Video remains an untapped resource for SEO:
- Videos are consumed more frequently than text
- Videos have the potential to go viral and drive hoards of eyeballs
- YouTube remains the second largest search engine, behind Google.com
- Videos can help you build direct and indirect backlinks
Here we discuss how to use video to build links to your website.
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Importance of Link building
Source: Moz
Whether you know it or not, link building can make or break your SEO and your business in this day and age.
Maybe you’re new to link building, maybe you’re an old pro. Either way, SEO best practices are always changing and it’s easy to fall behind or employ outdated tactics that are less effective. You don’t want to waste your time on ineffective practices, do you?
Didn’t think so.
With that in mind, here is a guide to one of the underutilized methods for effective link building: using video.
Video is more pervasive on the internet than you might realize. It’s not all cute cat clips and movie trailers. They’re embedded in websites and emails, shared across all social platforms, and get total watch times with many, many zeros attached.
Projections of internet traffic in upcoming years show that live internet video and internet video to TV will both occupy huge chunks of consumer internet traffic. In other words, lots of time will be spent watching videos online.
The question is: will the internet audience be watching your videos or your competitor’s? Will credible, valued websites be linking to your video and boosting your SEO?
If one thing is certain, it’s that video isn’t going anywhere.
So how can you use video to your advantage in building backlinks? Here’s how:
You never want to head into a new tactic blind so don’t think that video is any different. Yes, videos can be immensely helpful, but only if you know how to execute them according to your SEO goals.
Video Research
Take thirty seconds to try and come up with a video idea for your business that will be well received.
How confident are you in that idea? Are you sure that it will bring your business to the next level, beating out the competitors?
Unless you have some magical powers of determination, you probably don’t just know off the top of your head what works and what doesn’t in the world of internet videos.
Just like anything else, you need to do some research as a first step before getting in too deep and realizing you don’t know what you’re doing.
Spend some time looking into what kinds of videos succeed, using shares and views as simple success metrics.
- What style do these videos use?
- How long are they?
- What makes them stand out from the millions of hours of other content online?
- Also, who is your target audience? They’re the people who matter here.
If you can find what works, then you can replicate and adapt it to your needs so it works for your business, too.
Don’t forget that, while link building is the goal here, other metrics like watch time or the number of shares can also tell you how valuable a given video is to you.
Make Your Videos Unique
Sure, everyone is a perfectly unique snowflake and all and yet so often people end up making near-identical copies of the things already out there.
There’s a fine line between finding the strategies that have worked for other businesses and taking advantage of them and just regurgitating the same stuff.
Spoiler alert: your audience doesn’t want to watch a cheap imitation (or even an expensive, well-executed imitation) of a video they’ve already seen. One of the great challenges of creating content for the internet is the speed at which trends and fads come and go.
Just putting it out there: you’re probably not quick enough to jump on all the latest trends so don’t waste your time chasing ideas that are already outdated. Look at what’s already published and do something related but unique.
Say your business is a home cleaning service and you want to build links by making a video about DIY cleaning techniques. If you open Google and search for those videos, there are probably already hundreds or thousands of them.
So instead of just making yet another version, put a twist on it. Make a video about the worst DIY cleaning techniques or cleaning up the biggest messes possible. Dramatic, exaggerated ideas often play well online so long as you actually deliver.
One way you don’t want to stand out, though, is by using bad equipment. Lighting and sound. Hear that? One more time. Lighting and sound! You don’t want to spend the time coming up with a great idea, executing it perfectly, and then having the video flop because it has horrible lighting or sound or both. As a rule, bad content is worse than no content.
These videos should look professional (and thus reliable) for them to be good link building strategies and just a pleasant experience in general for the audience.
Don’t forget about mobile devices, either! You should optimize your videos for desktop and mobile to reach as broad an audience as possible.
Now let’s look at the presiding ruler of video platforms: YouTube.
Using YouTube for Link Building
As you may know, YouTube is the undisputed leader in the field of video platforms. It’s the second most visited website on the internet, behind Google, and clocks billions of hours of video viewing every day. Every single day.
If those numbers aren’t standing out to you as a huge potential opportunity, maybe you shouldn’t be in business. Or you at least need to get your eyes checked.
Obviously, you’re never going to get all of YouTube’s 1.9 billion users to watch one of your videos or link back to them. Massive numbers of views can be very satisfying and that’s a fair goal to shoot for but remember that we’re focusing on link building here.
Often, the majority of video results on the first page of search engine results are videos from YouTube. They may all be from YouTube. That’s how prevalent YouTube videos are in search results.
So if you want to take advantage of this prime real estate in search engine results and drive traffic, YouTube videos are a great way to do it. Every video you post there is another stellar opportunity for a link.
And while all the links are nofollow, the signals they produce will help to bolster awareness and overall optimization.
Video Promotion
If you’ve done everything described above, made a high-quality, unique video and posted it on a prominent platform or your own site, there’s still one more step to take to stick the link building landing.
Even though you’re using the video for SEO, you also need to use SEO practices on the video. Then, get the word out, push that great video you just made.
Put it on your social media. Consider starting a paid promotion for the content. Stick it in your newsletter. Just get it out there.
If the content is quality and the promotion is well-executed, it won’t matter so much that the links in the videos themselves are nofollow. The dofollow links will flow if the content is properly promoted.
In essence, using videos for link building is an ancillary and secondary approach to link building. And, a little bit of virality always helps too!
Get Link Building
If you’re not already using video for link building, it should be clear by now why that’s a mistake. You can get started on it right away, though. It’s never too late to get in on the SEO action.
Maybe you’re interested in link building and video but don’t have any time left in the day to devote to it. Maybe you just don’t want one more thing to stay on top of.
We are THE premier link building agency. No one can help you with link building the way this incredible team can.
No matter the size of your business, be it small or large, Seo.co can handle your link-building guest blog outreach. You sit back in the meantime and rake in the quality backlinks. Our six-step link-building process is reliable and transparent, making us one of the most trustworthy SEO companies out there.
Previous customers have marveled at the triumphs of our link-building campaigns and the ways they transformed their online success. You could be next.
Find out what Seo.co can do for you by getting started with an immediate free link audit.
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