To have the desired visibility on the Web, it is necessary, among other things, to have a good strategy for optimizing your videos. This is essential because of the mass of video content already available on the web. Aware of this, Google recently shared two new resources to facilitate the referencing of these files by its search engine. This is a “Lightning Talk” video for Search Central and a guide to best practices for SEO. We share 5 tips to follow for better SEO. Here are these 5 tips!
Guarantee access to your videos on the Internet
Google’s first SEO tip for its users is to ensure the availability of their videos. These must be accessible on a public web page. Thus, Google will be able to take them into account.
To implement this recommendation, you must make sure to match your video content to URLs that are free to access the engine. Likewise, you must be able to make them easily visible to visitors without them having to perform complex actions. Also in the direction of visibility, you need to make sure that the videos are not blocked by a robot. The latter includes robots.txt files and robots with no index meta tags.
Offer structured data for your videos
To know what videos are about, Google’s search engine needs to have something called structured data. These are a standardized format giving clear information about a web page for ranking.
To successfully deliver this data, you can rely on VideoObject markup. It will allow you to easily add the information related to the title and description of the video. You also have the possibility of integrating its duration, its thumbnail, its date of loading as well as its URL.
However, first, keep in mind that your title should be captivating. It must be able to contain as naturally as possible the main keyword developed in the video. Second, explain briefly through the description, the subject covered while using the keywords. This will allow your visitors to clearly understand what to expect in the video. Note that you can find the VideoObject markup on Shema.org.
In addition, by providing structured data, you will be able to gain access to other functionalities. This could be the appearance of the Live badge and key times in the video.
Integrate good quality thumbnails
For every video content uploaded, it is important to include high-quality thumbnails.
Indeed, one of the first things people will see in your video is the thumbnail. It is therefore one of the factors that determine whether visitors view the content or not. You have to pay great attention to it.
For this, avoid using colors like red, white, or gray. The reason for this recommendation is that these colors blend easily into the query results. In the absence of these contrasting colors, you can favor blue and green.
Additionally, thumbnails must have a search engine readable URL. This is essential so that the published content can be indexed. Therefore, in addition to offering thumbnails, you must check whether they are valid. You should also prevent the link to the thumbnails from being blocked by a robots.txt file.
Also note that if you are using the HTML tag, you must specify the poster attribute instead. This is essential when activating the sticker. Remember that it is possible that Google itself generates a thumbnail for you depending on the video published.
For this to be so, the video must first and foremost be compatible with the format used by Google. We note as the preferred formats of the engine the JPG and the PNG. The size range it accepts is between 160 x 90 to 1920 x 1080 pixels.
Second, the crawler should not face protection by a paywall or login credentials. It should be able to easily access the page where the video is located and the streaming bytes.
Third, the web platform hosting the video as well as the server must have sufficient bandwidth to promote exploration. In addition, the video encodings accepted by Google are 26 in number. Among these, we distinguish the:
- .3gp2;
- .avi;
- .flv;
- .m4v,
It also explores other types of video files like: le.asf, le.m3u8, MPEG, and many more.
Add a sitemap for your video content
Another parameter on which Google is based for the referencing of a video is the sitemap with its tags.
First of all, a video sitemap is a file that contains additional information about those videos. Otherwise, it promotes the inclusion of all content newly added to the site. It also ensures the integration of information that may not be considered by the usual crawler.
To optimize your content, consider adding a video sitemap to your pages. Thus, Google will rely on it to better understand what your video is about and at the same time, position it well in the search results.
Free access to audio and video files
Make the audio and video content of your pages accessible. By doing this, you give Google the ability to interpret what you post. In the same way, you gain additional features such as video previews and key moments while browsing.
The first is to broadcast a part of a few seconds of your video in miniature format. On the other hand, the latter offers great visibility to your videos on the Web. You could also hire experts in SEO who will create a perfect strategy for your video campaigns.
By considering these 5 tips given by Google, you can take advantage of your videos to boost your SEO. However, you must first ensure that the videos are relevant to the theme of your site. You should also remember to put the videos at the center of your web page. They must be put forward to promote good interaction with Internet users. A final essential point that you must also take into account concerns your textual content. You must put special emphasis on the natural referencing of these so that they are well-positioned.
