Intro
When you search for a term or a solution for something, then most of the time videos relating to this topic also pop up. This being the era of fast moving content, videos are the best and most effective ways to pass on information from one to another. We are so used to moving pictures and captions popping up right under the videos, that we don’t even bother to read something, if it can be found in video format.
These videos can be hosted on various platforms, the most widely used one being YouTube, or you can even embed them in your own webpage. Either way, if your target audience can find it, you are already at an advantage compared to your competition. The same principle is applied when we add SEO into the equation. But it is not enough to just throw the video out in front of the public, with the right amount of editing and tweaking, your video will rank higher and show up in front of the rest. Here are the top five video editing tips with which your content can gain visibility, attract views and rank higher in search results.
1. Create an Eye-Catching Thumbnail
The first impression is all that matters when it comes to attention-grabbing. They say that you should never judge a book by its cover; well, should the same apply for a video as well? If the thumbnail sparks curiosity, then you are already on the right path. Of course, the thumbnail should not be over the edge. It should represent what the video is going to be about, but you can add a bit of flare to it. Find your own style and see what works best for you. Have a unified theme for your thumbnails.
How to Create Optimized Thumbnails:
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Use High-Quality Images: Extract sharp stills from your video or use a design tool to create a professional image.
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Incorporate Bold Text: This text should represent a summary of your video in a few impactful words. Use large and vivid fonts that are easy to read even on mobile devices, no matter how small their screens might be.
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Highlight Faces: Thumbnails that feature human expressions are more relatable and usually generate higher engagement. Once again, be careful not to overdo it; keep the expressions natural. There was a time when editing images of expressions of YouTubers was the thing to go by, but that era is gone, for now. Capture emotions that align with your video’s message.
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Maintain Brand Consistency: Use your brand colors, logos, and visual style to make your thumbnails instantly recognizable. It is always good to stay consistent no matter what you do.
Thumbnails can be easily made with the right tools. Even while editing the video itself, you can come across a really nice still and turn it into the thumbnail. Editing tools like Movavi make it simple to create and customize high-quality thumbnails by allowing you to extract stills, add text overlays, and adjust colors for maximum visual appeal.
Even if you would make the thumbnail a bit over the top, if the content of the video delivers what the viewer expected from the thumbnail, you are sure to grab and keep the attention of the viewer. Let your video tell the story that the viewer has come for. It will take a lot of trial and error, but in the end, your videos will work in your favor in more ways than one.
2. Optimize Video Length and Structure
Video length plays a huge role in viewer retention and SEO performance. Search engines favor videos that keep the viewers engaged and glued to the screens throughout their entire duration. Although the ideal length may vary depending on the content’s type and the platform it gets uploaded to.
Tips for Optimizing Length:
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Short-Form Content: Short-form videos can be found on all platforms nowadays. It all started way back with Vine and spread to other platforms over the years. Now the big three are: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Each has their own audiences, regarding age and preferences, but all of them have one thing in common: the golden standard for short-form content is under 2 minutes. The shorter, the better. But be careful; vertically filmed videos get uploaded onto YouTube as shorts, no matter what. If the aspect ratio is 9:16, then YouTube will recognize it as a short format, Instagram will make a reel out of it, and Facebook will also attempt to switch it over to a Facebook-short.
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Long-Form Content: Informative or tutorial-based content is best made into longer videos. Those can span between anything from 7 to 10 minutes. Anything longer, and it will have to contain chapters of its own on YouTube. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but for a service or a company that has just started out with making videos, don’t aim for anything over the 7-minute threshold. Ensure that the content is consistently engaging; otherwise, you will see sharp drop-offs in viewership.
If sponsorships are not the main source of your income, then do not disrupt the flow of your long-form videos, just to get the word out about your sponsors. There is nothing worse than a wrongly timed sponsorship bit in a video. Ease your viewers into it; from time to time give a mention of the sponsors here and there, but do not throw your whole video under the bus because of it. Transitions play a huge role in long-formatted videos, as you cannot just have one shot of raw footage uploaded as the video and call it a day. Some video creators even write a script up and front so that the speaker would know what to say and when to say it. It all comes down to being well organized. The less takes, the better, and your editors will thank you for it later.
Structuring Your Video:
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Hook Your Audience: Capture their attention in the first 5 seconds with a bold visual, an intriguing question or a surprising fact.
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Use Chapters: If your video is several minutes long, break it down into clear sections or chapters. Include timestamps in the description for easier navigation. This will also help search engines index your content more effectively.
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End with a Strong CTA: Once the video has served its purpose of telling the story it was created for, end it with a call to action. That could be to ask viewers to subscribe, visit your website, download and try out the free trial you offer them, etc.
3. Leverage Captions and Subtitles for SEO
Captions and subtitles serve more than just one purpose. On one hand they are powerful tools for optimizing your video for search engines, on the other hand they increase accessibility to your viewers.
How to Optimize Captions:
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Include Keywords: Include your target keywords into the video script naturally. Search engines prioritize content where keywords appear organically and without overstuffing.
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Enhance Comprehension: Subtitles in various languages can cater to the needs of non-native speakers. Check where the majority of your viewers are from, and translate the subtitles or captions into their languages. If you have the resources for it, then translate everything into other languages as well, not only the top three or top five.
4. Optimize Metadata and Tags
Metadata is all that SEO comes down to. It plays a huge role in how search engines index and rank your video. Optimize your video’s title, description and tags. All of these bits and pieces have to line up well in order to increase your chances of appearing in relevant search queries.
Best Practices for Metadata:
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Craft SEO-Friendly Titles: This is an art in itself, but you cannot go wrong with the “How to” titles. Just make sure you add a bit of a twist to it with keywords such as best or perfect.
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Write Detailed Descriptions: Provide a comprehensive and well-detailed summary of your video. Include secondary keywords and timestamps for key sections.
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Use Relevant Tags: Add tags that reflect your video’s content and related topics.
5. Enhance Engagement with Visual Elements
Everything counts when we take into consideration engagement metrics: watch time, likes, shares and even comments. They all influence a video’s ranking. Dynamic visuals can significantly boost these metrics and keep your viewers engaged.
Techniques to Increase Engagement:
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Text Overlays: Use text to emphasize key points, stats, or quotes. This is part of the hook, which will keep your viewers from switching to any different content.
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Transitions and Effects: It cannot be mentioned enough times that smooth transitions and motion effects help maintain a professional feel. But be careful so they don’t overwhelm your content.
Bonus Tips for SEO-Optimized Videos:
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Host Videos on Your Website: Embedding videos on your site increases dwell time and improves your website’s overall SEO performance.
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Create an XML Video Sitemap: Your videos need to be indexed. That has to be done by submitting the video sitemap to Google. That way, your videos will be easily discoverable and will add good numbers to your site’s metrics.
Final Thoughts
With the right combination of strategic editing and smart SEO practices, you will be able to optimize video content for search engines properly. Use everything you have read here to create videos that not only rank highly, but also captivate your audience. Focus on making attention-grabbing thumbnails, well-written metadata and captions.
Every video has a story to tell, but search engines will only pick them up if the right criteria are met for them.
