What is video SEO and why is video content is on the rise, quickly becoming an audience favorite? If a SaaS brand doesn’t use video content for marketing its products and services and raising awareness, it risks losing revenue and loyal clients.
66% of marketers claim to increase or maintain the amount of money they spend on video this year, according to Wyzowl. The same statistics say that 99% of people utilizing video marketing in 2021 have continued to do so in 2022. So, for the last couple of years, we’ve been very focused on this type of content.
And where there’s content, there’s search engine optimization. Video SEO can greatly improve your SaaS marketing with the use of educational, entertaining, and promotional pieces. In this article, we’ll tell you all there is to know about video SEO for SaaS, starting with the basics and finishing with actual video types you can use.
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization is the process of improving a website’s ranking to obtain more organic traffic. Organic means free here since you’re not using PPC (pay per click) or other paid promotion methods but rather focusing on optimizing your pages to make them more appealing to search engines and Internet users.
The process involves keyword research and usage, link building, technical optimization, user experience, and more. It combines content readability and diversity, authority, loading speed, navigation, and the proper use of words.
And what is video SEO? Similar processes are aimed at pushing your clips through the search results list all the way to the top.
How Are Videos Noted in SERPs?
There are several ways your video can be shown in SERPs. With the growing interest in video content, Google has developed new ways to include it in your browsing.
The various types of video results in Google include:
- Thumbnail – the basic search result where you see the thumbnail image, the duration of the video, a link to it, and a part of the description. There are no other features, just a standard result item.
- Carousel – a list of videos for your query appearing as a row or a column you can navigate. You see thumbnails, durations, links, the channels that posted the videos, and the date.
- Featured – looks like a featured snippet but with a video. The video is shown at the top of the page before the first organic result. There, you see the video thumbnail, the clip’s duration, and the highlighted time frame where the answer to your question should be.
Being featured in any of these three forms will likely attract the attention of your target audience. And to appear in those SERPs, you need a video SEO SaaS strategy.
What Exactly Can Video Content Bring to SaaS?
SaaS videos and their optimization can help you:
- Draw potential customers’ attention – informational videos with appealing visuals can become the deciding point in your customers’ journey.
- Increase user engagement – entertaining and educational video content will spark curiosity and make your visitors more engaged and interested in your SaaS project.
- Make the brand relatable – videos help you build brand personality, connecting with the target audience and becoming more relatable for them.
- Save time and make things easier – educational videos make life easier for your customers, saving their time and that of your support team. No more standard questions on “how to use” and “what to choose!
- Improve search engine ranking – by understanding user intent and adding relevant keywords to the title, description, and transcript of your video pages, you’ll get chances to jump higher in the rankings. For understanding what keywords you rank for, use dedicated tools like Rank Tracker by SE Ranking to see your exact organic positions in the chosen location, including video SERP features.
Video content is not just a trend, it’s one of the basic types of content you should implement to market your SaaS product.
What is Video SEO for SaaS Best Practices?
The most famous platform where people come for videos is YouTube. Not only is it one of the best ways to publish and market videos, but it’s also closely integrated with Google search. Now, we’ll share some video SEO best practices to help your SaaS get recognition.
Identify Your Target Audience
Define who your SaaS project is for. You can think of several buyer personas and then create content addressing their major concerns and problems you can solve with your product.
Learn everything about your target audience, including:
- What their problems are
- Where they spent the most time
- What devices they use most often
- What their most common search intent is, etc.
By knowing this, you’ll be able to speak directly to the people that may buy from you, which will help you build a trusty relationship with potential customers.
Use the Right Keywords
One of the most important approaches in video SEO optimization is using the right keywords in the right places. But first, you have to find those keywords.
Keep in mind not only numbers like monthly search volume and keyword difficulty but also the search intent of your target audience. Some people only look for information about your brand to get familiar with it, while others are ready to make a purchase.
To research queries, use digital tools like SE Ranking. They offer rank tracking, suggestions, and extensive data about each keyword you choose to analyze. The tool will help you choose the most suitable key terms for your videos, connecting you with your audience more efficiently.
Optimize Titles and Descriptions
The titles and descriptions of your videos make them stand out when users first see them in search. Of course, you have to ensure they appear in the search first. Take the keywords you’ve just researched and put them in your titles and descriptions.
However, don’t flood them with queries, keep it natural. Make the title attention-hooking and correspond to your thumbnails. But make sure you don’t create clickbait names for your videos. If you upload a piece called “15 Secret Video SEO for SaaS Hacks You Didn’t Know About”, make sure it doesn’t have something basic like “make your video interesting”.
As to the description, put all the most important info in the first couple of sentences – no vague words, only info-packed sentences. Not all viewers will click on “Show more”, so you have to tell them the most crucial things at the beginning.
Feature Video Transcripts
Under the “Show more” section, you can place a transcript for your video, optimizing it with keywords beforehand. As the text may be pretty large, you can SEO it well before posting it.
