Reading Time: 9 minutesWondering if video SEO is a smart addition to SEO strategy for your ecommerce brand in 2023?
Let’s look at some stats to put things in perspective:
- Depositphotos found that 33% of all users’ time on the internet is allocated to watching videos.
- HighQ found that 55% of internet users watch videos daily.
- Depositphotos found that adding a video to a landing page can increase conversion rates by up to 80%.
- A study by the Local Search Association found that 71% of people who made a purchase had watched an online video from that brand.
- Impact found that Including a video on an eCommerce page can increase the average order value by at least 50%
- Wyzowl conducted a survey in which 84% of consumers cited video as the convincing factor in a purchase they made online.
- Red Stag Fulfillment claims that using product videos can help eCommerce stores increase rate of purchase by up to 144%.
These stats only indicate one thing: Trends are shifting and more & more users prefer to watch videos to inform their purchase decisions. There are also SEOs who have found a lot of success not only boosting conversions of an existing page with video — but simply getting more visibility on the internet & winning for competitive search rankings.
Brands who don’t turn their focus on video SEO are ultimately going to be at the shorter end of the stick as both users & algorithms start preferring video content. Social media is a prime example of how much value algorithms are placing on boosting visibility of video content — and SERPs are not going to be lagging behind.
If you’re just getting started with eCommerce SEO — we will show you the why, where, and how in this blog. We hope it can give you the much needed inspiration to invest heavily in video SEO this year.
Why You Should Be Focusing on Ecommerce Video SEO
Video eCommerce SEO is a vital part of content marketing tips your brand must adopt. Videos (and their visibility) can help your brand achieve the following goals:
Communicate Brand Personality
Do you want to exude minimalism? Maybe your brand is more vibrant and fun? Regardless of your brand personality, videos are a great medium to communicate the feel of your brand to users and prospects.
Users who feel like they know you will seek out your content more. A brand with a visually appealing story tends to be more memorable too, adding to a stronger brand recall.
Build Trust
When a user searches for something relevant to your brand offerings and your videos pop up, the understanding is that you are good enough to get a high rank out of thousands of other results. This builds trust even before the user has clicked on the video.
When valuable content and a distinguishable brand personality accompany this high rank, users start considering you as a go-to for their needs.
Increase Visitor Engagement & Boost Conversions
Consistent video content that follows best SEO practices has been shown to improve click-through rates and assist the buyer in their customer journey. You can improve conversation rates and SEO at the same time when your videos start getting found on search engines like YouTube or Google.
As the stats we stayed above established, visitors spend more time on your website when web pages have videos on them. If your video content is well-curated, it also encourages them to buy more.
In this way, video can meet 3 key marketing goals of any content: increase visibility, boost engagement, and increase conversions. Talk about the holy grail of SEO.
Increase Brand Exposure in SERPs
Google recognizes the effectiveness of video content. The benefits of short-form videos were highlighted in the search Off The Record podcast episode hosted by Google Product Manager Danielle Marshak too.
As Google SERPs open up to short-form video content, brands have a chance to score great rankings and get those indexed and ranked too.
How Can You Make the Most Out of Video E-Commerce SEO?
Your primary focus should be product pages, blogs, and live videos. Every kind of page requires distinct forms of video content, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. User search intent should drive your decision on what type of video to include on a particular page.
Product Pages
You can create short Q&A videos or video tutorials/demos for the product page. You can cover the functionalities of your product through a video instead (or along with) bulleted text.
Users who see videos from your product pages in their search results will automatically get a glimpse of your product — so that works to improve clicks as well.
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Blogs
Visual content in blogs is a good idea to enhance user experience. You could include spoken summaries of your blog, testimonials if the article is about a product, or a visual representation of what your text covers.
For example, if your blog covers the precautions you need to take while feeding a dog, a video could show all these precautions in action.
Live Streams
These are good opportunities for interacting with your customers and building trust. Your live streams may cover pressing questions your customer may have about the product you offer, or it could just be a relaxed community event.
Taking the pet food brand example, your live stream could involve interacting with pet owners and bringing out the various approaches people take towards pet diet (homemade v. processed, once a day v. thrice a day, etc).
Gently discussing the product’s benefits in a way that’s intertwined with the customer interactions will encourage genuine connections.
You can schedule these live streams to ensure maximum participation and record and upload for them to show up on search results later.
How to Conduct Research for Video E-Commerce SEO
For well-optimized video content, you cannot just sit down with a camera on a whim and start recording. Every piece of media requires research, and for video content you are hoping to rank, this research is essential. You can create videos every day, but without this pre-production stage, they will get lost in the sea of videos online.
Here are some “before you start” tips:
B2B Competitor Research
Track what high-ranking competitors have been doing with their video content with questions like:
- What video formats do they put out?
- What’s the viewing experience of these videos on a phone and laptop?
- What are some mistakes they are making that you can avoid and some best practices you can incorporate?
- What keywords are they ranking for?
After some comprehensive B2B competitor research, you will better understand how to shape your video content according to what’s ranking and what’s not working.
Keyword Strategy
While doing competitor research, you will get an idea of which keywords the high-ranking competitors use. Your keywords should address user search intent to be successful. You can then focus on long-tail keywords or other search phrases that your competitors are not using since it will be easier to rank for those.
