Marketers Get These Done: A SEO Checklist for Onsite Video

First, marketers, you don’t need to be an expert in any of the video SEO items below. When working with your team use this article as a checklist for what they need to get done to optimize your video for SEO. Of the 15 items, the first 12 are required to compete in SEO. Don’t let anyone tell you “don’t really need that”. The last three are really nice to have and if you can get them.

Second, this article is about SEO for the major standard search engines (e.g. Google, Bing etc) and not for video-specific platforms/search engines such as YouTube and Vimeo. While related, there are different factors and techniques to optimize for those services.

SEO for Video Check List

The items listed below for SEO for video are in general order of importance.

Required to Compete in SEO

1. Thumbnail Image: Seems odd to be the first item on an SEO list but Google requires that videos have a thumbnail image in order to be included in search results pages (SERP), so without one, it’s a non-starter. As with the meta description (see below) the image itself does not help with ranking. However, like an engaging description, an engaging thumbnail will help get clicks from users.
2. Dedicate a Page for Each Video: Every video on your site should have its own page, optimized for that particular video.
3. Embed the Video in the Page: The video should be embedded in the page itself and not in a pop-up viewer. Ideally, the video is embedded above the fold on the page. While the video can be hosted by an external video service (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo) do not have the video as an outbound link to the video platform.
4. On-Page Description: Place a short, keyword-rich description of the video on the page itself. The description can be placed directly below the video player. Use a style of font that will help the search engines recognize it as a description (e.g. italicize it). When coding the page be sure to use a <H> tag in the HTML.
5. Provide Useful Content: The video content should be truly useful or of value to your target audience. As the search engines continue to improve their algorithms the quality of the actual content plays a larger and larger role in search rankings. Additionally useful content will keep the user on your page and not pogo sticking back to the search engine results page (SERP) quickly because of post-click dissatisfaction.
6. External Links (Backlinks): As much as Google’s algorithm has evolved from fundamental PageRank and now includes over 200 factors, backlinks (aka external links) back to your page still play an extremely critical role in having your video page rank well. Going about getting backlinks is a subject unto itself that you will need to look into. However, I will leave you with this one tip (because it is not the easy answer you think it is): links placed on social media sites, while providing some SEO value, in general, do not provide any value in terms of scoring PageRank for your page.
7. Transcription: While the search engines are working on how to actually consume, and evaluate actual video content, they are a long way from doing it well. So what do we do? The search engines are optimized for text, so we give them text in the form of a transcript of the video on the page (this is also useful for people looking to quote you, aka journalists, bloggers, etc). Provide a full and complete transcript of the video (there are many services that will do this for reasonable fees). Be sure to use <H> tags in the html code to break up the content and help the search engines figure out what your video is all about.
8. Title MetaData: Over the last month or so Google has sometimes been creating and displaying what they think the title of your page should be and not the title you provided. This is an attempt to provide a better result for the user based on their query and assumed intent etc. However, don’t think this gets you off the writing a title hook. While Google is sometimes doing this, they have stated that the meta title you provide is what will be used in the ranking algorithm (even if they craft their own version of the title in the results). Meta title needs to be unique, try to include the word video, ideally should be 60 characters or less and be placed in the HEAD section of the HTML (between <HEAD> and </HEAD>
9. Description MetaData: As with the meta title, Google will on occasion generate their own version of the description of the page based on the user’s query and assumed intent. Regardless, you should provide a good description of the video for your audience that is front-loaded with keywords. While not a ranking factor, the meta description helps you get clicks by enticing the viewer of the search engine results page (SERP) and helps Google understand what your page is about. Meta description needs to be unique, should contain the word video, ideally, be 160 characters or less, and be placed in the HEAD section of the HTML, between <HEAD> and </HEAD>
10. Structured Data (Schema): Ever wonder how content gets placed in a featured snippet like a video carousel on a search engine results page (SERP)? Structured data (aka schema) has a lot to do with that. Structured data tells the search engines what the data means; for example, we can include data such as who is in the video, how long the video is, what company made the video, information about a thumbnail image for the video etc. Speak with your developer and let them know the best way to proceed is to select the VideoObject structured data markup using JSON-LD to add Schema.org data to the page.
11. Internal Links: Create links from within your site to the video page that have related content or cover the same topic. The internal links should have text (anchor text) that is descriptive and contain keywords that are relevant to the video page. An additional note on this, page(s) on your site that rank very well with the search engines are ideal pages to link from. These links will provide an added boost of link-juice (I hate that term) to the video page.
12. URL that is Readable by Humans: The video page URL should be similar to the title and be rich in keywords found on the page. Ideally include the term video in the URL. URLs should not use underscores to separate words but rather hyphens and all characters should be in lowercase (e.g. example.com/use-hyphens-not-underscores-video.html).

Really Nice to have for Video SEO

1. Video XML Sitemap: We are not speaking of a sitemap on a page with links to all of the pages on the site (they are very useful in SEO too!) but rather an XML document that only lists the videos on your site. Google does not require sitemaps but by providing them you help Google in terms of getting your site indexed. You can have one sitemap that includes everything on your site or multiple sitemaps based on sections of your site or content type such as video. For sites with large video libraries, I would recommend a stand-alone video sitemap. Once you have a sitemap, be sure to submit it through Google Search Console.
2. File Structure: The file structure naming convention used to house the video content should use keywords that are important to the page or provide information scent to about it.
3. Keyword MetaData: Big caveat on this item. Google has publicly stated that it does not use meta keywords in its ranking algorithm, for text or video content. Google has also publicly stated they are not sure how their algorithm works. We also know that Google’s AI version of the search algorithm is doing more and more of the ranking. So, the real answer is it doesn’t hurt to have them and it may help. With that said, only invest time in meta keywords if the video is considered very important to a company. Limit the keywords to five or six (separated by commas) and try to align the keywords to the actual content of the video. Meta keywords should be placed in the HEAD section of the HTML, between <HEAD> and </HEAD>.

I hope you found this useful. If you have any useful tips or techniques for optimizing videos for SEO please share them with us in the comments section below.

This article on SEO for video was originally posted on AllThingsInteractive.com.