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Video is everywhere and this is both a blessing and a curse, especially if you're trying to stand out from the rest of the crowd at the top of search engine results pages. As common as it may sound, your content should be relevant to your audience, adding value that will convince the users to dedicate the right time to watch your video. The more quality videos, the bigger the chances to serve as an authority, build a trusting relationship with your audience and increase the conversions. If you are creating video content to improve the ranking of your site, then you need to host the video to your own domain, in order to ensure that search engines don't direct the traffic to another site.
Your video should provide the necessary details to help search engines index it and according to Google, the title, the description and the thumbnail are the most important pieces of information. Metadata offers more details about the video title, the description, the length of the video and its file name. Video title has to be short and concise, while the description may provide more details and keywords, boosting the ranking of your content. Last but not least, make sure the file name of your video is relevant, instead of a generic one like “video415.mph”, as this is another way to describe your content for search engines.
A full video transcript is the written version of your video and it can be very useful if it also includes the right use of keywords, helping search engines learn more about your content. You can either include a transcript to the audio portion of your video, or you may also add it to the description box, along with the HTML of the page. This not only helps search engines to discover your content, but also the readers who may prefer an overview of your video.
A video's sitemap is another way to present the video's title, description, subject, duration and it may even provide more specific details, like an indication of the country restrictions, any expiration dates, platform restrictions or live streams. It serves as an extension to your site's general sitemap and although it may often be overlooked in video SEO, it is an important step to help your video's ranking.