How To Attract Blog Visitors Using Video
It wasn’t all that long ago that a strategically placed image could have a significant effect on traffic to a website. However, video has rapidly been shifting the face of the Internet, quickly moving from a slow, unwieldy medium to the most important component of the modern web. Video has become so essential, so influential, and so useful, that some Facebook insiders predict the social-media powerhouse becoming a primarily video-based platform in the future.
So, what is the impact on you, the business owner, in the age of video? Essentially, it means that if you can start producing great video content, you’re going to attract new visitors to your websites and blogs. Think about the sheer volume of viewing that takes place on YouTube, which equals more than 3 billion hours of video watched every month. Even a fraction of a fraction of that audience could mean big gains for your site.
Of course, video doesn’t happen for free – it is either going to cost an investment of money, or an investment of time in order to produce great video content. If you follow these basic tips, you should be well positioned to make the most of that investment.
Do the Math
It only takes a little bit of math to realize that producing video content only makes fiscal sense for a business with an online presence. Incorporating video into your web marketing can send direct traffic to your site, but in many ways the more significant benefit comes from the impact you will see in the search results. Video content on your page can make it half again as likely to end up on the first page of a Google search compared to a site without the video content.
Of course, popping up when someone searches for keywords related to your site is only half the battle. The second half is getting them to come through and view the content on your page. Videos play a role here as well, boosting the amount of raw traffic when comparing similar sites. They’re also useful for boosting conversion rates, helping to make your sites more active and profitable.
Stand Out with Video Content
Getting people to visit a website is easy, but getting them to stay and engage with that site’s content in a meaningful way is much more difficult. This is where video is king. If you want people to listen to your messaging, explore your other pages, and click on your various links, then you want to incorporate video into your site, as this increases all of these factors by a significant margin. The famed short attention span of the online world can be combated by using engaging video content.
The Social Web and Video Marketing
The real edge of great video content has to do with the way people engage with it. Search engine results are great, but the true holy grail of Internet marketing these days is getting some sort of viral sharing. If people share your content, their friends are far more likely to engage with that content than if it came from a random source. Creating video content gives your users great, shareable material. A good tip here is to keep the videos short, as very short content gets shared more than longer-form videos.
The Individual Touch
Videos make visiting a website an experience that people have to engage in. This individual element helps to separate a video from the rest of the Internet, which many people just skim superficially. Videos are specific and usually designed to address a certain need. If this matches a need experienced by the visitor, they will engage their attention in an individual way, helping to create a relationship between your company and the visitor.
The Impact of Video is Impossible to Ignore
When you consider the fact that nearly half of everyone in the United States watches online videos, it becomes clear that this is a segment of the market that no one can afford to ignore. Also, the transition of online activity to become largely video based, with more than a third of the time people spend online now being devoted to video, shows that by ignoring video, you’re ignoring a huge amount of potential customers. Don’t forget either that these numbers are predicted to grow in both categories, meaning that the importance of a strong video presence is only going to get more important with each passing year.
We’ve all known about YouTube and online video for several years now, but the importance of this format should finally be hitting home. Better technology makes it easier than ever to film, edit and share video content, and this niche is only expected to grow as the tech continues to improve. The speed at which people can share video content, including sharing live, “as it happens” video using feature like Facebook live, means that video will become a more commonplace way to share any and all online content as we move into the future. That means if you’re running a blog you should embrace the trend now to start learning how to conceive of and execute great video content in order to drive traffic to your site.
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