Do more consumers want to see your smiling face online, not just your logo? The answer is a resounding yes. And it’s why video is now a leading traffic driver on the World Wide Web.
Statistics show that video might even claim over 80% of Web traffic by the year 2019.
In other words, if you don’t board the video train soon, you’ll quickly be left at the station.
Here are six ways video is a traffic driver to your website. Let’s dig in!
1. How is Video a Traffic Driver? Let’s Start With SEO
Using video is a sure-fire way to boost your SEO. But that’s only if they are properly optimized for search.
Here are three SEO terms you need to know before you start diving into video:
Video Sitemaps
Video sitemaps — XML files that describe videos — have a major influence on SEO. Put another way, they are the video versions of the traditional sitemaps that virtually all modern websites use.
Websites use video sitemaps to publish video content from a central location. When working with a video sitemap, these three factors are important to consider to maximize your video content’s exposure:
- The selection of appropriate keywords
- The provision of metadata — or a description — for every video
- The creation of proper descriptions and titles
Master these and you’ll increase search engines’ chances of discovering your video content, thus boosting its possible exposure.
Video Markup
This refers to hidden data that is descriptive and that can be added to your Web page’s source code.
To make video markup work for you, every page of your website containing video should feature the following:
- An illustrative title for your video
- The right keyword choices
- Links to relevant material
- Video URLs that are search engine friendly
- Text transcripts of the video.
The video also needs to be embedded within the Web page.
Want to score some extra SEO points? Add large amounts of metadata — for example, the video’s duration and dimension.
Syndication
Websites back in the day used syndication for promoting their brands. But syndication has taken on a whole new look these days.
Now, you can increase traffic to your website by distributing a video to Facebook and YouTube. Hours of video are uploaded to YouTube in a minute’s time.
Some of this video needs to come from you if you want your business to be noticed in today’s crowded internet space.
2. More Engagement
If you want to engage with your audience, visual content is a must-have traffic driver.
So, as you’re brainstorming what content to post on your social media sites in the next few weeks, keep video at the front of your brain.
You have a much greater chance of having your audience comment on and share your content if they are videos versus blogs and other social media posts.
As long as you choose the proper keywords and make your videos appealing on a personal and social level, they’re guaranteed to stand out.
3. Feedback
How do you know whether an audience member read just the first paragraph of your latest blog post or the entire piece?
You don’t.
And you probably never will.
That’s the great thing about video: You can get feedback on its performance thanks to a feedback loop that is built in.
With this loop, you can measure drop-off points, how many times potential customers watched your video and click-through rates.
In other words, you can tell immediately what’s working versus what’s not. Thus, you can spend more energy on what will get you the results you want.
4. More Customers
The top reason to include video as part of your company’s content marketing strategy is that video is proven to convert audience members to customers.
The majority of marketers claim that the conversation rates for video far exceed those for other types of marketing content.
Video may work better in certain niches compared with others, but video content can have a positive impact on practically any business.
With U.S. internet users commonly checking out YouTube several times a day in December 2016, you’re constantly missing out on opportunities to turn viewers into customers by not making video available.
5. More Consumer Attention
It’s been proven that videos demand more attention from consumers than other mediums do.
Every online user is overwhelmed with content and messages on a daily basis, so capturing your audience’s attention is key.
Nothing works quite like video in this regard.
The reason why video works so well is that it can help to simplify complicated topics. Thus, what might take thousands of words to explain might take only a few minutes to describe in a video.
For instance, if you’re explaining how to change a car’s oil in a blog, you have to explain each step, from safely propping up the vehicle to finding the oil plug, for example. In a video, you simply show the viewer how it’s done — a much simpler process.
Videos also make the user’s job easier. Rather than having to read text, the user can simply click play, and voila!
You can’t beat that.
6. Emotional Connection
Want to evoke an emotion online? Video is king in this area because elements such as music, facial expressions, and tone of voice cannot physically be incorporated into a traditional text-based blog.
No, an emotional video might not cause people to drop what they’re doing and head to the store to buy the product you’re promoting. However, they might want to play it again, and again, and again.
This can subconsciously impact their decision-making and drive them to you when they’re in the market to purchase your particular product or service.
How We Can Help
We offer a wide range of services to get your website into today’s most popular search engines. For instance, we offer guest posts, blog content, reputation management, SEO services and even press release distribution.
We understand how important video is as a traffic driver when it comes to building your business.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you to get your feet wet in the SEO world or take your business to the next level online.