9 Tips To Refine Your Video SEO Ranking Strategy

Content is not limited to blogs and articles. Videos — whether on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram — also contribute significantly to search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO agency experts highly recommend investing in video content to diversify your offerings, especially on YouTube and TikTok, which have massive reach potential.

This guide gives you nine dependable tips to boost your video SEO strategy:

1. Research content ideas
2. Use branded hashtags
3. Post videos on YouTube
4. Make YouTube Shorts
5. Convert popular content
6. Manually add subtitles
7. Post links everywhere
8. Encourage comments
9. Bookmark key moments

There’s a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

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9 Tips For Better Video SEO

When applying SEO to video content, especially for higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), the most important thing to remember is it takes a while to master. Thankfully, you have many ways of improving your video SEO little by little as you learn your way through.

     1. Research Content Ideas

According to HubSpot, YouTube is a reliable platform for customers and businesses, serving as a medium for nearly half of young adults and adolescents to find new products. Its popularity with these demographics makes it suitable for customer outreach and interaction.

However, the best part about YouTube is the comments section, which is full of excellent ideas from the audience. Other platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, are excellent alternatives for this purpose. Finding one you like might take a while, so be patient.

     2. Use Branded Hashtags

Another strategy that boosts video SEO is masterfully using hashtags to reach a wider audience. Just look at memorable brand slogans that translated wonderfully to the digital space, such as Nike’s "Just Do It." Here are a few good ways to apply hashtags to your video strategy:

1. Use hashtags to start a conversation or get responses from your audience.

2. Think of a fun and catchy slogan that gets people interested to know more.

3. Integrate hashtags into your online campaign strategies to boost brand awareness.

     3. Post Videos On YouTube

YouTube sits near the top of the list of social platforms by usage, right behind Facebook. That means uploading your content there is highly beneficial, if only because of the view potential. YouTube videos have the added benefit of appearing on Google SERPs as featured snippets.

In addition, Google has many integrated services that make SEO on their platform a little more convenient than on others. For example, YouTube is part of Google Ads and draws from the same data as the world’s largest search engine, making paid traffic easier to generate.

     4. Make YouTube Shorts

In recent years, the short-form video format has come back stronger than ever. TikTok, the spiritual successor of Vine, inspired rival platforms to retool their apps to win back some of the limelight. The biggest of these is YouTube, which introduced Shorts back in mid-2021.

YouTube Shorts lets you reinvent how to reach your audience by combining the reach of YouTube with the engagement capabilities of TikTok. An excellent application of this for SEO is by producing snippets. Make people curious about your brand with creative Shorts.

     5. Convert Popular Content

To make videos that rank well, try looking through your website’s post history. Your popular blogs and articles should do well as supporting or standalone videos because you have proof that it works. Essentially, the goal here is to give your audience another point of view.

For that reason, creating companion videos for instructional content is particularly effective. The added visual guide reduces possible errors on the viewer’s part and boosts the value of your content. This starts a cycle of new users finding and recommending your videos for great SEO.

     6. Manually Add Captions

Adding closed captions is fantastic video SEO for many reasons, the least of which is that they help cover sections with poor audio quality. Platforms such as YouTube highlight the importance of having accurate text. Below are three critical applications of closed captions in video SEO:

1. Closed captions allow search engines such as Google to “understand” your video.

2. They boost your videos’ accessibility for all users, which is highly beneficial for SEO.

3. Adding closed captions broadens your reach by overcoming language barriers.

     7. Post Links Everywhere

A commonly used SEO tactic is banking on social media marketing to generate traffic. Your potential reach varies depending on how you apply it to your strategy — paid ads or organic posts. Either way, social media is reliable for generating buzz around your brand online.

Some high-traffic platforms that anyone can master with a little bit of time and patience are Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Set realistic goals, plan your approach, and refine everything as you go along. You should see your hard work pay off as consistent improvements over time.

     8. Encourage Comments

Comments (and authentic engagement in general) are some of the best drivers of video SEO. Social platforms care about what people say because they want to match people with content. Try using the following prompts in your videos to encourage engagement among your userbase:

• “Do you agree with our picks? Share your thoughts in the comments below.”
• “Let us know what you want to see next, and stay tuned for more.”
• “Tell us what you think of this video, and let us know if we missed anything.”

     9. Bookmark Key Moments

One of the best additions to YouTube videos is Key Moments, which are like bookmarks that allow you to skip forward or backward instantly. The concept itself is not new, though. A common practice before was manually adding titles and timestamps to the video’s description.

With Key Moments, you can mark chapters in the video and display them in a carousel at the bottom of the description box. This feature makes it exponentially easier for viewers to find the necessary information. That is, provided you labeled each Key Moment accurately on your end.

Summing Up

Like blog posts, videos need SEO to unlock their full potential. Your opportunities for better online ranking broaden depending on where you post them. YouTube, of course, is currently the most flexible platform with features such as Shorts and Key Moments.

YouTube’s automatically generated closed captioning is also steadily improving and serves as a basis for featured snippets.

Need help revamping your video SEO strategy for better ranking? Contact us to learn more about how we can help.