in a carousel typically land on that YouTube page or watch that video right away from within Google’s search result page), video-rich snippets generate a direct click to your site.
Publishers must embed a video on that page and use video schema to earn a video-rich snippet.
Another advantage of earning a video-rich snippet is that it creates an expectation: people who see a video thumbnail and click through to a page expect to see a video, so they are more probably to stay onto the particular page and watch the full video. As a result, they are more likely to continue their journeys through the site, engage with your brand more, and move deeper into the conversion funnel.
Conclusion
A video marketing strategy entails more than simply making your company or product searchable on YouTube. When you begin researching video opportunities, you will gain a better understanding of your audience and discover more SEO opportunities. Furthermore, you distinguish your brand in search by having your video appear in related carousels, ranking your YouTube page in organic search, and/or earning video snippets.
By incorporating videos into your digital marketing routine, Google has created numerous opportunities to make your SEO strategy more informed and diverse. If you don’t know where to start or lack the resources to implement a video strategy on your own, a comprehensive video creation and marketing service can help transform your digital presence, improve brand sentiment and trust, and increase sales and conversions across the web.