An In-Depth Guide on Optimizing Videos for Search Engines (SEO)
Videos have become an essential tool for businesses to engage with their audience and guide them through the customer journey. However, in order for videos to be effective, they need to be easily discoverable and suitable for indexing by search engines. In this article, we will delve into the importance of technical SEO for video content, the debate between self-hosting and embedding videos, and provide tips and tactics for video indexing.
Why Technical SEO Matters for Video Content
Creating captivating videos is important for engagement, but mastering video SEO basics is crucial for search engines to effectively index your pages. Search engine result pages (SERPs) have evolved to include diverse media formats beyond text, and videos now show up in various formats such as carousels and social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok.
Interestingly, videos embedded through social media often outrank self-hosted videos on SERPs. This means that businesses need to optimize their videos for search engines in order to increase audience reach, secure a spot in Google’s Knowledge Graph, dominate specific SERPs, and simplify decision-making for search prospects. By aligning your video content strategy with diverse multimedia formats, you can enhance your brand reputation and improve user engagement.
Self-Hosting or Embedding Videos
The debate between self-hosting and embedding videos has been a topic of discussion among SEO experts. While videos with popular characters like Peppa Pig tend to perform better in top rankings when embedded on platforms like YouTube or TikTok, self-hosting videos can attract more backlinks. However, higher rankings are not guaranteed with self-hosting.
Self-hosting requires efficient web hosting and a CDN for ample bandwidth. It provides increased security and full ownership of the videos, but may require fewer scripts to download from the server compared to embedding videos. This can improve page speed and user experience. The ideal solution depends on your business goals and how videos fit into your customer journey.
Tips and Tactics for Video Indexing
In order to index your videos properly, there are several checks you need to perform. Firstly, make sure that your video file names do not contain special characters or underscores, as this might discourage search engines from indexing them. Improperly formatted pages with videos could also lead to non-indexing or some components being ignored.
Structured data is another important aspect of video indexing. By providing clear instructions and relevant information about your videos through structured data, search engines gain a better understanding of your content. This is particularly important for educational videos, where structured data can significantly contribute to content understanding.
To optimize your video schema markup, consider factors such as self-hosting vs. YouTube embedding, avoiding schema markup stuffing, and aligning the timezone with the uploadDate schema property. Additionally, creating a dedicated XML video sitemap can help search engines find your videos, especially if your website is mostly video-based or if you’re a publisher.
It’s worth noting that Google recently announced that video thumbnails on the main search results page will only appear if the video is the primary content of a page. For pages with videos to get rich results on SERPs, the videos must be the main content. However, there are exceptions where websites with self-hosted videos still rank in video mode with a rich snippet.
In conclusion, optimizing videos for search engines is crucial for businesses to increase their audience reach, enhance brand reputation, and simplify decision-making for search prospects. By understanding the importance of technical SEO for video content, the debate between self-hosting and embedding videos, and implementing effective tips and tactics for video indexing, businesses can ensure that their videos are easily discoverable and suitable for indexing by search engines.