Use online keyword tools to get a glimpse of parameters like average monthly search volume for every phase you want to include. You can allot one keyword to a single video or series of videos. These keywords will play a massive part in the “after you shoot” stage, so doing this part well is critical.
Video Production: Create Videos on Your Own or Hire a Professional?
No matter how many Video SEO best practices you adopt, the sub-standard video quality will always pull your content down. So do not hesitate to hire a professional. A professional will not just help translate your brand personality into video form — they will also help you create stories that connect with users.
Businesses that cannot hire a professional and want to take over the production stage on their own should think about the following:
- Investing in high-quality equipment.
- Researching the best tips and hacks on how to use the equipment you end up using. Even if your device of choice is an iPhone you have used for years, do not skip this step. We guarantee that there will be many video shooting tips you will not know about.
- The lifecycle of the video production process, right from ideation and scripting to the shoot. This needs to be in sync with your content calendar.
Video Editing and Optimization: 8 Things to Look Out For
Just shot the first video for your brand? Congratulations! Now let’s look at some “after you shoot video” tips to help you achieve the highest level of optimization for video eCommerce. You can use these tips for your existing database of videos as well.
Perfecting the Video Thumbnail
The video’s thumbnail will be the first visual peek into your content. It needs to grab the attention of the user. If you do not choose a custom thumbnail, the platform where the video is hosted will generate one automatically for you, which will not be as effective.
Sometimes, there will be no thumbnail if you don’t upload one yourself.
Your thumbnail should have color combinations that pop and give the user a glimpse of what your video is about. It’s also advisable to avoid stock photos in your thumbnail and follow the thumbnail size recommendations of the given platform.
You can also stick to a consistent thumbnail design that will appear in all videos for brand consistency.
Optimizing Titles and Descriptions
Just like Google, YouTube looks at your title tags and heading tags along with descriptions. It uses these to check whether it can boost your YouTube rankings. So your videos need to reflect what your video will cover in clear and descriptive language.
Include your primary keyword in your title and pepper it across your descriptions. Follow the required word limits for the title and descriptions. An excessively lengthy description will require the user to click on “Read More.” A long title will force them to open the video to read the full title (which they won’t) — both of these must be avoided.
Video Transcription
Though video transcripts are not mandatory, they are another way to ensure indexing and increase search traffic. When Google is indexing your video, it will go through the transcript to understand what your video is about. A transcript is also the ideal place to use all the keyword research you did before shooting the video. It also allows you to add internal links, which is another way to optimize your content once you find the best page for your keyword.
Treat the video transcript like a mini-blog. Include titles and H1 and H2 tags wherever necessary.
Include Timestamps
Make it easier for the user to get the most out of your video by including timestamps. These are text markers at various intervals of the video indicating what that portion of the video covers. You may believe this will prevent the user from watching the whole video as they can pick out the relevant parts based on the timestamps. That’s not true.
The user will appreciate the indications. Google will also track this activity of clicking on a timestamp, thus giving you extra insight into what portions of your video are popular.
From an SEO perspective, timestamps are another excellent opportunity to inject keywords. Search engines can pick up the text you include in your timestamps, and if you have done the keyword research well, this will lead to high rankings.
Change Filename
The platform you upload will save your video with a generic file name. Though users won’t see the filename, Google or YouTube will, and you need to help them understand what your video is about for them to rank you. An alphanumeric filename that has nothing to do with your content will not tell Google/YouTube anything. Change the default filename to a keyword-rich name.
Creating a Video Sitemap
A video sitemap gives more information about all the videos you host on your web pages. It will provide Google a comprehensive blueprint and more context as they crawl through your video content.
Make sure that you follow the platform guidelines for video sitemaps. These guidelines will be related to SEO-friendly URL naming and inserting. Your URLs in the sitemap must be accurate, so identify toxic links frequently.
Video Embedding
According to John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate, there is no difference in SEO value between videos embedded from other sources and native videos on a platform. As long as both are properly indexable, it doesn’t matter. Embedded videos add to the readability of a long blog post or provide a convenient break in the text on product/blog pages.
Do not forget to scour your content to identify opportunities to embed optimized videos.
Mobile Viewing Optimization
All your efforts towards the thumbnail, titles, descriptions, transcripts, and timestamps should keep in mind that most of your target customers will be watching your videos on a mobile device.
These textual elements need to be optimized for mobile viewing in terms of length, use of certain symbols, etc. The video needs to be of the proper aspect ratio and length to be accessible to mobile viewers. Do some test runs on a mobile device after you’re done before you hit upload.
Supercharge Your Video E-Commerce SEO Strategy
Video marketing and eCommerce SEO are instrumental in ensuring organic visibility. High-quality video content is not sufficient anymore. You must cater to Google, YouTube, and any other video platform where your target audience is hanging out. Prioritizing video SEO may seem onerous, but it’s much needed if you want your content to reach that coveted first page on search results.
Check out the other blog posts in our ECommerce Series:
At Vizion Interactive, we have the expertise, experience, and enthusiasm to get results and keep clients happy! If you run an ecommerce site and are due for a redesign or have just launched a redesign, our SEO Audit Services identify problems with your site and lay out a plan of action. Then our experts will be right by your side with our ongoing ecommerce SEO Services to grow organic traffic and take your site to the next level. Get in touch with us to discuss more, we’re looking forward to hearing your story.
