Yes, Video Can Improve SEO Ranking

There are a lot of ways to improve your website’s search ranking and there’s no consensus on how to do it. Very few SEO marketing companies agree on the best way, but one proven way is to leverage your videos. What? Video improving my search ranking? It can. Here’s how and why.

The Internet is video. Every minute of every day, over 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. 100 HOURS. Not minutes. Hours. That is a statistic directly from Google (they own YouTube as of 3 months ago). Admittedly, the most popular videos are usually about cats, and you certainly don’t want your company making a ‘cute’ cat video…unless you’re selling cat products. Lots of videos are shared because they capture the viewer’s imagination.

Engagement is the Objective for Excellent Video Results

And sharing is the key. Your videos can be about anything. The idea is to increase your site visitor’s engagement by showing them video that they can relate to.

Here’s a good example of how video worked for a business that makes blenders, of all things: Blendtec, made a series of videos called “Will it Blend.” They make industrial-grade blenders that were modestly selling with sales increasing a bit every year. Their blenders are very strong and someone in the organization decided to demonstrate just how powerful their blenders are using video. The basic premise is to take an object or objects like iPhones, golf balls, etc., and make a video of the blender in action. Currently, their videos have over 100 million views in aggregate. It took a while for the first ones to catch on, but once they did, the page views went through the roof as did their ranking on the web. But most importantly their sales went up dramatically. They’re still making the videos and the videos still easily surpass a million views every time one is posted on their site and YouTube.

Another example is the musical group Pomplamoose. Pomplamoose (a cute derivative of the French word for grapefruit), is a musical duo that creates indy music. The style doesn’t matter as much as the videos they made, which were distinctive and original for music videos. They took off slowly as well. Certainly no faster than Blendtec. But they have over 50 million page views. And they’ve become successful musicians without a record label and tour globally to sold-out audiences.

Almost all YouTube videos and series take off slowly. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes some marketing and thought to get viewers to share. But a little cleverness and a lot of perseverance will make your ranking rise and your sales as well. If you’re serious about raising your rankings and your sales, you might want to consider video as a way to get your company noticed on the Internet.

In addition to creating videos that are engaging and viral, companies want to create and embed video so that Google can index your site and rank you better than your competitors. As we said, Google owns YouTube, so you know it’s only realistic that posting your video on YouTube would help your ranking.

If you want to know what will work for you, contact Keystone Media and we’ll brainstorm some video ideas.

About Our Guest Author, Steve Haskin

Steve Haskin started in video production and computing in the 1970s. He has worked with Digital Video and eLearning since the late 1980s, and he has been at the forefront of streaming media. Previously, Stephen was a producer and director of film and video and won many awards for his work. Steve worked for the University of Michigan for several years but has now returned to the private sector, where he currently directs and consults for distance learning projects and video. Steve frequently speaks at conferences and seminars, is the author of three books, and is writing a fourth book about Media and Learning.