4 Ways to Get More Traffic Using Videos

Boost Traffic – Publish Video

Video keeps users on your site for longer. According to Forbes, the average user spends 88% more time on a website with video compared to a website without. In addition, we all know that video content is growing in popularity. Cisco states that 82% of global internet traffic will come from downloads and video streaming in the near future, up from 72% in 2017.

Imagine with just a few simple strategies, you will be able to drive more traffic to your website and in turn, get great brand exposure and more leads.

Use the following 4 ideas to generate video traffic!

Note: when creating videos, think about a problem or search query your ideal customer may type into Google. Now, go and answer that query in both blog and video format!

1. Show in Google’s ‘Suggested Clips’ Section

Google has a video snippets section in the search results. This is displayed right at the top of any search. Create a video and name it using the competitive phrases and keywords that you are looking to rank for. This way, you can rank on YouTube and also get featured as one of the top videos that are showcased by Google search.

For example, if you search for the keywords ‘how to colour hair’, the following video ranking will be displayed.

Video snippet and video carousel.

If you notice, the first result is a featured snippet that shows a video published by The Style Insider. This gives them the first position on the search page.

Video Carousel

This video is also shown in the Videos section of the results page, as shown above. Now, The Style Insider has been featured twice with the top two sections – featured snippets and video carousel.

In addition to these two spots, The Style Insider also has their video ranking in position #9 in the organic search results, for their YouTube video (shown below).

Organic search results showing YouTube video

This gives The Style Insider 3 results in what is an already crowded search engine results page! This is valuable real estate and if you can secure some of these positions with your video content, you will get great brand exposure.

2. Maximise Exposure

Getting a higher rank for keywords is a matter of utilising your website’s space smartly.

In addition to uploading your video to YouTube, you should also create a blog post on the same topic. Optimise it with the same keywords and embed your YouTube video within the contents of said blog.

That way, you may also get your blog post to rank in the organic results. The benefit is that search engines will return the maximum number of results for your website.

3. Embedding Videos For Mobile Traffic Generation

The majority of searches today take place from mobile devices. Google has a different search engine format for mobiles where it displays rich snippets for embedded videos, featured images for organic search results and image search results as well.

There is a stark difference when it comes to how a search looks on desktop vs mobile.

Consider an example of keywords ‘lead generation’.

The Desktop search result looks like:

Desktop search results.

Whereas the mobile search results return with:

Featured image search results.

And:

Mobile video search results.

The video snippets don’t appear on desktop search whereas they appear on mobile. Also, the organic search results show a feature image as part of their result, making the result look more engaging. These results will catch more attention and will ultimately receive more clicks.

This can be done by ensuring you create video content that answers customer questions in addition to the more traditional article, service and blog pages.

4. Getting your videos ranked in YouTube

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, only behind Google. Since YouTube is a video-sharing platform, it doesn’t rank websites but can rank your videos. This is why you should optimise them with the same keywords and content as your website.

Have a look at the titles used in these videos:

Engaging and descriptive titles.

They are keyword rich, engaging and descriptive. Additionally, the videos feature a text description and visually appearing thumbnail image.

Contribution by Blurn.

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In short, following the above 4 simple points can change the way your website receives traffic using videos. There is a lot more involved in getting your content to rank, though. SEO is quiet a technical area with many factors determining if and where search engines rank your content.

Marshall Thurlow, Founder Orion Marketing

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Marshall Thurlow

Marshall Thurlow is Director and Founder of Orion Marketing Pty Ltd. He is a digital marketer with expertise in SEO, website design, content marketing and project management. With over 15 years of experience spanning government, not-for-profit and the private sector, he is well equipped to lead teams to success. He is a big proponent of environmental sustainability, critical thinking and progressive issues.