Video Content

Is video content is a ranking metric?

While simply adding a video may not increase ranking positions, videos themselves are content, and content can not only increase ranking positions but also visibility and reach.

There are many reasons why videos are good for your your Google ranking positions, so the simplest thing is to go through them.

Relevant content

As we’ve already covered, relevancy is one of the biggest ranking metrics, and adding a revenant video means adding more revenant content to your page. This in itself should help increase ranking positions. Google is sophisticated enough to understand spoken words in a video and can determine what the video is about and whether it’s relevant to a user’s search query. If it is, then it makes your page more relevant, and should mean it ranks higher for those search terms.

Helpful content

Google is big on helpful content and there’s been several iterations of the Helpful Content Update. Adding a video as supporting content would surely make the page more helpful. Also, there are several elements in Google’s ‘high-quality sites guidelines‘ that could be fulfilled by good video:

• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?

Google Search Central – 2011

There is a lot that goes into Google’s definition of helpful content, but the bottom line is, it’s content that benefits users. Some users prefer watching videos over reading text, so if you provide this option, then you’ve undoubtedly made your page more helpful.

Engagement metrics

Engagement metrics include any action a user makes while visiting a web page. This includes clicks, scrolls and time on page. So, if you have a video on your page and the user clicks the play button, this is fulfilling engagement criteria. Also, the video will help towards keeping the user on the page longer.

There are many arguments for engagement metrics being a direct ranking factor. Google’s aim is to provide relevant results to users and satisfy their search query. One easy way to determine if this has been achieved is by looking at how much the user engages with the page.

Microsoft admits that engagement metrics play a part in Bing’s algorithm, so it makes sense that Google does too.

Video featured snippets & rich results

Another key factor is Google’s increasing prioritisation of video in search results. Google often features video carousels, video snippets, and YouTube results above standard web pages, giving well-optimised videos an advantage.

YouTube, being owned by Google and itself being cited as the second-largest search engine, appears to get priority in the search results on Google. So, if your video is on YouTube then there is a chance it may rank well in it’s own right.

For ranking videos, Google provides documentation for best practises for video, which includes optimising for search engines as well as adding Schema and structured data. So, videos are indexable and they can rank, so they are a key part of any SEO campaign.

Should video be part of your SEO strategy?

I would give this a resounding yes.

Beyond Google rankings, video increases brand visibility and credibility across all platforms. I’ve even seen ChatGPT show videos in the chat, and it seems it’s getting more common. There are hundreds of statistics on the benefits of video in marketing, which are often repeated by authorities such as WordStream, Social Shepherd and Wyzowl. Consumers increasingly prefer video content for learning, product research, and entertainment, making it an essential tool for businesses looking to stay competitive online.

Video is dominating on social media, with TikTok, Instagram and Facebook prioritising the format. So using video content for SEO will benefit social media, which can also be a ranking metric in itself. There really are no down sides to video, except perhaps the cost and time, but with AI video generation it is now just as cost-effective to produce video content as it is to provide text.

As Google and other platforms continue refining their algorithms, video will only become more prominent in SEO strategies.