We have a simple question for you: If you have to craft an effective marketing campaign, what would be your preferred tool? A lengthy and monotonic text-based content piece or a dynamic and exciting, yet short, video? Of course, you would prefer to go with the video option! Today, most marketing teams use video content to catch the attention of their targeted audience. With almost 95% of marketing taking place through video content, it is now more important than ever to optimize your video content and make it as viewer-friendly as possible. So, how do you optimize your videos and make it easier for Google bots to “read” them? Let’s find out.
Captions help in getting your videos indexed:
When YouTube, Facebook or Google publishes your video, the algorithm or bots of these sites are not able to “watch” the video in the same way that you do; instead, they index it through the text associated with your video using words from the title, description, URL, etc . So, if you include captions that are enriched with focus KEYWORDS in your videos, not only are you providing more text-based information about your video, but you are also making it much easier for the search engines to categorize your video and crawl it, which pushes it higher in the ranks.
Captions increase the audience engagement:
It is estimated that almost 83% viewers watch videos with sound turned off[1]. The survey also concluded that more than 50% of viewers consider captions necessary as they watch the content without sound[1]. So, having captions can give you an edge over your competitors. The ranking of your video content is also affected in terms of engaging the audience. Adding captions can accomplish this in a number of ways. If the content of the video is parallel with the user’s query over search engines, and the captions reflect that, it is impossible for your video to get skipped; it is definitely going to be checked out. Adding captions can also enhance the engaging performance of a video with the user. For example, people who are not experts in the language used in a video or those who are D/deaf or hard-of-hearing can easily engage with the media presented, thereby providing an accessible and robust viewing experience. But if the viewer can not access or understand the video content, it’s a no-go in terms of audience engagement.
Captions increase the “Watch Time” of your videos:
The more the watch time your content gets, the higher it ranks. An added benefit of captions is that they can increase the viewer’s understanding about that video, which can compel them to go deeper until the completion of video; hence increasing that valuable watch time. Which is reciprocated in terms of increased views and higher rankings.
Captions ensure a better user experience (UX):
Although keyword optimization is still of overarching value to effective SEO, the modern-day search engines are shifting to value UX while ranking the published content. Captioning your video equates to making it accessible for people who are D/deaf or hard of hearing, which increases the viewing opportunities for your target audience, resulting in a significantly more enjoyable experience when watching alone and interactive experience when watching with others.
What are you waiting for?
Let Empire Caption Solutions (ECS) help you boost your video content with keyword-focused video captions.
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References: [1] Mobile Videos Often Watched Without Audio, Study Finds https://www.nexttv.com/news/mobile-videos-often-watched-without-audio-study-finds#:~:text=A%20survey%20of%20U.S.%20consumers
