An Introduction to Video SEO: Optimising Video for Search Success

Video content is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s a powerful tool for engagement and increasingly important for search visibility. As users consume more video online and search engines integrate video results more prominently, understanding Video SEO basics is essential for a well-rounded digital strategy in 2025.

Video SEO involves optimising your video content so search engines can find, understand, and rank it effectively.

Why Focus on Video SEO?

• High User Engagement: Video is often more engaging than text alone, keeping users on your page longer.
• Increased Visibility in SERPs: Google frequently displays video results (from YouTube and website embeds) directly on the search results page, including video carousels and featured snippets.
• YouTube’s Power: YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. Optimising content there taps into a massive audience.
• Explaining Complex Topics: Video is an excellent medium for tutorials, demonstrations, and explaining complex concepts visually.
• Content Diversification: It provides an alternative way for users to consume your information, catering to different preferences.

Key Elements of Video SEO Optimisation

Optimising video involves several steps, both on the platform where it’s hosted (like YouTube) and on your own website if you embed it.

1. Keyword Research for Video: Understand what terms users search for when looking for video content related to your topics. Look at Youtube suggestions and analyse competitor video keywords.
2. Compelling Titles: Create clear, concise, keyword-rich titles that accurately reflect the video’s content and entice users to click.
3. Detailed Descriptions: Write informative descriptions using relevant keywords naturally. Include links to your website or related resources. Think of the description as supporting text content for search engines.
4. Relevant Tags/Keywords: Use relevant tags on platforms like YouTube to help categorise your video and improve discoverability.
5. Engaging Thumbnails: Create custom thumbnails that are visually appealing, relevant, and stand out in search results or feeds.
6. Transcripts and Captions: Provide accurate transcripts and closed captions. This makes your video accessible to a wider audience (including those with hearing impairments or watching without sound) and gives search engines crawlable text content to understand the video’s subject matter.
7. Video Schema Markup: If embedding videos on your website, use VideoObject Schema markup to provide search engines with detailed information like the thumbnail URL, description, duration, and upload date.
8. Embed Strategically on Your Website: Place relevant videos within your blog posts or on service pages where they add value and context. Ensure the surrounding text supports the video’s topic.
9. Promote Your Videos: Share videos on social media, in email newsletters, and other relevant channels to drive views and engagement signals.
10. Consider YouTube Shorts: For short-form content (under 60 seconds), YouTube Shorts offers another avenue for discovery.

Getting Started

Start by identifying topics where video could genuinely enhance user understanding or engagement. Focus on creating high-quality, helpful video content first, then apply these optimisation techniques to ensure it gets found by the right audience. Video SEO is an ongoing process of creation, optimisation, and analysis.

Explore how Axiom Flux can integrate Video SEO into your wider digital strategy.