Q&A: Does Online Video Help with SEO & Search Visibility?

Question:

Hi Jon:

I have a question for you regarding online video.  Does online video just add a commercial value in terms of conveying information or does it actually help the web site’s visibility through Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. and if so how?  …  Thanks for your help.

<< Client Name >>

Answer:

Hi << Client Name >>,

It does both.

Funny you should ask.  Korey and I were just working on your campaign this morning and were discussing this topic as it relates to your account.  Naturally the commercial value is easy to understand, so I’ll just address the SEO value (visibility in search engines).

1) Google and other search engines all have “video” search features, b/c as the web gets more mature people want more than just text.  That said, 95%+ of all searches are still the regular webpage searches, but video search is still growing.

2) Even more significantly, Google likes to show video results on occasion when they find it appropriate right in the regular organic results.  Sometimes this can be an easier way in, as with most keywords your webpage might compete with 100,000 other webpages, but if you have a video it might only compete with 200 other videos.  There simply aren’t nearly as many videos on the web as there are pages.

3) Sometimes even when Google doesn’t specifically show videos in addition to regular results, if they see that your page has a video on it and your page is ranking well (independently of any video content) then it can bump your page’s ranking up a few slots and also they will typically show a little video icon to the left of the listing which generally improves the click-through-rate (percentage of people who will click to visit your site).

4) Lastly, if the video is compelling, it can make someone more likely to link to your site.  That in turn helps your site rank better.