Moreover, having a transcript and/or subtitles for your videos increases the chances that people will pay attention to the clip and make something out of it, becoming more interested in your SaaS project.
Many people watch videos on mute, not to mention those with hearing impairments. So, a transcript will help you optimize both for a larger audience and search engines.
Include Catchy, Engaging Thumbnails
Video thumbnails give your viewer a sneak peek into the clip’s contents. They should be creative and attention-hooking. A common method is to use a bright image describing the video and a short, engaging title.
Of course, if your brand uses black and white only in its design, you can customize it and, for example, make thumbnails with a white background and black text. It may not catch attention that much, but it will be aligned with your brand colors and still give an idea of what the clip is about.
Think about the image that would have your target audience click on a link. And to avoid design flaws, don’t forget that the thumbnails’ dimensions are 1280 x 720 px. An image with the title “w to U” instead of “How to Use” won’t look appealing, even if it’s a perfect how-to for your SaaS product.
Add Structured Data
Add VideoObject structured data when posting your SaaS videos. This can improve your chances of ranking higher and make your clip appear in the enhanced mode in the SERPs. It’s basically a piece of code you have to paste into the page’s source code with your video content.
You can then test your structured data with Google tools and see if it works right.
This is an effective method of improving how your results look in Google search, drawing more attention to you, and getting more traffic and potential users to your SaaS.
Use Social Media and Ads
Social media activity is not exactly video SEO but more like a way to promote your content and gain recognition. Instagram, for example, promotes Reels much more now than regular posts. So, uploading a shorter version of your how-to or visual proof of your software’s efficiency can get you more followers and potential clients.
Follow trends, know where your target audience spends the most time, and pitch your videos there. And, of course, upload longer, more sophisticated videos to your YouTube channel. You can always direct people from other platforms there if they want to find out more. Not to mention YouTube has its own search engine algorithm, so if you implement SEO principles, you can rank higher in the results there as well.
Videos You Need to Include in Your SaaS
There are various kinds of SaaS videos, but these are the most popular and essential for your video SEO success.
Product Demo
Product demo videos will help your target audience understand your SaaS better and see its perks in action. By showcasing the software’s ease of use, functionality, and advantages, you can communicate more efficiently with your viewers.
For example, Xero has a great product demo video that’s only 1 minute long and covers the necessary facts about the platform and how to create a new project quickly. It’s both a product demo and a how-to video that shows the interface, describes the benefits, and addresses concerns.
How-To Videos
They can be a part of the product demos shown earlier or as standalone clips. It’s easier to watch a video on how to work with software than read a guide and look at screenshots. By explaining how easy it is to use your SaaS product, you cover at least one concern of your audience – the difficulties of learning to operate a new program.
In the same Xero demo, viewers see how to create projects, get familiar with the interface, and understand whether or not it’s suitable for their needs.
Social and Storytelling Videos
Another type of SaaS videos is social and storytelling. Social media is a huge hit not only for talking to your friends and sharing pictures of food and dogs. They are marketing platforms where you can promote your SaaS.
For example, Box has a brief, 1-minute introductory video for their Box Sign feature you can use to sign any document. It’s quick and shows all the benefits without overloading the video with information.
Add the video SEO for SaaS approaches mentioned in this guide, and you’ll get more attention with a short and interesting video about your new feature. Starting the video with engaging storytelling describing your target audience’s concerns is also a great idea.
Expert Interviews
To increase authority and position your business as reliable, you can post interviews with experts and thought leaders in your industry.
For example, Adobe has a series of videos called Learn from the Pros. They aren’t interviews, but it’s clear that the company collaborates with professionals who choose its software.
In this case, the video is also a how-to!
Customer Testimonials
Customer stories and testimonials will help build social proof around your SaaS solution. By seeing that other people enjoy using it, the public will know that you are a reliable provider.
Slack has a great video that involves storytelling, a creative mashup of interviews, and the advantages of its service.
FAQ
To allow your audience to self-help, you can create FAQ videos, providing detailed answers to the most commonly asked questions and not-so-common concerns of your target audience. This will help leads move through the buyers’ journey and show that you care about the users of your SaaS solution and their experience.
You can upload:
- Interview-type videos
- Screen-recording with step-by-step instructions
- Visualized text answers, etc.
How Does Video SEO Help Marketing?
This guide teaches you about using video SEO SaaS strategy for your projects. A video is a powerful tool when it comes to marketing, and missing out on it is a mistake. Internet users seek video material to learn how to use software, find solutions to their problems, watch expert content, find testimonials, etc.
All of this helps them make a purchasing decision and fill informational gaps.
You should use video tutorials, introductory clips, expert interviews, testimonials, and other types of videos to enrich your content strategy, increase brand awareness, and eventually get more customers.
Create high-quality videos your audience will like, fill them with information about your SaaS product, and provide insight into working with the service. Don’t forget about title and description optimization and well-designed thumbnails that would grab attention. And finally, mind where you upload the content. YouTube is a perfect choice for lengthy videos, while social media like Instagram are great for quick tutorials and short introductory videos.
