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How do explainer videos boost your SEO ranking?

18th October 2017 Print
Video marketing

Explainer videos are becoming a very popular digital marketing tool. They are used on company websites, on the second largest search engine in the world- YouTube, and as a significant part of social media ad campaigns to create a social buzz. 

Explainer videos often contain captivating visual cues and fun animation that make the visitor want to watch it till the end and share it with friends. Data from this study indicates that shoppers who view videos are 1.81 times more likely to make a purchase than shoppers who don’t. 

What’s more, this website states that simply having an explainer video on your website makes you 58% more likely to achieve the holy grail of SEO - appear on page one of google organic search results page. How exactly do explainer videos achieve these seemingly amazing feats? Read on to find out.

Keeps your visitors on your website

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Google’s algorithms may be unfathomable to the average user and sometimes even expert SEO agencies are unable to completely unravel the mysteries of google, however, Michelle Blake, SEO expert at Infintech Designs says “We know for sure that google keeps track of how long visitors stay on a website, as this indicates that the website has useful and engaging content. The average website visit time is 8 seconds. 

An engaging explainer video can keep a visitor on your website for up to two minutes, sometimes even longer if they decide to watch it a second time.” This represents a 1500% increase in your average web visit time. This increase in web site visit time can increase your SEO ranking because it makes google classify your site as very useful. 

This explains one of the ways in which having an explainer video boosts your ranking on search engine return page.

Google + YouTube is the ultimate combination

Although google may seem to eclipse other search engines, it is crucial that you rank highly on other search engines as well. Did you know that YouTube is currently the second largest search engine and the third largest social media website in the world?  

The only way to show up on a YouTube search is to upload a video that could either be independent or used for a YouTube push ad campaign. A captivating and interesting explainer video gives you exposure on YouTube which in turn translates to increased website traffic. 

Everybody knows that website traffic is an important factor in Google’s algorithm for SEO ranking. Although YouTube can be used as an independent digital marketing strategy thanks to its extensive reach and popularity, don’t forget to always leave information that links to your company’s webpage at the end of your explainer video.

Google SEO ranking likes video content

Google

Video content has increased in its popularity of use as a marketing tool and for regular online content. Explainer videos are a fun and easy way to learn about different topics no matter how complex.  62% of google search return always include websites with video content. This means that a person is more likely to happen upon a search result that has web content (more exposure for your company). 

More importantly, it is also an indication to the fact that google places more emphasis on websites that have video content and are more likely to return a higher ranking for your website if it has video content. Even more interesting is the fact that from this search study carried out by Searchmetrics, 80% of video content returns came from YouTube. 

It follows naturally that if you want your website to have a higher ranking then use video content. Improve your chances of being ranked higher than other video content when you upload it using Google’s own YouTube.

Explainer videos attract more inbound links

How do they do that? Explainer videos are sharable. Sharing your videos mean you are getting free promotions based on the fact that people love your explainer video. It is a known fact that animated videos are the most shared type of marketing content. 

Shared videos mean more inbound links and more traffic to your website which will in turn increase your ranking on search return pages. 

Apart from the impact on your SEO, having a cute and shareable explainer video that people share provides you with free marketing and can help create a buzz on social media for your company. 

One word – video thumbnails (oops that was two words)

The appeal of the visual element can never be overstated. If your video appears in a search, google pulls up a thumbnail for it.  Thanks to the appeal of a visual cue, the searcher is more likely to click on the video thumbnail. 

If you added your video metadata and created a video sitemap in addition to uploading the video on YouTube and embedding it on your website, then Google will associate the video with your web page. 

This is a good way to harness the value of having a video on your webpage and converting it to increased website traffic which in turn improves your SEO ranking.

Viral videos

Technically there’s no real way to make a video go viral. You can only create a great video and put it out there while hoping that the stars align and your video goes viral. Several explainer videos have gone viral before

A viral video often translate into thousands of views, and sometimes even millions. Again this often translates to heavy website traffic that is a significant factor for a website’s organic search ranking.

Videos in general, and particularly, a very well created explainer video is very important for web page ranking. A good SEO strategy that does not incorporate the use of explainer video is missing a huge piece of the puzzle. 

While videos are not good to be used as a standalone SEO strategy, when added to other elements that affect organic search engine ranking the effect is often synergistic and can result in immediate and noticeable boosts to your SEO. 

Some may argue that these effects are indirect and as such only have minimal value but the statistics show that these indirect effects when wielded properly has the capacity to result in optimal results. 

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