Did you know that videos can go a long way in improving your SEO results?
If used correctly, videos can help your website outrank the competition. As one of the latest trends in digital marketing, videos are a reliable way to drive more traffic to your eCommerce store. And video-rich snippets can also bring in more clicks. However, know that video snippets are usually only visible in mobile searches and aren’t as visible on the desktop.
According to research, the m-commerce market is only growing. The global share of m-commerce increased to 72.9% in 2021 compared to 52.4% in 2017. This means that more people will come looking for your products and services from their phones, and you need to shift the focus of your SEO more towards mobile users.
What Are Video Snippets?
Video-rich snippets can be found in Google’s search results alongside standard organic listings.
When visitors click on the video thumbnail, they are sent straight to the webpage that contains the video. Since video snippets offer a direct link to your website, they’re perfect for getting more clicks.
The good thing about video snippets is that users don’t even have to specify whether they are searching for a video or not. The structured markup allows these video snippets to show up, letting you stand out in the SERPs. While adding a video is not a requirement, they can make your search presence more visually appealing. Pages without videos are not that effective at catching the attention of users.
Rich Snippets Vs. Carousels
People often confuse video snippets with video carousels, but they are not the same thing. There is a separate section for video carousels in the results, mainly YouTube videos. If users click on any of the videos in the carousel, they will be directed to YouTube or another similar platform hosting that video.
So the main difference is that video carousels don’t help customers find a company’s website but rather generate video views instead. However, if users further click on an embedded link in the outro, they could be directed towards the website, increasing traffic.
On the other hand, video-rich snippets are a part of Google’s search results and the standard organic listings. So, if users click the thumbnail of this video snippet, it takes them to the page where the video is posted.
In an ideal scenario, the video-rich snippet and a carousel of your video on YouTube should appear on the same search results page. That would either get you video views or bring people to your website.
Optimizing Your Website for Videos
If you plan to optimize your website for a video-rich snippet, you will first need to embed the respective video on your site. It is best to host the video on YouTube, one of the best lead generation platforms.
However, if you don’t have a YouTube channel of your own, you can embed someone else’s video on your webpage. While you might not benefit from the views, the video will get the attention of prospects and bring them to your website. You can embed any video that seems valuable and relevant to your content and might make sense to your customers.
Once you have embedded the video, you need to add a Schema video markup to the page along with it. While it is unnecessary since most video-rich snippets go without the markup, adding schema markup will help the search engine understand your content better.
Besides, HTML code generators and plugins can help you create markups conveniently, just like email marketing software has made running your email marketing campaigns easier.
Videos Snippets and Page Speed
Google recently integrated Core Web Vitals in its algorithm for organic searches. A quick study of this update will let you know how embedded videos impact page speed. In short – YouTube videos impact page speed negatively. In addition, a web page’s performance, accessibility, and best practice scores can somewhat drop when a YouTube video is embedded in it.
Luckily you can overcome this by using various plugins to prevent the page from lazy loading.
Monitoring the Progress of Video Snippets In SEO
Now that your page is embedded with the video, keep an eye on your progress. Are you producing more clicks from the video-rich snippets? Which page do the best-performing video snippets belong to?
You can get your answers from Google’s Search Console.
Go to Performance> Search results > + New > Videos to create a Search Console filter. It will help you find out which search queries triggered video-rich snippets from your website.
Doing this will help you improve your video-rich snippets that aren’t performing well enough.
Benefits Of Video Rich Snippets
While you can find many other e-commerce specific SEO practices, videos should be prioritized.
The best part about video-rich snippets is that they can help you increase organic search traffic without requiring much effort. Moreover, they can combine with product-rich snippets, driving more visitors to your website’s product pages.
Here are a few more benefits of incorporating video rich snippets:
- Boost searchers’ engagement
- Improve click rate
- Increase CTR
- Decrease bounce rate
- More communicative information in SERP
- Enhance the positive first impression
- Increase click-through rate
- Make your content more catchy
- Help you stand out among your competitors
- Make your website seem more credible
- Gain the trust of your customers
- Increase in sales
- Raise your e-commerce revenue
While video-rich snippets can increase your revenue, don’t forget to make your payment method easier to get paid faster in 2022.
Wrapping Up
Video-rich snippets have become a necessity among other SEO best practices. They can help you optimize your website, improve user experience, and drive more traffic organically. Moreover, they will make your website stand out among others and entice visitors to come to see what you have to offer them.