Video is becoming an essential component of e-commerce business. According to Big Commerce, product videos can improve conversion rates by up to 64 to 85%. The key is getting those videos found by your target audience. This requires proper search engine optimization (SEO) tailored to videos.
By optimizing your e-commerce videos for keywords and search visibility, you can dramatically improve their ranking in Google and other video-sharing platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. This leads to more impressions and traffic from search, supporting your conversion and sales goals.
In today’s post, we’ll discuss video SEO best practices to boost your e-commerce site’s ranking and visibility. With the right optimization, your product videos will be easier to find, engaging to viewers, and converted at a higher rate into sales.
We’ll cover specific tips for titles, descriptions, transcripts, sitemaps, YouTube optimization, and more. Follow these video SEO techniques to take full advantage of video for your e-commerce business. Let’s dive in!
What is Video SEO
Video SEO refers to optimizing videos to rank better in search engines like Google and YouTube. It involves using search engine optimization best practices but applies them specifically to video content. This includes doing keyword research to identify terms and phrases people search for that are relevant to your videos.
These keywords can then be incorporated into aspects of the video like the title, file name, description, and tags. Other video SEO tactics include transcribing videos to optimize the text, using schema markup, generating video sitemaps, and optimizing YouTube videos with custom thumbnails and metadata.
The goal is to improve the findability of videos so they garner more impressions, clicks, and traffic from search engines. Proper video SEO makes your videos more visible to your target audience.
Essential Video SEO Tips For E-commerce Sites
Optimizing video content should be a priority for ecommerce businesses. Videos allow you to showcase products in action, answer customer questions, build trust, and convey your brand story. But without proper SEO, these videos will never get seen.
This section will cover some of the most important video SEO best practices specifically for e-commerce sites.
Optimizing Titles, Filenames
One of the most basic but important video SEO tips is to optimize your titles and filenames. These two elements provide the main opportunities to include the most important keywords and phrases that users are searching for.
Your video title should be descriptive and compelling while working in your primary keyword where it flows naturally. Keep titles under 60 characters for YouTube. The filename when you upload the video should also include the target keyword if possible. Having the keyword appear in both the title and filename doubles the optimization impact.
For example, for a video showcasing a new e-commerce product, the title could be “Introducing the Filter Max Air Purifier for Cleaner Air” and the filename could include “air-purifier-filtermax”.
This optimizes both elements for the keywords “air purifier” and the product name. Avoid overstuffing with keywords, but do strategically work in one to three terms per video. Captivating titles and keyword file names gives your video content the best shot at ranking well.
Descriptions
The video description provides another opportunity to optimize with your target keywords and phrases. The description is shown on YouTube and Google search results, so an optimized description will entice more clicks.
Aim for descriptions between 160 to 300 characters. Include a logical keyword near the beginning that fits the context. Then expand on the video topic in more detail with a compelling description using related keywords. Use conversational language and highlight the benefits the viewer will get from watching.
For example: “See how to use the new Filter Max air purifier to remove dust, pollen, and pet dander from your home’s air. This video walks through easy setup, changing filters, and using the digital controls to optimize air cleaning.“
Well-written descriptions keep users engaged while packing in synergistic keywords. Mentions of your brand and links to your site also add SEO value. Spend time crafting compelling, keyword-rich descriptions to get more impressions and traffic.
Transcripts
Creating and optimizing video transcripts is a great way to improve video SEO. Transcripts allow search engines to read and index the content through text recognition.
Focus on converting the speech to text as accurately as possible. Format appropriately with speaker names and time stamps. Then work primary and secondary keywords naturally into the transcription where relevant.
For an e-commerce product video, keywords like the product name, category, and benefits would be emphasized in the transcript. Tools like YouTube’s auto-transcription or services like Rev.com and YouTube Transcript can assist with the process.
Transcripts boost your videos’ search visibility and rankings. Users may also read the transcript to get quick info rather than watching the full video. Ensure your transcript is keyword-optimized and converts well from speech. Add it to your video description so search engines index the content. Transcripts simultaneously improve user experience and SEO.
Sitemaps
A video sitemap is an XML file that helps search engines index and crawl video content more effectively. Video sitemaps specifically list all the videos on your site or YouTube channel.
Creating a video sitemap enables you to include key metadata for each video like titles, descriptions, tags, thumbnails, and more. This provides Google with more signals to understand what the video focuses on and how to rank it.
Video sitemaps can be submitted through Google Search Console for indexing. There are plugins that can auto-generate a video sitemap for your YouTube account. For e-commerce sites, manually create a sitemap and include product videos along with metadata.
YouTube Optimization
YouTube has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users, so optimizing your eCommerce videos for YouTube should be a priority. For YouTube optimization –
- Focus on creating compelling titles and descriptions using keywords.
- Add relevant tags so the video surfaces in searches.
- Design custom thumbnails with eye-catching images, text, and branding.
- Build playlists around topics like your product line or brand story.
- Use cards and end screens to link to other videos and your site.
- Engage viewers with CTAs to like, share, comment, and subscribe.
- Transcribe and caption your videos for higher engagement.
Leveraging YouTube’s best practices improves impressions and watch time. This signals to the YouTube algorithm that your content is valuable. In turn, YouTube will recommend your eCommerce videos to more potential customers. Driving more organic traffic from YouTube can support your overall conversion and sales goals.
Don’t Forget To Measure the Results
Along with implementing video SEO best practices that we mentioned above, it’s crucial to monitor performance and measure results over time.
Keep track of key metrics like video views, traffic sources, search impressions, clickthrough rate, watch time, and conversions driven. YouTube Analytics provides robust video performance data. Google Search Console also shows how your videos are performing on Google searches.
Compare video views and traffic before and after optimization to see if rankings improved. See which keywords and videos are driving the most clicks and site traffic.
Use the performance data to identify issues and opportunities to refine your video and SEO strategies. For example, adding more videos with a certain keyword focus if those perform well. Or optimizing lower-performing videos further.
Regularly measuring video SEO results ensures your efforts are paying off. Continually improve by leveraging data, testing, and monitoring the impact on organic traffic and conversions. Video analytics empower informed optimization.
Wrapping Up
Optimizing your eCommerce videos for search should be a top priority. By following video SEO best practices, you can dramatically boost your video visibility and search rankings. This ultimately drives more qualified traffic to your online store.
However, great video SEO needs to be combined with high-quality, engaging video content. For help creating captivating and effective product videos, check out Product Video Studio. Our product video production expertise can take your video marketing to the next level.
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