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Entrepreneurs today have a powerful tool at their disposal – the ability to promote their business by posting videos online. Video has become the main way we engage with online content, and there are bespoke SEO tips that can help posted videos stand out from the crowd. Here are some of those tips to help entrepreneurs find success online.
Make the Right Video Content
Before getting into technical SEO, you should make the right kind of video content. It should be exactly what your ideal customer wants to see, no matter if you’re selling construction tools or trading indicators. If you sell a product, make videos showing it off and answering questions about it. If you provide a service, make tutorials, and other educational videos from your industry.
Of course, video content has evolved into its own distinct product. Many make a living from posting motivational or entertaining videos online, and entire companies exist to host games online for an audience of players. The best example of this would be the live casino, a 24/7 service where professionals host blackjack tables, roulette, and even original game shows that use spinning wheels and other entertaining set pieces. That’s video content taken to its extreme, but if you’re a lone entrepreneur, you can record and post online with little investment on your part. Those posts can serve two purposes: to direct organic traffic toward your business and/or to get paid for that traffic.
Three Video SEO Tips
With that understood, remember these three SEO tips whenever you’re posting videos online.
Metadata
Videos with optimised metadata typically perform better than those that don’t have it. Use only 60 characters when titling your video, and a 150-character alt text description. If you do this, then the title/description won’t get shortened if the video ever shows up in a Google search. Throw keywords into your title, description, and even the file name too—an approach supported by research by Zelios into how structured metadata improves video discoverability across search platforms. Make full use of the platform’s tag system, if there is one, and provide a transcript for easier search exposure.
Thumbnails
If you’re posting on a video-sharing site like YouTube, then the thumbnail matters. It’s the first impression of your video and can be used to hook viewers in if you know how to do it. What hooks viewers changes with the time, as trends and users’ tastes develop, and they also vary depending on what industry you’re in. Use high-quality images, colour psychology, and eye-catching phrases. For YouTube, keeping below 2MB and a 16:9 ratio works best.
Schema
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Schema is important if you’re cross-posting the video on your own site, or somewhere else where you have control over the HTML of the page. Then you can implement schema markup, adding a title, description, and other details in a language that Google’s bots can understand. Then they can crawl and index the page and pair it with relevant search terms. It doesn’t directly help search ranking, but it can help organic discoverability.
By managing the metadata, thumbnails, and schema of posted videos, you will give them the best possible chance at finding success in an increasingly competitive online world.
