Why You Should Embed Video Content Into Your SEO Content in 2022 (And How To Do It)

This might be my shortest post ever but the reason you should embed video into your SEO content? Google recommends it.

They’ve updated their SEO guide to say that if you want a video to work well in search, you should embed it at the top of a relevant, dedicated page.

Why Is Video Content A Big Deal For Search?

It’s no secret that video content is great for search, especially how-to content where written text just won’t cut it. We’ve already seen the rise of TikTok over the last couple of years and YouTube has 2 billion active users (the myth of YouTube being the second biggest search engine still goes around today).

Using videos enhances the depth and quality of your SEO content. A search engine’s main goal is to match the user up with content that they find useful. Videos help to add context and helpful visuals. It makes it useful for different preferences and learning styles.

Other Benefits Of Adding Video To Your Content

There are some other benefits of adding video content to your site too, both for SEO and your brand. It’s said that 80% of people prefer video to written content, so by adding both you can keep everyone happy.

Increases Length Of Time Spent On Site

It’s no secret that the internet has changed the way we read, think and act – probably along with our attention span. Video content is consistently some of the best performing digital content. Whether that’s ads, learning a new skill or entertainment.

For a lot of things, a video (especially a short form video) is easier to digest than written content. Some types of video don’t need subtitles, a translation, strong reading skills or complexity to work in any language.

Watching videos is likely to keep your user on the page longer than if they just skim-read your content to find the information they’ve looking for.

Improves User Experience

See above. If you can make things easier or better for your user, then why wouldn’t you? Video is sometimes more accessible than written content to a range of ages, abilities and languages for the end user.

Allows You To Repurpose Your Video Content

One of the downsides of video is that it can be expensive and time consuming to produce. This doesn’t have to be the case (see: TikTok) but most of the time, professionally-shot video content comes at a time and budget cost.

If that video content already exists (and you’ve already paid for it) it makes sense to repurpose it where possible. Don’t just leave it on your social feed where the algorithm means it’ll start to drop down and get less attention.

Earn More Backlinks

You can optimise videos for SEO by adding keywords to titles and descriptions. Transcripts also help with that. Video gets more engagement, exposure and shares than other types of content on pretty much every channel.

If people are sharing your video content (and the links to the page it sits on) then that could mean more backlinks and mentions for your brand.

Show Up In More Search Features

According to Google, some of their Search features (like key moments, live badges and rich results) need video on its own dedicated page to show it at the top of results. Since ranking on the first page is the goal for SEO experts all over the world…then why not up those changes with videos?)

How To Embed Videos Into Your Content

How you embed content onto your website will vary, but most platforms offer an embed code as a sharing option. This allows you to paste the code into your site and then drops the video in so that it shows (and plays on scroll).

Here are some things to remember when you’re adding video to your content to gain SEO benefits (this info is straight from Google’s guide):

• Create a dedicated page for your video, adding relevant text as needed.
• Place the video as prominently as possible (ideally, at the top of the page).
• You can place it on multiple places on site, but should keep that dedicated page live.

Need help with your SEO content? Get in touch and get support from a freelance writer to help your SEO strategy skyrocket.