Have you noticed that when you make a search on the Google search bar, video thumbnails appear as results quite frequently?

Well, videos are a great medium for storytelling and with our brain hardwired to get attracted to moving images, users watch videos at a whopping rate. Google acknowledges this fact, which is why it consistently ranks this kind of visual content in its search results.

So much so, that according to studies, having video increases the chances of the website appearing on the first page of Google search results by a fiftyfold. That alone should be reason enough to prompt you to direct your energy and resources towards video.

A well-thought-out video addresses the searcher’s intent and by embedding it to a website, marketers can ensure that prospects spend substantially more time on the desired page.

Remember, Google loves engagement and with video being the most dynamic kind of content out there, users stay on your website for an extended period of time, which translates into lower bounce rates resulting in high page rankings.

If you still don’t find video production justifiable as a necessary tool for your business, then read on for some extra facts which will change your mind for sure:

1.     You are likely to earn more backlinks

According to Moz SEO, “Blog posts that include video content attract 3 times more inbound links than posts without video”.

In this noisy internet era, ensuring your website is on the first page of Google is the name of the game. To make that happen by building up authority, getting quality links is crucial. The more people share your links, the more credible you are going to come off as to Google. And the more credible or authoritative you seem, the better ranking you will attain.

With updates in Google’s algorithm, SEO experts have now realized that they no longer just need to build up numerous links to rank their site. On the contrary, they need to create quality content which will lead to organic links over time.

2.     The stickiness factor

While ranking a website on its search engine, Google considers the stickiness factor of it. But what is meant by it? The stickiness factor is used to define the amount of time users spend on a particular webpage.

Let’s assume that you manage to land users on your website inorganically, but if your content isn’t good, they are going to leave. And like we mentioned earlier, Google ranks sites based on their exposure, so by having poor content, you will end up hurting your organic standing.

In this case, video will be paramount for keeping viewers on your page for longer stretches and ensure that they don’t stray.

Additionally, with so much content available on the web today, user attention is scarce and with words alone, it’s hard to create cut-through. Therefore, video makes content more digestible for your audience, helping you get the attention you need.

3.     Keywords

Pay close attention to a video transcript and you will realize that it’d be organically filled with keywords. This goes to show the power of uploading the transcript along with a video. Google will index the transcript, highlighting the keywords and promoting those links in your favor.

This will enable Google to view your video naturally pertinent to your website in turn elevating your site’s ranking.

4.     Ability to harness YouTube

With an estimated 3 billion searches a month, YouTube happens to be the largest search engine after Google. By harnessing video, you allow yourself to tap into this gigantic platform and make yourself accessible to video searchers.

If you make promising videos, the chances of your viewers hitting your site to find out more will increase – boosting your SEO.

Moreover, since YouTube is owned by Google, it doesn’t hesitate to show videos as search results. In fact, according to Forrester, having a YouTube video increases the chances of appearing on the first page of Google search results by 50%.

5.     Easy to share

Video is one of the most convenient mediums for sharing on social media. The interactive buttons such as like and comment encourage engagement with the video, resulting in links building to your site.

Ways to optimize video for Google

If the above factors make video production seem like an absolute requirement for your business, then here are a few ways through which you can optimize your video for Google:

Compress your videos

Videos that are large in size, take up a lot of time to load. This creates an unpleasant user experience and when the video would keep on buffering, the viewer would just leave.

Though, we would still recommend you to not compromise the quality of your video while reducing its size because videos with superior quality leave a lasting impression.

Read more: How to Succeed at Video Content Marketing

Take out audio from muted videos

Sometimes videos don’t need audio to make sense, in which case, you should remove the audio all together to decrease the size of the file.

Put an engaging image as the video thumbnail

The featured image you put on a video should entice searchers to click on it and make their way to your website. Research suggests that thumbnails with humans are 30% more likely to get clicked on than the ones without the human element.

Spend time crafting meta description and title for your video

Just like you do for an article, pay attention to the meta description and title you create for your video. Go on a hunt for the right keyword and incorporate it into your title. Make the most of the first three lines of the description bar because that grabs the most eyeballs.

Read more: 15 Best Christmas Commercials of All Time

Make sure the rest of the website’s page has optimal SEO

If you have followed all the rules but your video just won’t rank, then this could stand to reason that your page is abysmal. In addition to optimizing the video, it is crucial for the rest of the page to be search engine friendly.