Your SEO strategy isn’t complete until you incorporate short-form video. But simply making that content isn’t enough — so where do you begin when it comes to making sure your target audience finds it?
Our most recent Level Up event tackled this question and so much more. During the webinar, Mikey Brazile, Keap’s SEO expert, shared his tips for creating short-form video content that can bolster your SEO and increase your engagement.
Keep reading to get his advice, including:
- Strategies to increase click-through rates using video content
- How to optimize your videos and increase accessibility with descriptions, titles and more
- How and when content should be made into a short-form video
- Specific video settings needed for greater visibility
- Which tools are best for creating short-form video content and automating your lead-capture processes
Why are short-form videos better?
Google loves video content, but specifically short-form videos. You can tell simply by the results after you look up something — lately, if there’s a short-form video that answers your inquiry, Google will prioritize that and make it one of the first things you see.
Long-form video content has its place, but when it comes to creating a better SEO strategy and appearing at the top of search results, short-form videos are the way to get there.
Not only is this type of content favored by Google, but it’s often the preference of your audience.
Mikey experienced this first-hand when he looked up how to fix his LG washing machine. The first result Google gave him was a minute-long video from LG’s website, which showed him exactly how to fix the problem. “If that video had been 10 minutes long … I would’ve bounced,” Mikey recalls. The significance of this example? It proves the algorithm's favoritism for short videos and their convenience for users, too.
What does it mean to optimize short-form videos for SEO?
Thanks to Mikey’s insight, we know short-form videos are more favorable for your SEO efforts — but not just any video will do. Mikey stresses that the video content you create needs to be well-optimized with SEO-friendly titles, descriptions and other components we’ll cover later. These details are prone to fall through the cracks, and many businesses assume videos don’t need a written component, but according to Mikey, that’s the biggest misconception when it comes to SEO video strategy.
“The written piece is really important,” Mikey explains. “Having a written transcript, having closed captions, and also having a summary clearly sends signals to Google that [your video] is well-optimized content and you're trying to make it accessible to everybody.”
It also helps to embed your videos on relevant web pages, such as a corresponding blog, so Google can index your video when crawling your site.
Five tips for creating well-optimized videos
Whether you’re already making short-form videos or you’re itching to start so you can level up your search ranking, there are five simple tactics Mikey recommends to all business owners and their teams.
1. Consider making written content into a short-form video
You don’t have to start at zero with short-form video content. Instead, start with what you already have. Mikey’s advice is to look at the content on your blog and see which articles answer the questions your audience asks most frequently. Then, take that written content and turn it into a one-minute video. The blog can act as a script, and all you have to do is get to filming!
2. Incorporate a written component
To ensure your short-form videos meet accessibility standards, you need to incorporate one of two things:
Closed captions: One option is to include closed captions on the video itself. YouTube has an awesome built-in closed caption generator to help you accomplish this. Then, if you want to give your SEO an extra boost, you can embed the video on your site and include an accompanying article that gives viewers some extra context or simply summarizes the video.
Transcript: If you aren’t planning to use closed captions, you can opt to include a transcript below where you embed your video. Make sure your transcript includes timestamps so your audience can easily follow along as they watch your video.
Either of these options will provide a great user experience and enhance your SEO efforts. You can even do both if you want to go the extra mile!
Pro tip
Try to limit the number of videos you have on one page in order to keep your page-load time down. With too many videos on a page, it will take longer to load, which can actually hurt your SEO ranking.
3. Quickly get to the problem that your short-form video is addressing
Short videos mean quick explanations. Mikey urges teams to not waste time with long introductions or extra video fluff. Instead, know the problem you’re addressing and get right to it. That’s what your users and search engines are looking for.
Mikey also recommends one video per problem, so try not to lump multiple problem explanations into one video. As you’re making your video, if you come across something else you want to address, add it to your list of content ideas. Then, you can make it into its own video and give it the focus it deserves.
4. Use a high-quality camera
You don’t need to run out and get the most expensive video equipment money can buy, but you do need to make sure your videos are high quality.
Start by taking inventory of the video equipment you already have to see if your cameras can capture content in a clear, professional way. Most smartphones these days have great cameras, so before you buy anything else, check what you already have in your pocket. Don’t forget to also take into account the audio capabilities of your camera. Wireless mics can help supplement poor camera audio.
If the problem you’re addressing with your short-form video is a bit more technical, Mikey recommends storyboarding before you begin. This will help you map out the images and angles you need to capture so you can bring your vision to life without leaving anything out.
For more help creating a high-quality short-form video, check out these three video tips from Keap’s video expert, Dusey Van Dusen.
5. Make sure YouTube videos are set to public
Making videos public sounds simple, but it’s a step people often forget. When you’re uploading your content to YouTube and preparing to publish, your videos won’t automatically be set to public. Instead, they can default to private (only you can see it) or unlisted (only people with the link can watch it).
If your videos are private or unlisted, Google won’t be able to index and rank them, so always remember to set any short-form videos you want to count toward your SEO as public.
Resources to make SEO-approved videos
The following tools are some of Mikey’s favorites. They can make implementing the tips you just read even easier and help you track your progress after hitting publish.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console can tell you which pages on your website have the most viewers and how long people are spending on those pages. This tool is especially helpful because you can use it to track the performance of pages with embedded videos. It will show you how many times a page was served up in search results and the clicks and impressions associated with it.
Pro tip
Pay attention to your impressions data. These metrics will tell you how often Google is promoting your video, which will reveal how helpful Google thinks your video truly is. A good rule of thumb is to make sure your impressions are higher than your clicks.
Repurpose.IO
If you have one longer video you’d like to make into multiple short-form videos, Repurpose.IO is for you. All you have to do is upload your long-form piece of content, and it will help you split it up. It can also schedule and post videos for you. This tool is an awesome way to lighten the load of content creation and make it an easier process all around.
YouTube Analytics
As soon as you begin publishing with YouTube, you’ll be able to track your metrics within the platform. From your YouTube analytics section, you can see how many people are watching your video and how many of those views are directly from YouTube versus how many are from an outside source, such as your website.
How we can help
Here at Keap, we know from experience how these short-form video tips can positively impact your business. Implementing this content has helped us bolster our own strategy and reach more of our target audience (like you!).
Thanks to Mikey’s expertise and the tips outlined in this article, Keap videos rank in organic search engine result pages and non-video results. This leads to a higher click-through rate and more qualified leads on our site.
If high-quality leads and a better SEO ranking are what you’re searching for, consider this article your roadmap to success. But don’t stop here — give yourself a leg-up in implementing these strategies with Keap’s custom landing pages and email builder. These features make it easy to include videos in your emails and across your website. Then, make sure you’re prepared to capture and store all the leads your videos will attract by including a custom landing page or form as the CTA of your videos.
Curious how Keap's other small business CRM and automation features can help you and your team? Visit our business automation page for more details.
