From product explanations to marketing, animated videos can be a powerful tool for businesses of all types. Well-designed animated video content is engaging, memorable, and highly shareable. It can translate complex information into easy-to-digest, digital bits and tell a story in a way no other medium can.
However, even the most engaging video is worthless without an audience. How do you find an audience in the digital age? You create search engine optimized (SEO) animated videos and let your audience find you.
At Bee Video, we are a diverse, dedicated company offering high-quality video content creation. Our primary focus is on providing a simple, predictable process that gets results. We have years of experience producing live-action and animated marketing videos.
Today, we’ll be sharing a bit about the importance of SEO for animated videos, and more importantly, tips to help your videos rank higher in Google search results. Let’s dive in.
Why Would You Need to Search Engine Optimize (SEO) an Animated Video?
While at this point, if you run a business, you have likely heard the term SEO at the very least. Most know it in reference to websites—text-based content. If you associate SEO with things like keyword density and topic clusters, you might be wondering why SEO would matter for a video and how you would even go about search engine optimizing a video in the first place.
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it applies to anything you can find on a search engine, including videos. It’s a process by which you help search engines understand what your videos are about, and more importantly, which Internet searchers are likely to watch them.
That way, they rank high in search engine results for relevant phrases. Optimizing your animated videos to rank well will help your audience find your content, increasing engagement and reach. How do you search engine optimize an animated video, then?
7 Strategies for Animated Video SEO
Animated videos that rank highly in search results utilize a combination of engaging video content, keywords, and networking. At Better Bee, we can handle that first part for you. Here’s how you can handle the rest:
#1: Form a Plan
Creating a high-quality SEO-optimized animated video starts in the planning stages. Some practical aspects to consider when forming a plan include the:
- Purpose of the video
- Product or information
- Intended or potential audience
Having a clear purpose in mind before beginning the creative process is essential for staying on message and creating compelling content. Further, a complete understanding of yourgoals for your animated videowill help you get into the mindset of your potential audience and target search result rankings for the terms they’re likely to type into that Google search bar.
#2: Optimize Animated Videos for Mobile Devices
As of 2020, more than 4.32 billion people—90% of Internet goers—use a mobile device to go online. Optimizing your animated videos for mobile devices is essential for generating a reasonable click-through rate and increasing video views.
That process requires understanding the guidelines and limitations of each publishing platform, character limits, and thumbnail sizes. If you plan to host your own videos, you’ll also need adequate hosting to support high video playback speeds and a video player that adapts well to any screen size.
#3: Use Eye-Catching Thumbnails
Regardless of the publishing platform, it’s a great idea to accompany your animated video with an attention-grabbing thumbnail. Thumbnails are snapshots or previews of the content within a video. They are a primary factor that viewers consider before selecting which content to view.
Make sure to theme all your thumbnails around the content of the animated video. Feature the product or key image in the thumbnail, ideally with bold text highlighting the video’s purpose or catchy title.
#4: Provide a Compelling, Searchable Title
Alongside a thumbnail, a compelling title helps viewers select video content that is interesting and relevant for their needs. Compelling animated video titles are concise, informative, and thematic. The best video titles are interesting, topical, and inviting, but a search engine optimized title incorporates all the above with keywords relevant to the video.
What would a member of your target audience search to find a video like yours? There are keyword tools out there to help you find the answer—or answers—to that question. Once you find them, place the word or phrase you want to rank for in your title, preferably at the front, but don’t sacrifice your title’s readability or appeal to do so.
#5: Use Keywords in Descriptions
Speaking of keywords, you also want to use them in the description of your animated video. Remember to use variants and related terms. All the same SEO techniques used for websites apply to videos. After all, your descriptions are written text on a website!
#6: Upload Closed Captions and Video Transcripts
Closed captions and video transcripts are an excellent way to improve the accessibility of your animated video content. These elements also contribute to the searchability of your content by increasing the number of keywords your content has. They provide even more context for search engines, helping them better understand what your animated video is about.
#7: Publish on Multiple Platforms
Every video publishing platform has unique algorithms, audiences, and content structures. Utilizing several video and social media platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, increases the accessibility and shareability of your animated video—and so your chances of successfully catching the eye of more viewers. Be sure to include a custom title and description each time you upload your videos.
Get Help Creating Engaging, SERP-Topping Animated Videos
A well-ranking animated video starts with quality content. Our experienced, professional video production team at Bee Video is here to help. To learn more about our services and what they can do for you, have a look around the rest of our website and blog, or call us today at (647) 625-9629 to get started.