By 2021, Cisco predicts that 82% of all consumer internet traffic will consist of video. In 2016, that number was measured to be 73%. Video content is essential and becoming a critical way for any person or business to get in touch with their audience. However, without proper SEO, that video won’t go as far as it could.

Optimizing a video for SEO isn’t that much different from how you would optimize an image or an article. However, there are a few things you should be doing with your videos that you may have overlooked.

Embed Your Video Once if You Want It to Rank Better

You can host your video on YouTube or a website directly. Either way, where you embed your video and place your content first will determine how well it ranks outside of a hosted platform. Embed your video in the one place it fits best.

For example, if you embed the video on your homepage, then on your FAQ, About page, and every single social media profile, none of these will be seen as unique or particularly noteworthy. It would be similar to posting the same exact article everywhere. Not a great SEO strategy. Choose the best spot and leave it there. Don’t compete against yourself.

Utilize the Power of Transcripts

No matter what kind of video you have unless there are absolutely no words spoken it should come with a transcript. If there are no words, it may be useful to have a full outline of the video under the short, general description.

Search engines still rank videos based on their titles, descriptions, and surrounding content. Transcripts give them a lot more content to work with. Further, decent transcripts are relatively inexpensive to create for the amount of extra power they can lend to your video when it comes to SEO.

Have a Better Thumbnail or “Preview” Image

You want the image displayed in place of your video to tell anyone who might watch it exactly what to expect. It’s like the cover of a book – books with better covers sell more copies. If a book doesn’t sell well the first time around the publisher may change the cover and try again. The same can be said for video thumbnails. Don’t rely on whatever default image ends up as the “cover” for your video.

Craft a Better Title and Description – Know Your Tags and Keywords

For each and every video you create, you need a title and description that says precisely what it’s about and what’s going on. If you have a whiteboard animation video, you’re probably ahead of the game on this one. Tags and keywords should also be used as often as possible if they are available. In all cases, make sure what you are including is selective and relevant to your target audience.

Connect Your Video to Related Content

Once someone has watched some form of video content that you’ve produced, chances are they want something else. Connecting each piece of your content in a logical order can improve what that potential customer thinks about you or your business.

Conclusion

Overall, consumers want more video content over any other content type. The more video content you have, the easier it will be to get more views for subsequent content. More views lead to higher rankings. By linking content, you make it easy for your audience to navigate this video content.