2019 Video SEO Checklist - Six Foot Lever

Maximize the videos you already have so they appear at the top of Google search results, with our 2019 B2B video SEO checklist.

Google is showing a preference for video content in the search results and you can make this work in your B2B marketing. It’s no surprise that Google wants to bring people to YouTube, but what is surprising is that they are showing a preference for video…even if it’s on a different platform.

If you aren’t ready to pay a pro to do this for you, don’t worry. You can go a long way by following the checklist below. The checklist does not tell you every small detail, but with a little searching, you CAN do this yourself. Our YouTube checklist is also helpful if you aren’t looking for a Detroit-based marketing and advertising agency but still want to use the know-how of the Six Foot Lever team.

Beginner’s Video Content Checklist:

Create a video in HD (a minimum of 720, but 1080 or 4K is better). This video should have narration because YouTube (Google) has the ability to identify spoken keywords in a video (first Pro Tip to maximizing your video’s impact). Obviously, everyone wants their video to have perfect editing and branding, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of progress. A product video shot with your iPhone is better than nothing.

Upload the video to your YouTube channel. Don’t neglect to fill in your channel description.
Fill in the video description! We’re surprised at how many people skip this step or put just one line of info because some “marketing expert” said the description doesn’t matter for SEO. Although it’s unlikely you will be able to measure an impact in search engine results, YouTube still needs to know what your video is about so it can be associated with other videos. This is key to someone discovering your company after watching your competitor’s video. Explain what your product is doing in the video and be sure to use keywords from your industry (words and phrases your CUSTOMER would use to find you).
Put a link in the description back to a relevant page on your website. If this product can be purchased on an e-commerce site, make sure to link it as well. Preferably, these pages have some of the information from the video description, which lets Google know the page is relevant. Put your contact info as well, so a prospective customer can find you.
Fill in the keywords section with terms that YOUR CUSTOMER would use to find your product or service. If you engage in keyword research, remember that in the B2B Industrial world, key terms may not show significant usage. This is where conventional marketing agencies often fail, using keywords that have more searches, but much lower relevance.
Embed the YouTube video on the page your video linked back to.

Now repeat these same steps on Vimeo.com (second Pro Tip). The format is different, but all of these steps can also be implemented on Vimeo. For the time being it appears that Google is being “fair” to Vimeo by showing their videos alongside YouTube results. This could change in the future, or maybe Google is doing this because they are going to buy Vimeo later. Who knows. What I can tell you is that we’ve ranked Vimeo videos above competing YouTube videos. We’ve even ranked a Vimeo video right next to an identical YouTube video, pushing the other video competitors to the right, in the slider (off the page).

This last step is the hardest to do but can have a significant impact on the search performance of your video: create and upload a closed caption script. Although YouTube will auto-generate captions, many technical terms will not translate correctly. There are services that will do this for you, but we find that an easier way is to just correct the auto-generated text through your channel dashboard.

Bonus Pro Tip

If you’ve read this far, you should be rewarded, so we will outline a strategy that no one (if anyone) is using. When you link to a YouTube video from your webpage, you may have noticed that other videos play at the end of the video. Often times these are competitor’s videos. We see this all the time when people use a YouTube link on LinkedIn (if your marketing team has done this….PLEASE let us show them how to handle video promotions on LinkedIn). You need to use the embed code for the video, rather than a simple link and then change your end of video settings so they do not autoplay. But there is another way.

Instead of putting your YouTube video front and center, put it at the very end of the page with a sentence above it that says, “Here’s the same video if you prefer to watch on YouTube”. *

Now go back and embed the Vimeo version of your video on the web page, where appropriate. On the Vimeo platform, you can control what video plays next (set this in the video settings). So your customer will see other video content from you after the first video, even if they follow the link to Vimeo. Vimeo also allows you to embed an email sign up form, or buttons to bring them to your store, front page, contact info, etc.

Chances are, your customer will not watch the video on YouTube, because they’ve already watched it on the Vimeo link. However, by putting it at the bottom, your page will still enjoy the benefit of being cross-linked to a Google platform. You should also consider that many IT departments block YouTube from their employees (last Pro tip) but Vimeo is often left off the blacklist.

In summary, the Vimeo video is the content for your customer, but the YouTube video also brings in outside viewers and helps with SEO.

Hopefully, this tip list gets you started in the process of ranking your videos at the top of search results. Remember, you don’t have to be in the Detroit area, or even in Michigan, to hire the Six Foot Lever digital marketing team. Email us at info@sixfootlever.com to see if we are a good fit for each other.

*Make sure to turn off the YouTube suggested video feature (as shown in this post), which will force the player to suggest your other videos at the end. However, this only works if the viewer does not follow the link to the YouTube site.