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Video for SEO in 2023: Predictions | Tao Digital Marketing

Video is becoming more prominent in search and will be a channel that needs to be part of a successful SEO campaign next year and beyond.

With Google Search Console recently adding it in as a separate section within the platform, we see this as a sign from Google to show the power and importance of video for the future of the search engine. 

We’ve already seen some of our own pages on the Tao Digital website start to rank higher once we embed a video, and we expect this will only continue. We’ve already included this in our marketing strategy for 2023 by planning accompanying videos to be included as part of our overall content strategy.

So, what do other agency owners and SEOs think? We decided to ask them and have rounded up their thoughts below!

Matt Tomkin, Our Founder and Director

Video is definitely going to help with a website’s overall organic search visibility. It’s important to optimise the description on Youtube along with adding the relevant schema markup to the web page it is published on. 

By adding video to your content you are giving another option for visitors to digest your content and I think Google sees this as a user benefit. 

Don’t let Google tell you they don’t use user metrics as a ranking factor! Why wouldn’t they? Give your visitor more ways to digest your content and you’ll be ahead of 99% of the other websites online. 

Luke Budka, Director of Digital PR and SEO at Definition Agency

The format is less important than the content. Your rankings won’t improve just because you’ve got a video on a landing page. 

If, however, you can use that video to add value to the page (think video case studies, testimonials, research launch etc. – video needs to work for the part of the sales funnel the landing page is intended for) and that video is exclusive to that page (duplicate content is duplicate content) then it’s going to separate your landing page and content from the majority of your competitors’ webpages.

Ravi Dadva, CEO of Rockstar Marketing

When it comes to Google Search Console adding video as a separate section, I’ve been following this closely. My prediction for the future of SEO/video content is that we’ll start to see fewer featured snippets in position 0, and instead, more videos. This makes sense because people are wanting videos instead of reading long-form content now.

In order for your business to benefit from this, I’d suggest creating videos for your most popular blogs. If you’re getting search volume for the blog, have a video for it too. If you’re in position 0, definitely have a video for it. Upload this to Youtube and make sure it’s also SEO-optimised. This way, whichever way Google decides to go, you’re covered.

Steph Andrusjak, Consultant at SEO Steph

I think Google will continue to develop ways of highlighting video content within search, especially for current and trending topics, with many people digesting information through the medium of video. We see this with the rise in popularity of TikTok which has spurred other social platforms to follow suit, such as Facebook and Instagram with Reels, and YouTube with Shorts.

Brands that do not utilise video marketing, whether it be in short form clips or longer-length videos, will be missing out on traffic potential, whether that’s from Google search directly or from social media.

Jamie Coles, Freelance Journalist, Press Officer and Video Producer

It’s really interesting that Google Search Console is adding video search to its platform. The importance for video search seems to be growing as we see video results bumped to the top of Google results. 

From the point of view of SEO, I think we’ll all end up subtitling or transcribing our videos to improve the searchability of our videos thanks to the additional keywords. This will mean a rise of SRT (subtitle format) tools, which, as a video producer, I’d be grateful for.  

We’ll also see a rise in AI transcribing tools and – hopefully – a bit of a step up in their accuracy because, right now, they’re more hassle than they’re worth. The positive side of these transcripts or subtitles is that they make videos more accessible.

We’ll also see a further trend in attention-grabbing thumbnails, probably with better optimised text as AI OCR tools begin recognising thumbnail text for search, too. 

Beyond that we’ll likely see more video content better embedded higher up on a lot of web pages, and web pages better optimised for video embedding, as the Google search bots and results seem to be favouring video.

Conclusion

Although it’s impossible to predict the future, it is apparent that many SEOs are predicting similar themes – the power of video improving rankings, video being used to enhance existing content and transcription software developing further. These are likely to be key elements throughout 2023.

If you’re looking to use video as part of your SEO strategy, get in touch with us today.

Are you looking to use video as part of your SEO strategy? Get in touch with us today