If you’re reading this, you probably already know that our old SEO strategies are about to become as defunct as a pile of floppy disks next to a landline phone.
Within the next couple of years, organic traffic from blogging will dry up. Video will take the place of written content as the dominating force behind search clicks and, ultimately, conversions.
Do you have a game plan yet? Because you’re gonna need one.
The Hurdles
Nothing worthwhile comes easily, but moving to a video-focused SEO strategy might seem especially overwhelming. Here are a few of the challenges marketers face as they redirect their SEO efforts:
1. You’ll need to upload video content regularly
A strong video SEO strategy requires a consistent stream of content. YouTube rewards channels that post regularly - and that have a solid catalog of videos - by ranking them higher in search results and recommended video lists.
Additionally, creating and uploading videos regularly gives you more opportunities to tweak your strategy and learn about YouTube and Google’s algorithms. You’ll also have more chances to receive viewer feedback, which is also helpful to fine-tune your video content strategy.
The general rule of thumb is to upload 2-3 videos per week to stay in YouTube’s good graces.
2. Video content can be expensive, time-consuming, and strain your resources
Does the idea of uploading 3 videos per week freak you out? You’re not alone. You’ll need the right equipment, handy software, a script, on-camera talent, and some tech-savvy experts to bring it all together.
Any marketer who has tried their hand at video content production knows the struggle. After dozens of hours of work, you have...one video.
At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, there has to be a better way!
3. Your video content needs to feed multiple channels throughout your funnel
Not only do you need to produce and upload multiple videos per week, those videos have to work as part of a smooth inbound marketing machine.
You’ll need content that appeals to prospects who are just becoming familiar with your brand, leads who are close to making a purchase decision, and everyone between.
To top it off, a solid video strategy requires long-form video content that you can use to build your YouTube channel and short videos for your social media pages.
It’s easy to see why businesses are clinging to the dying blog-based SEO strategy!
There’s an easier way to do video SEO
You’ve heard it time and time again: “work smarter, not harder.” With some finesse, you can post consistent, optimized video content that works throughout your inbound strategy.
The solution is the Pillar Video Strategy. You may have already used a similar method for written content. It works like this:
- Produce one long-form video around a pillar topic (usually between 30 minutes and an hour in length);
- Divide your content into both video and audio-only versions;
- From your video and audio content, pull out 1-2 minute “hot takes” called microcontent.
Does this seem familiar? It’s very similar to the pillar strategy often used for written content, creating clusters of blog articles around a core topic and extracting snippets for use across multiple channels.
Turn one video into one month's worth of content
With some tactical groundwork, you really can produce video content at scale and maximize your SEO strategy.
Here are some examples of how it might look:
-
Video Podcast: Instead of recording an audio-only podcast, include video. You can still pull an audio-only version for Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Next, that juicy video content can be chopped into shorter clips to be uploaded to YouTube on a consistent schedule.
- Webinar Series: Tons of businesses produce webinars as part of their content strategy. However, many marketers miss the opportunity to use existing webinar content to feed their video strategy. An hour-long webinar can be cut into several bite-sized pieces, each of which can be SEO’d and uploaded to YouTube.
- Interview Video Series: This is almost like a series of mini podcast episodes. Reach out to a guest with a canned list of 10 questions to be answered. Trimming this format into microcontent is incredibly simple—each question becomes its own clip to be uploaded to YouTube, with the full interview serving as the pillar content.
Need some help coming up with a video strategy that will allow you to produce consistent, efficient content? Reach out to Tobe! We’ll get you ready for the video content revolution.
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