Turn Your Blog into a Video

  • By Alex Wozny
  • •
  • 11 Jul, 2019

Harness the Power of Visual Content

Video has become one of the most popular forms of communications on “the web”.  Consider the mixed use of video in blogging to provide significant advantages for your business, including:

  • Reader Preference for viewing - many people have little time to read but will take 30 seconds to watch a video
  • The video medium works well in communicating information in an engaging and entertaining way
  • Once your video format is created it requires less additional effort to create your content
  • Segments of video blogs often have multi uses and can be repurposed for both content and advertising
  • For certain topics, quality videos are rising above quality blog posts in search results, especially on Google. 

Is Video Appropriate for Your Blog?

As shown in Figure1, the Google Search bar shows you the popular media type(s) for your topic (most popular is on the left). Prior to video creation, conduct a Google search (unfiltered if possible) to determine what media type is popular with your audience and your topic.

Figure 1 - Example of Content Popularity by Topic

Does Your Blog Meet Google Criteria?

Educational category content work great in formats such as Tutorials, How-to content and Reviews and are deemed ‘high-value’ by Google.  Structuring your videos in an “educational format” makes it easier for Google to recognize that your content is there to help the searcher.

Proven Video Blog Optimization Processes

The Title is Important - The name of your video file should be the same as the title of your YouTube video. When you upload the file into the platform, don't change the title. Having the same title and file name easily identifies for YouTube and Google what the content is right away. 

Tag It Correctly - Always describe your video in the meta data associated with your video file on a web page. Ensure it has a proper title tag and video description and that you’ve indexed the video into Google via your sitemap and search console tools. 

Thumbnails - A video thumbnail encourages viewers to hit the PLAY button. A great thumbnail makes a creator's content stand out.

Playlists - Put the video in a ‘playlist’ on your channel. Playlists are basically curated category pages that help add authority for your video content. Make sure your playlist is optimized with a top-search term and a quality description that includes keywords to help Google identify what the video content is all about.

Build links to your video - Google treats your YouTube video as a webpage; and the more quality backlinks you have directing back to it, the more likely Google is to rank your video.

Focus on YouTube First - Even though ranking on Google may be your goal, start with ranking on YouTube. You are creating videos, after all, and YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world.

Share - Platforms on which to share educational videos include Quora, Reddit, Blogs (as embeds) and of course your social media channels.

Bottom Line:  Harness the power of visual content. Mix video into your blogs if they are instructional and educational in nature. You may find a whole new audience for your content.

Alex Wozny is a digital analyst and data scientist with Concentric. Find out more about Alex here

This article is from the Summer Edition of Digital Dollars and Sense. Click here to view Digital Dollars and Sense editions and download the latest Digital Dollars and Sense ebook.

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