So you want to drive more traffic to your website through search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. You probably already know that you have to pay attention to technical SEO and link-building as well as creating rich, valuable content on topics that people are searching for. But is it a good idea to embed videos on your site to improve SEO?
If you believe statistics you find on the internet, the answer appears to be yes!
According to Wyzowl, 91% of marketers polled in a recent survey said that video marketing has helped them increase traffic. Beyond just increasing traffic, incorporating videos into your website and social media platforms can boost your website and social SEO.
We wanted to test that out, so we took a look at some of our clients who use videos in their marketing — and we came up with one example that’s too great not to share. (Spoiler: Clicks, impressions, and position were all up with the addition of a single video!)
Do Embedded Videos Help SEO?
Despite the statistics, there’s no one answer to the question of whether you should be embedding videos on your site. It depends on the use case and the content you’re presenting. Quality and relevance matter to your site visitors — and to Google. If your videos don’t contribute to a better user experience, they won’t help your rankings, and they’ll likely slow down your page and leave a bad impression on your visitors. So what are the pros and cons?
Pros and Cons of Embedding Videos
How Video Boosted SEO for Our Client: A Mini Case-Study
While sticking any old video on your site might do more harm than good, the up-side of getting it right is pretty impressive. We saw that up close and personal with this post for the Massage Chair Store in August 2023. Simply embedding a several-minute-long video near the top of the post led to a noticeable increase in rankings and traffic.
The post had a spike in attention soon after the video was added, including most clicks in a single day and most single-day impressions.
Including the video in the post result also appeared to help improve click-through rates, leading to a No. 2 ranking for “best massage chair” searches and No. 3 for massage chair reviews.
Why Didn’t We Embed A Video On This Page?
That’s a fair question. To put it simply, there isn’t enough search volume or SEO value on this topic to make it worthwhile to create a video. We could potentially find one on YouTube that covers the topic well and aligns with our experience, but we weren’t happy enough with any of the options out there. So we decided to skip it! But you can be sure we’ll be including more videos with our blog posts in the future when we’re confident that the reward will be worth the effort.
I’m Sold on Video for SEO! But Where Should I Host My Videos?
Lucky you — we just happen to have a whole blog post dedicated to that topic. Read our comparison of YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia for digital marketing.
Interested in learning more about how Vital can help you drive more organic traffic through our unique, holistic approach to SEO? (Including videos!)? Contact us to start the conversation!
