Optimizing 101: The SEO Video Audit

So. You’ve put together a fantastic video. It’s engaging, exciting, the perfect length and pace, and everyone is excited to see it perform. But before you go putting it on YouTube and posting the link all over social media, take a step back and do your due diligence. There are several things you can do at this stage to make your video perform better in the long run.

You may not have heard of video optimization before. That’s OK. Read this blog post, invest a few minutes in optimization, and you’ll make your video easier to find and maybe even bump its position up in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

This is where it begins. Using a tool such as Google AdWords or SEM Rush, determine what keywords you want to rank for. Use an appropriately specific term that is also general enough to appear in plenty of searches.

You wouldn’t think it matters, but it does. The filename of your video can affect its rankings. Before you upload to YouTube, change the filename to your key phrase.

When deciding on a video title, choose something that is enticing and interesting—but that still includes your keywords. It can be difficult to find a good balance here because your title is such an important aspect of your video to get right but working in a keyword can really make your video easier to find.

The most important aspect of video SEO is to create high-quality video content that is engaging, informative, and provides value to your audience. This can increase your chances of gaining more views and engagement, which can positively impact your ranking.

The length of your video can also impact your video SEO. Ensure that your video content is concise, informative, and engaging to keep your audience interested. The average video length for top-ranking videos is around 14 minutes, but this can vary depending on the content and target audience.

The title and description of your video are crucial components of video SEO. Ensure that you include your target keywords in the title and description to help search engines understand the content of your video. Make sure that the title and description are concise, informative, and compelling to encourage clicks and views.

Tags help search engines identify the topic of your video content. Use relevant and specific tags that describe your video content to increase your chances of appearing in related video searches.

Video transcriptions are written versions of your video content that can help search engines better understand the content of your video. They also provide accessibility benefits for viewers who may have difficulty hearing or understanding the audio.

Video thumbnails are the small images that appear next to your video title in search results. Optimize your video thumbnail to be eye-catching and relevant to the content of your video. A good thumbnail can increase clicks and views, which can positively impact your ranking. You should also name the thumbnail file with a keyword.

Promotion is crucial for video SEO. Share your video content on social media platforms, embed it on your website, and encourage viewers to like, share, and comment on your video. These engagement metrics can positively impact your video ranking.

Tracking the performance of your video is essential to understanding how well it is performing and making adjustments to optimize its performance. Use analytics tools to monitor metrics like views, engagement, and conversion rates. Pay attention to how people are discovering your video and which keywords or channels are driving the most traffic.

Optimizing your video SEO can help you to attract more viewers to your content, increase engagement, and drive more traffic to your website. By following these tips, you can create high-quality videos that are optimized for search engines and more likely to be discovered by your target audience.