How do videos affect your search engine rankings?

The easily consumable format of videos makes them a great tool for communicating with your target audience. Search engines also recognize the importance of video content, placing them higher in search results. However, simply adding a video to your website will not improve your rankings. You need a more nuanced approach to improving your search rankings with video.

Using Google Search. Image credit: Firmbee via Unsplash, free license

If you have never tried video search optimization for your business before, it is best to hire an expert, like this Spring Hill SEO Agency to learn their strategy. But first, you need to know how videos affect your search engine rankings.

Lower bounce rate

Every time a new visitor arrives on your website, you hope that they will stay there longer. Having videos on your landing pages helps your website quickly capture the attention of your visitors. When your visitors start spending more time on your website, search engines like Google take notice and start promoting your pages to more people by improving their rankings. Additionally, people are more likely to explore your site when they spend a lot of time on your content, which reduces the website bounce rate.

Better click-through rate

Google often updates its SERPs to provide users with more information about websites and their content. These rich snippets are designed to help people understand what they can find on a page before clicking through. When you add videos to your pages, Google displays them as rich snippets for relevant searches, increasing your chances of getting a click. While you insert textual information on the video, you should also add visually appealing thumbnails for the video content. This, again, improves your click-through rate on the SERPs.

Improved backlink profile

When a user finds useful or interesting content on the Internet, they tend to share it with others. If you post quality video content on your website, viewers are more likely to link to it. As the content begins to circulate across the internet, it will naturally get backlinks to the page where you hosted the video. If you publish the content on third-party platforms like YouTube, you can earn backlinks and referral traffic by adding your website link to your channel information or video description.

More Attractive Google Business Profile Listings

Local business listings with posts, images, and messages typically rank higher because Google promotes brands that use Google Business Profile listings to their advantage. The search engine also rewards these brands by giving them a place in the Local Pack. Adding a video to your profile can get your Google business listings listed in the Local Pack. You can take advantage of this opportunity by creating a compelling video that explains what your business is about and describes your offerings in less than 30 seconds.

Where should you host a video?

Consider the following factors when deciding whether to host your video on YouTube or your website:

When you host the video on your website, you can customize the video player, include your brand, and regulate the user experience. On YouTube, you have less control over the brand and user experience and must also comply with their policies.

Since YouTube is one of the largest search engines in the world, you can reach a wider audience on this platform. Hosting a video on your website can limit your reach.

Hosting your video on YouTube can help increase traffic and backlinks to your website, improving its SEO. YouTube videos often rank higher in search engine results.

Although hosting videos on YouTube technically doesn’t cost any money, hosting them on your website can be very expensive due to additional server resources and bandwidth requirements.

Conclusion

Due to the immersive nature of video content, they have the potential to engage your audience and provide SEO benefits. Over the years, videos have proven their ability to increase online visibility for brands, drive more traffic, and improve search engine rankings. So if you haven’t considered using videos for SEO, you should start doing so now.