Adding video content to your WordPress website and why video it is good for SEO and bad for SEO.
It is hard to argue with the numbers. Every day, more than 3.7 billion YouTube searches are made and more than 3 billion videos are viewed. In 2010, there were 700 billion video plays.
And this is an OLD NUMBER.
The potential for video exposure is even greater in 2014, and you are going to want to take advantage.
The above data was taken from an article on SEO Hacker, which goes into detail about configuring SEO on your YouTube videos. It is a good read and still recommended.
This article will go over the practice of how to embed video on your WordPress website as well as common practices for using video and how video is good and bad for SEO on your website.
If you already understand the benefits of video on the web and simply want to learn how to embed a video on WordPress, click here.
Videos are good for SEO
The list of positives for putting video on your website are certainly greater than the negatives. Video has been proven to be better for conversion than other forms of media.
Visuals sell.
Visuals get people to find your website. Here is how:
Page visit time and session length increase
Want a great way to greatly increased the amount of time someone spends on a page? Give them a video. When reading content, it is very easy that someone could become bored and click off your page.
You’ve all seen it.
The average session duration of 7 seconds is certainly not something that you love to see. With video, viewers are more engaged for a longer period of time, leading to a longer average duration on the site. Google likes this.
If the content of your video can be conveyed with the audio alone, you are also providing a more passive web experience for your visitor. I can leave the video playing in the background, listen, and continue to work? Great! This person will stay on your site for a good amount of time.
Video gives you authority
If you want to look like an authority, look no further than video content. With any sort of production value, your video shows people exactly what they want to know, with no veils or hidden messages. The content is right there.
What are you going to trust more?
A) A landing page with pretty images or a review on your product.
B) A video tutorial that shows you exactly how easy it is to use your product
Video makes you the authority on a subject, which leads to increased conversions, as well as…
Social Media shared content
People love sharing things. Want to get people to your website? Put a video out there.
Videos are much more easily shareable than articles and images since they convey the full message about your product. When was the last time you saw a viral Facebook post that was nothing but text? Sharing your video is a great way to get others who may not have known about your product to start visiting your site or inquire about your services.
Gives you another channel
Having a video presence (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, etc) also allows you to another channel for people to find you, outside of your website. People on a YouTube search concerning a product you sell or a process you demonstrate can now find your video.
By placing links and call to actions in your video, you can get people to visit your website or other landing page from the video.
Pro tip: Consider asking people to click the link in your video or even simply to do something like try your product for increased conversions.
Google searches think highly of YouTube videos
Because YouTube is owned by Google, it is a major part of search engine crawls. You have probably done a basic search for something and been inundated by videos, image galleries, Google Places and reviews information, in-depth articles, etc.
WHERE IS THE CONTENT!
Unfortunately, we collectively can’t control what Google wants us to see. What we can do is play to the strengths of Google to enhance conversions. By embracing video and creating video content that people like, you have a good chance of appearing right at the top of a Google search, with the other videos.
Tracking statistics with YouTube
Videos are also nice, because they have analytics built-in. Wistia is a very powerful online video service for tackling analytics, but even YouTube has a ton of analytic reports, including when people stop listening, what they are clicking on, and other helpful metrics.
Even with YouTube analytics, you can view all sorts of cool figures, like your demographics of viewers, traffic sources, and estimated ad performance.
Videos are bad for SEO
Increased Page Load Speed
Videos are bigger files than images and definitely text. Additionally, with WordPress and even with video in your database, you are loading a lot more content with videos. Pages WILL take longer to load than pages without video content.
A solution? Make sure that when editing content you are placing any video links below the “Read More” line as you edit. What this will do, if a lot of your blog posts feature video, is ensure that there will not be a bunch of videos on your blog archive pages.
Don’t look right on mobile devices sometimes
With a lot of WordPress themes, video may look kind of funny when viewed on mobile devices or tablets. This can make it difficult for someone to navigate your content when viewing your website on an iPhone or other device.
There are themes and solutions that allow for better display of videos, so you will want to look for those if you are going to have a lot of video on your site.
Lead people off the website
When you embed a YouTube video on a website, people are given options to view the video on YouTube. If they do this they will be taken away from your website and may not return, no matter if they found the content helpful or not. This can negatively impact your Analytics results.
How to embed video in WordPress
Embedding video in WordPress is actually a very simple process. All it requires you to do for supported video formats is paste the URL of the video you want into its own line while editing a WordPress post or page.
On newer versions of WordPress, you will even get to see the preview of the video while editing the content, shortly after pasting in your video URL.
If you want to embed the video on a sidebar, you will need to get the full iframe embed code from the desired video service. This is a bit more cumbersome and requires a bit of HTML knowledge.
For more information on how to embed video in different scenarios in WordPress, you can try this resource as well.
Capture Pro Featured HD video
Want an even bigger video experience? Our Capture Pro WordPress theme has an area for Featured HD videos. Instead of using the default WordPress featured image, you can enter the URL of a video on the web and treat that as a large featured HD video.
Here is what this looks like with a website using the Capture Pro theme…
You can find out more about the process of creating a Featured HD video here.
Videos a strange size on mobile devices?
You might also find when embedding video that your videos are a bit tall, especially on mobile devices, which leads to negative user experience.
There is an awesome tool available called FitVids that automatically scales video content on your WordPress website. Learn more about Fitvids here.
Set the stage for video on your website
You now have all of the tools you need to embed a video and understand what can go right and wrong with having video content on your WordPress website. Give it a try! Paste a video link in your content and see what happens!
If you have any questions, let us know below.
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