Fact: Video 53x More Effective Than Traditional SEO

Guest post by Hal Goodtree.

Three years ago, I inadvertently discovered that video can jump a client to the top of search in a crowded infospace. Now, RISMedia has put a number on the advantage: video is 53 times more effective than traditional SEO.

The Facts

According to RISMedia:

“Recent studies have shown that when done correctly, videos with proper tags are up to 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking when compared with traditional SEO techniques.

Studies also demonstrate that video is preferred over text by a 6 to 1 margin and is growing online at a rate of 40% a year.”

Traditional SEO Takes You Part Way

Everyone should use traditional SEO all the time. It can have great, long-lasting results, especially against niche terms.

Choose a narrow set of keywords and use them in blog posts, headlines, tags and descriptions. Do it on your blog, Flickr, web pages and social media.

It works great for narrow terms. In real estate, target a neighborhood instead of the whole town. One of my clients has done this for every single neighborhood in Cary. Another client decided to focus on her own subdivision. In less than a week, we’ve moved up to the top of page one.

But broader targets can be hard to crack. That’s where you have to go beyond traditional SEO.

Cranking Up Page One

Back in 2007, we had a large medical practice in South Carolina as a client. One of their services was non-invasive surgery to fix varicose veins.

This is a very crowded field, with national competitors and local doctors willing to spend big on AdWords every month. In short, we couldn’t crack into page one search results with just some web pages and blog posts.

One day, I brought my video camera (a cheapo miniDV, btw) and recorded one of the docs talking about their magical procedure. I posted the result on my YouTube channel (properly tagged of course).

A few days later, I was searching for terms related to my client’s business. I searched on the term “varicose veins.” Guess who came up at the top of page one? Me!

Quickly, we set up a YouTube channel for the docs and basically transferred the benefit to them. The rest, as they say, is history.

How To Make A Great Viral

It’s all about the concept.

A great concept trumps fancy production every time. This has always been true in filmmaking. Still is.

It doesn’t have to be complicated or “highly creative.” Simple is best.

Keep it short – under 2:00.

More Info

For more info, scan my posts tagged video. If you have questions about viral and search, email me.

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Adapted from Hal’s blog at Goodtree & Co., Inc.

Tags: Interactive, Viral