Website: Check.
SEO: Perfect.
Google Ranking: Never heard of you.
Traffic: What traffic?
If this sounds familiar you’ve probably been pulling your hair out trying to figure out why the heck your website just won’t climb the ranks and sit on that glistening “Page 1 of Google Search Results” where all the unique visitors have been happily passing you by.
Well, worry no more! This blog will teach you how video can massively increase your website traffic and consequently catapult you up the Google leaderboard.
“Ok, so how will video help me climb the mountain of Google search results above me?”
Simple. Google loves video. It eats it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Back in 2006, Google bought YouTube for a whopping $1.6
Billion Dollars and as a result they give ranking preference to any website that contains video. Put simply, the more video embedded on your site (preferably from YouTube) the better.
Indeed, “Forrester Research found that videos were 53 times more likely than traditional web pages to receive an organic first-page ranking.” (techcrunch.com).
“Great. I’ll make a couple of videos at home, whack them on my website, sit back and watch the business roll in.”
Not quite! The key to great video content is targeted, concise information that appeals directly to your audience in an engaging and exciting way. In short, nobody wants to listen to you talk for 10 minutes about how great your business is. They’ll simply watch for 10 seconds and then click away and find another provider.
Effective video content is short. Ninety seconds – two minutes. Statistic Brain released a report in 2013 that claims the average human attention span is only eight seconds. That’s less than a goldfish at 9 seconds!
Your video needs to excite a viewer from the very beginning and encourage them to stay and explore your website further. With ever decreasing attention spans people don’t want to read through every page on your website, so don’t make them!
Don’t forget, these videos should look crisp, professional and the sound needs to be amazing. There is literally nothing worse than watching a video with bad sound! Trust me.
“Ok this all makes sense. But why a video campaign? Won’t one video do it?”
Like I said, the more video you have the better your odds of conversions and flying up those pages. How about a quick video that describes your services instead of a lengthy paragraph? Got work you want to show off? How about a case study video? Think of text as your supporting artiste and not the star of the show.
“Ok, you’ve made your point. Now prove it.”
Sure thing! A few months ago I met with the London estate agent Gordon & Co to discuss how they could use video to attract more first time buyers to their website. After a few consultations we decided that a series of 5 short films called “Gordon & Co’s Top Tips for First Time Buyers” would be the easiest and most effective way to reach their target demographic.
Each film was designed to tackle different parts of the home buying process in a fun, informative but crucially bite size way. Each film encouraged the viewer to move on to the next film to learn more and indirectly continue to click-through the Go & Co site.
The results were staggering:
36% increase in traffic to their website in one month!
Their unique visitors jumped from 75,000 to 102,000 meaning an extra 27,000 hits!
To date, the 5 videos have reached 17,500 people on their Facebook page alone.
Here’s a link to one of the videos below:
As an established estate agent Gordon and Co don’t need to worry about ranking however these videos massively increased their ability to reach a specific customer who otherwise may have gone elsewhere. The value of these videos cannot be underestimated and will certainly have a dramatic and positive effect in increasing Go & Co’s business in this particular demographic.
Needless to say, if your website is not currently on page one then there a few special tools you can implement to ensure your videos boost your ranking:
Alt Text: Make sure you tag your videos with your search terms and key words. The more links you have on the web that link back to your website the quicker you will get noticed by Google.
Always include your website URL in the video description on YouTube.
Share the videos across your social media channels and encourage others to do so too. Don’t just post videos and expect people to click on them. Use a catchy title and specific hashtags.
Comment on popular blogs in your business field and engage with consumers online.
Share video links on relevant forums.
Free Bonus Tip that will guarantee results:
Include the video in your email signature. Indirect marketing is so effective as it’s not forced. Every enquiry you get, every email you send, make sure this sits link sits at the bottom of your message.
According to Implix, an introductory email that includes a video receives an increase click-through rate by 96%. (virtuets.com)
“Ok, I’m in! How do I get in touch?”
I’d be delighted to discuss your individual video needs. Please send me a message via the enquiry box on my website.
Tom Farmery