Why a Great SEO Strategy Starts With Film
When we think about search optimisation, we tend to focus on webpages. But working only on copy and optimisations means missing out on a huge opportunity to strengthen your SEO using an often underrated double act: Video and SEO. Creating films and video content and implementing those into your website wherever possible strengthens both your search rankings and your visibility so that your target audience can always find you when they need to.
How Does Film Content Improve SEO?
Implementing video content has a much greater impact on SEO than you might first think. These are some of the reasons why your favourite brands are utilising video content more often than ever before.
It Keeps Your Audience On Your Site
Embedding videos on your website can keep visitors on your site longer, reduce bounce rate, and increase engagement.
Particularly if you receive a lot of mobile traffic, videos can be easily optimised for mobile use. By creating a better user experience on your website, your search ranking can be improved as well.
You Can Reach New Platforms
If you’re only focused on the search optimisation of your website, you’re only thinking about improving your results in Google. That means you’re missing out on another huge search engine: YouTube.
As the second largest search engine, a lot of your audience is looking for their answers here – answers which your organisation may have. By creating video content, you’re immediately making your organisation discoverable to a whole new audience.
You’ll Improve Your Google Ranking
Google is focusing on film content more and more, with a separate ‘Videos’ tab in its results page. The main search page also pulls in a range of formats, with video content often being prioritised at the top. This means, without video, your website’s SEO will suffer.
How To Optimise Your Films For SEO
Great SEO doesn’t just mean including videos, it also means optmising your videos in line with SEO best practices. Here’s our guide to how you can effectively optimise your video content for SEO:
It Starts With An Idea
It’s important to make relevant video content that your target audience is searching for. YouTube’s auto complete search bar is a great tool to discover your audience’s interests.
Keyword tools can also be used to discover keywords to build your film idea around. This helps you find out what your users are searching for so that you can include these key phrases in your titles and captions wherever possible.
Your web and social media teams should also be involved in the conversation – what are your audiences frequently searching for on your site, or asking on social media? How can you film answer those questions?
Keywords In All The Right Places
SEO best practice means keywords should be included in every stage: the idea, the script, and the file name.
We’ve all uploaded a file at some point titled ‘project_final_final_final 3_no really it’s final now’, but what you title a file is important for your SEO strategy. Though not as publicly visible, a file name is read by YouTube’s algorithm to understand your content, alongside the video title and description.
Those keywords you originally found when crafting your idea can be included in your file name, video title, and description to explain the video concept and ensure it reaches the right audience.
Don’t Forget Your Captions
Including transcripts and captions with your video content is vital to improve its accessibility. This content is also read by Google and YouTube to understand what your video is about and when to serve it to audiences.
If those key words and concepts were included in your initial storyboard and script, they’ll now appear in your transcript and captions, creating another opportunity for search engines to realise that your content needs to be in front of your target audience.
Promoting The Film
Search optimisation doesn’t end once your film is released. Embedding it on your website will help improve your site’s SEO, but you should also be linking to it within your newsletter and sharing it on your social media platforms.
Not only does this content offer another chance to connect with your audiences, but it also drives traffic to your site and makes your brand more visible.
Let Audiences Discover You
Pitch your video to other publications, websites, and submit it to round ups and newsletters that organisations in your sector may be publishing.
Having other reputable sites link to your content will help build trust in your own site and, ultimately, introduce you to new audiences.
Looking To Create An SEO-focused Film?
If you want to integrate film into your SEO strategy, our team at Pictures for the People are experts in ensuring your film is right for your target audience. Whether you’re looking for branded video content, animations, event coverage, or anything in between, our experienced team can help you create scroll-stopping videos that bolster your SEO.
Whether you know exactly what you’re looking for or you’re after a little extra guidance, you can contact our team today to find out how we can support you.
