The Video Halo Effect: Why You Should Implement SEO Video Marketing

Introduction: SEO Video Marketing

When it comes to choosing between paragraphs of text or a video full of sight, sound and motion, let’s be honest, we would all rather watch the video. That’s why, in essence, you should have implemented an SEO video marketing strategy yesterday. Don’t worry though if you haven’t yet, digital video is still up and coming, and by implementing it now you are still ahead of the game. As the internet evolves, along with the devices that include internet capabilities, the population is engaging with online content in, what is referred to as, a “lean back” fashion. Reading text online is very “lean forward” in the sense that one must concentrate as one reads and is required to scroll. Watching a video online allows the user to lean back and relax, with the only requirement being to push play. With the rising popularity of the video medium, and the traffic it can generate to the websites where it resides, it is a no brainer to utilize video with the goal of improving SEO. Just how does video improve SEO you ask? It’s called the Video Halo Effect, meaning that the impression a video leaves on a particular viewer will affect any other interaction that viewer has with what is featured in the video. So if you can make a good piece of online video content, the awareness, sales, marketing pool, or loyalty to your brand, company or cause will see an overall lift.

Increasing Quantity of Quality Links and Shares

When thinking about SEO rankings, we know that links are of the upmost importance. The quantity of links, as well as the quality of links matter. Utilizing video content is a great way to attract links to your site because, as has already been pointed out, videos are rather clickable. Besides a video being clickable, it is also shareable. With the high volume of literal crap on the internet in today’s cyber-world, internet users put online content through an intense screening process before they share it with their online communities. The same concept can be applied to noteworthy and credible sites linking to your site. With that being said, it is very important to define what kind of viewers you want to share your content, and what kind of sites you want to link to your content. The next step is then deciding what your video will offer viewers, whether it be education, entertainment, testimonials, etc., clarity of the video’s purpose is key for memorable delivery. This will be the launching pad for a great piece of relevant video content that will generate shares and links leading to the improvement of SEO rankings. An example of a video embedded on a website that generated a viral amount of shares, creating a high volume of backlinks can be seen on the Dollar Shave Club’s homepage. Dollar Shave Club’s goal with this piece of video content was to create higher brand awareness. Reaching this goal came hand in hand with improving SEO rankings via out of this world amounts of social sharing, and links on links on more links. Make sure to watch the spot yourself to be entertained and educated on what Dollar Shave Club has to offer, and to see for yourself what a piece of relevant, quality video content looks like. Dollar Shave Club really hit the bullseye with their SEO video marketing.

Filling The Top of the Marketing Funnel and Increasing Conversions

Online video content can play two roles in a viewer’s journey through the marketing funnel to conversion: getting the viewer to your website or keeping the viewer engaged once they’ve reached your website. With Google’s vertical search results and universal search results, relevant videos are likely to show up on the SERP. Video results are more likely to be clicked on in comparison to the other text results that show up because video results simply just stand out. The thumbnail of the video, along with the title and description are shown, covering more precious SERP real estate than a text result, and therefore drawing more eyes. By garnering more clicks from the SERP to your website using video, you are filling the top of your marketing funnel by acquiring new site visitors and making them eligible for retargeting.

Once a consumer has reached your website you have mere seconds, possibly less, to impress them, and keep them there in hopes of garnering a conversion. Thus, your page content must be on point. As was aforementioned, text is just not as enticing as video content, so hosting a quality video on your landing page will boost website visitor engagement. Statistically it has been shown that the longer a visitor is on your site, the more likely they are to convert. If video is utilized successfully, the duration of site visits will surely improve leading to more conversions. StacksAndStacks.com analyzed conversion data and found out that their website visitors were 144% more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video on their site. There are many case studies out there that show the viability of using video to drive conversion volume. Check out Kissmetrics’ analytics, marketing and testing blog to learn more about how companies have uniquely used video in their SEO video marketing strategies.

Conclusion: Just Implement SEO Video Marketing Already!

The growing presence of online video has provided those looking to improve SEO a great opportunity to capitalize on. So if you’ve made it to the end of this post, and haven’t initiated SEO video marketing yet it is time to get going! Producing and utilizing a quality video will bring improving SEO rankings together with increasing upper funnel and conversion volume. In conclusion, you should implement SEO video marketing, and let the Video Halo Effect help you reach your online goals.