Video SEO Basics
Today I wanted to talk a little bit about video SEO and what you need to keep in mind when thinking about generating video content for your pharma sites. The first premise of SEO is still very much the key – relevant content is king. Find the information people are looking for and create video content around it. Don’t just develop a video because you “need to have video” on your site. It’s still about creating content that engages and drives users to engage further with your site and with your content.
Why is Video SEO Important?
Video is content like any other, and it is by far one of the fastest growing and highest engaged pieces of content by users. If you go out to Youtube, you can find thousands of videos about any topic you could possibly be interested in – whether you are trying to find a guide for injecting your medication or looking for chemotherapy side effects. Video content is one of those areas that everyone in pharma wants to do, but from my experience looking around the web not many pharma sites are doing it well for search purposes. Video SEO requires optimization of many of the same factors you would talk about with a traditional static HTML page – you need a good keyword emphasis, and you need to use the selected term throughout key areas of your page. What are some of those key areas?
- Page URL
- HTML Title
- Meta Description
- Page headline
- Body copy
Below, I have embedded a SEO music video (mostly to test out a new plugin I found), but also to illustrate a few things.
Music Video: SEO Song by Creare
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z9rP7CBs_Y
Consider this page as a whole when you think about the basics I listed above.
- Page URL: This page is about “Video SEO Basics” and I have thus accordingly assigned http://www.pharmasem.com/video-seo-basics as the page URL.
- HTML Title: Again, knowing that my keyword for this page is “Video SEO Basics”, I plugged in “Video SEO Basics | pharmaSEM.com” as the page title
- Meta Description: While the description may not directly impact SEO algorithms with Google, that does not mean all engines ignore this tag. At the very least, the meta description impacts CTR from organic search. Accordingly, I provided a brief description, incorporating my keywords.
- Page Headline: My primary page headline for this page again is “Video SEO Basics”.
- Body Copy: Throughout this tutorial, I’ve been incorporating “video SEO basics” within the copy. This emphasizes my primary keyword. The video I’ve embedded, while not entirely relevant to the topic, was included mostly to provide a visual example.
Incidentally, this wordpress plugin is VERY easy to use so I may start including more video examples when appropriate.
Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of Intouch Solutions.
Empowering eCRM with Effective Search Marketing
Last week, one of our e-mail specialists at Intouch Solutions independently wrote a tip talking about how SEM can influence your eCRM campaigns. Jon Mercer (@cybermerky for you Twitter users) commented that Search Marketing can have a large impact on your online reputation and email deliverability. While he was referring specifically to paid search marketing, I would further extend that statement to include organic (or natural) search engine optimization.
While I haven’t thought as much on this topic as I should have, it is important to understand and remember that a powerful and effective search marketing strategy that incorporates SEO and PPC can positively influence ALL online activities. I have mentioned in preivous post how Search Marketing and Social Media should be considered within the same breath as online channels that feed off each other. This tip received by Jon expands the concept of integrated digital marketing strategies to include e-mail within that same breath.
The first of two points made by Jon was that effective online strategy should make relevance the priority. To quote directly, Mercer says:
If your listing or paid ad features your client’s new “product” or flash tool, then make sure the landing page concentrates on that product or flash tool. If your content is not in alignment with your PPC ad, a consumer or end-user will consider future ads irrelevant and avoid clicking on them. If and when this happens, search engine algorithms will then label your company/client’s ads as irrelevant, suppressing SEM/PPC conversions. If a prospect has deciphered through your PPC ads that you are misinterpreting your offering (an ad for beauty products but the landing page is marketing or selling just a home page with registration), trust in your company is damaged and this prospect is likely to ignore or mark as spam any incoming mail from your company.
As a search marketer, I couldn’t really put it any more simply. Search marketing is always most effective when relevance is the top priority, but this doesn’t only apply to paid search ads. Relevance is the key driving factor for on-page SEO efforts. An effectively designed, written and optimized page can serve to improve both natural and paid search marketing efforts.
The second, equally important factor mentioned by Mercer for all online marketing channels is the concept of “continuity”. While closely related to relevance, it is a separate connection that should be made. To again quote directly:
Continuity is more of the flow of information from one source (your PPC ad) into all related sources (landing pages, confirmation pages, links and the website). If your ad promises information about a specific indication or one particular item related to a specific drug, don’t serve up a page that just asks them to opt-in for “global” information. Your abandonment rates will soar. Your conversion rates will be low. And your online reputation will suffer because now ISPs are gathering detailed information about recipient behavior (such as when an email is printed, which links are clicked within an email, how many recipients are opening emails from your domain, etc.)
As Mercer puts it, continuity is about taking the relevance of your add and ensuring that all subsequent touch points carry over that relevance to give your users an ongoing sense of continued relevance. Search marketing is the perfect channel for seeding these concepts of relevance and continuity because of the very nature of the point of contact. Users seeing your message through search are pulling a message based on the information they are seeking rather than being pushed a message at the inopportune time. Through search, the audience capturing your message is more likely to convert and maintain a connection.
Also, thought I’d include a few links to relevant pages/articles which help feed this concept:
Maximize Search and E-Mail Marketing: InsideCRM
Search and E-Mail Marketing: Powerful Twin Engines – Lyris HQ
The Symbiotic Relationship Between Search and Email Marketing: Lyris HQ
Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of Intouch Solutions.
