Author: Laura Lake (About.com)
Have you noticed an increase in video placement online? Everywhere you turn you run into videos. There are funny videos, informational videos, product showcase videos, and blog videos. Are more videos being produced or is there something behind the video phenomenon?
If I had to answer the question, I’d say both. There are businesses that are realizing the impact of videos and because of that more videos are being produced.
Videos impact our marketing efforts in several ways. They provide:
- A human element to your brand.
- Deliver a more targeted audience.
- Higher conversion rates.
- Increased visibility and exposure by using video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo.
There have also been recent studies that have proven that videos have an impact on search engine marketing and placement. Just look at the compelling facts:
- A video is 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional search engine marketing techniques. *
- Videos snag a top ranking in Google search engine results.
- Videos will start to show in search engine results within days, not months.
Video is making an impact when it comes to your marketing. If you haven’t already, it’s time to consider using video to market your business. Just consider the following statistics:
- 84.4% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed a video online, according to a study done by comScore in January 2012.
- The duration of the average online content video was 6.1 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
- Video ads accounted for 12.2 percent of all videos viewed and 0.9 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.
- Consumers who watch product videos are 85% more likely to buy products compared to those who do not watch, according to Internet Retailer report done in April, 2010.
- A video is 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional search engine marketing techniques, according to a study done by Forrester Research in January 2009
Tips to Effectively Implementing Video
Don’t over think it. If I were to ask you for 5 topics that you could do a video on you’d rattle them off fast than I could write. The idea behind video is to create and add a human element to your brand. What topics would achieve that goal?
Perhaps those topics might start with:
- How Tos
- Office / Warehouse Tours
- Meet the Faces Behind the Company
- Company Quiz Snippets (Did You Know?)
- Behind the Scenes Interviews
Try to keep your videos to under ten minutes, consumers have a very short attention span.
Your video doesn’t have to be an expensive high quality production, but you should have adequate lighting and a microphone so that you are easily heard without someone maxing out their computer speakers.
Reap the Search Engine Marketing Benefits
Now, I apologize in advanced, this is where I have to get a tad technical. If this information is overwhelming don’t give up on videos, find a partner or agency that can help you. You have your video and you are excited to reap the benefits.
Slow down there!
What many people don’t realize is that your video has to be prepped to be indexed by search engines.
Now that your video is complete and uploaded to your website you must submit your video to Google or it won’t be crawled and indexed like a regular page, in other words in won’t show up in search engine results. You will need to actively submit your video information using a media RSS feed or create a video sitemap. You will also create a robots.txt file and include all your video pages to ensure Google is not blocked, and allow the search engine to quickly verify your embedded video content.
