Rainy-Day SEO: Video Optimization

Our series on Rainy-Day SEO initiatives – essentially, projects you can always work on if you’re stalled elsewhere – turns from link-building and third-party profile optimization to an often-overlooked initiative in the organic world: video optimization.

A Nogentech report from 2023 showed that 91% of brands are using video in marketing campaigns. My experience with clients (and brand audits) tells me that a much lower percentage of those brands are devoting much time to making sure those videos are optimized for organic discovery – and that even brands that are using video could be aligning them more to the customer journey.

In this post, I’ll talk about video types and where they fit in the purchasing funnel, video trends we’re seeing in early 2024, and for making your videos more discoverable across organic channels.

Types of videos (and how to use them)

Clients enjoying the most success with video campaigns – no matter where they’re driving engagement – tend to approach all four funnel stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, and the often-neglected step of retention/upsells.

Video can be employed strategically in these stages as follows:

• For awareness: brand videos, explainer videos, and product launch videos.
• For consideration: explainer, demo, how-to, and case study videos.
• For conversion: customer testimonial videos and demos.
• For retention: onboarding videos and unique how-tos to help customers get the most out of the product.

2024 video trends

You might have video inventory to cover all of the above steps and think you’re covered – but that’s not necessarily true if those videos were created a while ago, before the following trends developed:

Brand authenticity

Consumers’ increased emphasis on brand transparency and authenticity has led to a recent uptick in videos like “behind the brand” and customer testimonials featuring real, relatable people.

Empathy with your audience

It’s far less about push marketing these days; what people are responding to are things like how-to videos, DIYs, and explainer videos that address a particular paint point and offer a solution using a particular product.

Building suspense

This isn’t necessarily new, but it works as well as ever. I’ve seen lots of brands doing smart videos with product teasers, which are perfect for building anticipation for product launches or updates.

Video optimization tips

Video is a different animal, and so is video optimization. Yes, many of the optimization steps are similar to those of other types of content, but great optimization includes all of the following initiatives:

• Start with keyword research
• Optimize video metadata
• Use transcripts and closed captions
• Choose an engaging video thumbnail
• Embed videos on your website
• Add video schema markup
• Create a video sitemap
• Optimize your video for speed
• Promote your video on social media

Creating great video might feel like table stakes in 2024, but there are still competitive advantages to be found in video optimization. Don’t catch yourself sitting on your hands waiting for bigger projects to get moving if you have a few video assets that could use some SEO love.

Next up in the Rainy-Day SEO series: Digital PR and Content Promotion.