When it comes to SEO and trying to rank your website as high as possible on Google and other search engines, there is no shortage of strategies, tools, and content types that you can use to bolster your results. Indeed, one reason many people fear trying SEO is that it seems to have so many moving parts that most have no idea where to start.
If that is the case for anyone reading this, then one excellent solution is to get in touch with a local SEO agency that can advise you and should you wish them to, they can implement a comprehensive SEO campaign that can see your website shooting to the upper echelons of Google.
One of the content types that they could include in that SEO campaign is video. Nobody can have escaped the huge influence that online videos have had, be that from children able to watch educational videos on a tablet or dramatic live coverage of news events being watched on mobile phones as they happen in real-time.
Of course, those two examples are but a minute fraction of how video is used online, and within that, we must include SEO. To gain higher rankings, you must have great content and video can provide the medium you create and publish. Gone are the days when producing a video for businesses would require hiring studios, equipment, and personnel running to thousands of dollars. Today, a mere mobile phone is sufficient.
Indeed, there are entire online businesses that have used videos to incredible effect and with massive success, and they have all been recorded on mobile devices, many of which were not even edited before being published. This should point you toward how simple it is to create videos to support your SEO.
However, one of the primary goals of any video you publish, especially on your website, is user engagement (UX). Google’s ongoing obsession with UX means that the websites it ranks highly are the ones that invariably it sees as providing great experiences backed up by user engagement.
Thankfully, video is the perfect content medium to engage positively with your website’s visitors, and it can be used in several ways. As such here are seven astute ways of using video to enhance user engagement on your website.
Informative Tutorials
One of the primary reasons people go online is to learn about something, and if you can provide tutorials for those who wish to learn, then it can be a huge boost to your business. Apart from the fact that video tutorials on your website will keep visitors there for a considerable time, which is flagged as a rankings boost by Google, it will also help build trust with visitors and bolster authority, both for yourself and for your business too.
Product Or Service Demonstrations
The nature and content of these demonstration videos will vary greatly depending on the products and/or services each business wishes to promote, but beyond that, they will all have the same positive impact. Online consumers habitually go online to research before buying, and you can tap into this phenomenon. Creating simple explanatory videos about your products and services, without them being too hyped, can almost guarantee that your sales will improve as a result.
Explainer Videos
Beyond creating product and service demonstration videos, you can also reap the rewards of providing explainer videos on your website. These can be used to explain to your website visitors more complex subjects related to your business and its sector. By taking those complex ideas and explaining them in clear and concise terms, your audience will be grateful and have greater clarity, and that can ultimately lead to them being confident enough to place an order.
Live Streaming
We have mentioned that Google measures the time a visitor remains on a website as an indicator of the experience they are having there. It follows that the longer they remain, the better it is for your rankings. A live-streaming event is an ingenious way of increasing user engagement and the time they are on your website significantly. Instead of a few seconds or a couple of minutes, think of how visitors staying to watch a 30-minute live stream is judged by Google.
Interactive Videos
There are few better ways to take user engagement to the maximum than something interactive, and interactive video is right up there as one of the prime types of content to achieve this. The benefit to you is again having visitors remain on your website for longer. In addition, creating interactive videos that may include polls, quizzes, discussions, and even some entertainment makes that audience grow to know, like and trust you, which augurs well for them becoming a customer.
Customer Testimonials
Social proof is a buzzword that has been around for some time, and it means that people look to justify their buying decisions by seeing that others have bought before them. This is why testimonials are regarded with such importance by businesses. However, instead of you using text testimonials like every other business, including your competitors, it will be far more effective to publish video testimonials as they have more impact and those watching find them more believable.
Personalised Videos
Few videos are more able to engage someone’s attention than personalised videos. The second someone hears their name, they are hooked which is why personalised videos are so effective. You could use a personalised video to thank a client for a purchase, answer a query, ask for feedback, including testimonials, or wish them Happy Birthday. Whatever the reason, personalised video is a powerful means of boosting user engagement on your website.