The Benefits of Video and SEO

Are you using video as part of your comprehensive marketing strategy? If not, you are missing opportunities and getting left behind online.

There are many obvious benefits of video marketing that you may already know. For example, video provides a sight and sound experience that allows you to communicate a wealth of information in a short amount of time. Video informs, entertains, enables you to connect with your viewer on an emotional level and persuades them to take action. Video improves the retention rate for your product or service - people are 22 times more likely remember stories rather than facts (Stanford University) and video is the perfect medium for storytelling. In essence, video can communicate your message in ways that other marketing tools cannot.

But there's another important facet of video marketing for any company concerned about online visibility. Video plays a significant role in the success of your website's search engine strategy.

Search Engine Rank

When it comes to search engine performance, everyone wants the same thing - to be at the top. There are hundreds of factors that affect search engine rank but the use of video content has much more weight than traditional keyword optimization. Video can make a big and immediate impact.

According to Forrester Research, web pages with video content are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page of search results. Bing, Google and Yahoo! consider video as quality content and they have all made video a key factor in their search engine algorithms. A website with an abundance of video content will help your overall search engine rank. Google actually parses your video content so make certain that your video provides great content with relevant information.

Conversion Rates

Websites with video also have higher click-through and conversion rates. In fact, 70% of marketing professionals report that video converts better than any other medium (MarketingProfs). Video included on a landing page and embedded on your website has major SEO benefits. When marketers included a video in an email, the click-through rate increased by 200 - 300%. Video also boosts email open rates by 19% (Forrester).

We are inundated with so much information on a daily basis so it's no surprise that attention spans are continually getting shorter. Human attention spans have decreased from an average of 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013. It's proven that utilizing video on your website is the most effective way to keep your visitor engaged longer. The longer someone stays, the more likely they are to perform an action. Visitors who view videos stay on websites an average of 2 minutes longer that those who don't view videos (comScore).

Increase Your Reach

Finally, quality video has another important benefit (and I stress the word quality). It provides an opportunity to increase your visibility through social sharing. Quality video shared on social media websites allows visitors to further share it with those in their own networks. A creative, interesting video production has the ability to go viral increasing brand awareness, visitors and customers.

Is your company taking advantage of a content marketing strategy that includes video? Contact Horizon Productions at 919-941-0901 to schedule a consultation.