Animated videos are one of the dynamic video marketing tools. They help marketers to gain instant attention from the target audience, increase brand awareness and generate leads. More importantly, an animated explainer video work wonders in explaining the product or service of a brand in the simplest manner.
However, to execute the perfect video, you need a well-thought-out SEO strategy to get a higher ranking on video hosting platforms like YouTube.
Furthermore, you need to humanize your brand and include aesthetic visuals to create an emotional connection with your audience. In this way, your audience will easily grasp the message and more likely to create a deeper connection with your brand.
Hence, with animated videos, you have the power of creating a lasting impression in the minds of your potential customers.
Why Do You Need To SEO For Your Animated Video?
Simply, when your animated videos rank on search engines and YouTube, people will start to deem your video content as credible. Moreover, when your views on the videos go up, Google and other search engines will think the same way.
That makes your videos stay on top of SERP for a longer time. That’s a big win for your brand, as more prospects will get to see your video content, and you’d be able to gain more traffic and generate more leads.
As there are billions of videos on YouTube and Facebook, and there are billions of viewers online. So, if you want your 2D animated videos to create the buzz, you need to leverage that platform. It’s not easy for brands to get the top spot on search engines YouTube; you need to harness the power of SEO.
Most users are inclined to watch videos, making YouTube one of the go-to places for marketers to reach out to their target audience. If you’re not leveraging YouTube, then you’re missing out on a wonderful opportunity to increase brand awareness and grow your business.
So, we’ve put together the 10 most effective ways to do SEO optimization of your animated video and earn that sweet spot on search engines and video hosting platforms.
1. Make Your Animated Video Mobile Friendly
There are millions of billions of people who have smartphones and watching videos on them.
According to Insivia, video consumption on mobile devices increases 100% every year.
There was a time when people used desktop computers to watch videos online. However, with the advent of smartphones, more people are inclined to watch videos by taking out their smartphones from their pockets.
According to eMarketer, 75% of online videos are played on mobile devices.
These stats make a compelling statement why it is a great strategy to optimize your animated video to mobile devices to spread your brand awareness.
Even though you shouldn’t neglect desktop computers altogether, but your prime focus should be on mobile devices to make the most out of your video marketing campaign.
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2. Work On Users’ Intent
Google algorithm works on users’ intent. It’s one of the prime factors of how to rank on Google SERP. Google is also known for providing an excellent user experience. That’s why Google is always on top of everything that happens in the digital world. If you want your animated video to rank and increase your brand awareness, you need to work on the prospects or users.
Videos have become a necessity for the people in the digital world of today. Thus, Google makes it a prime factor to rank websites on its search engine. For instance, a query of “How to bake cookies” has millions of views on YouTube, making Google rank it on the top of SERP compared to a blog.
Moreover, videos and visual-based information are 60,000 times faster to comprehend than textual content. That’s why videos rank on search engines.
However, text-based content is also important. This is because the crawlers of Google don’t crawl images and audio-based content. You need to incorporate keywords in your video content to make the out of your SEO strategy.
3. Incorporate Video Transcripts To Boost Ranking
As we said, the textual content is crucial to rank on Google. This is because Google is based on tons of textual content on its platform. Therefore, it’s important to relevant keywords in your video to rank on SERP.
So, the best way to incorporate text into your video is via video transcriptions. They work as a textual copy for the video, which the search engine can crawl and rank. YouTube also has a column specifically for incorporating descriptions: the sweet spot for Google algorithm to crawl and rank your videos.
4. Post Videos On Social Media Platforms To Widen Your Reach
Utilizing social media platforms is the most effective SEO strategies to rank your videos on search engines. Sometimes your SEO strategies don’t work on search engines; that’s where social media comes in. Leveraging social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are one of the best ways to optimize your animated video.
The prospects use social media every day and find content that piques their interest. When your animated video with compelling visuals comes on their newsfeed, they will be most likely to play and hear what your brand has to say.
Videos are easily digestible as compared to text-based content. When you are starting, it may be challenging to push your animated video on social media. But once you get the hang of it, you will start to generate hefty ROI.
Facebook ranks native videos with the recent update than those videos with referring links to other video hosting websites.
5. Add Visually Appealing Thumbnails With A Compelling Title
Incorporating customize thumbnail is the best way to attract your target audience’s attention and make them click on your video on an impulse, as the thumbnail is the very first thing a user view on your video. If the thumbnail is enticing, then it will improve your CTR.
The main purpose is to tempt the audience to stop scrolling and read what your video offers. Ensure to incorporate a title with the relevant keyword so that your video ranks on search engines and compels your audience to click on your video.
Since thumbnail is the crucial aspect of improving your CTR, you need to fulfill some of the key elements. First of all, the thumbnail should have a high-resolution image, as pixelated images are a major turn-off for your target audience. Moreover, you should also incorporate a facial close up, compelling text, and aesthetic visuals to entice them to click your animated video.
6. Post Videos On Various Platforms To Gain More Exposure
Posting your video on multiple platforms is another effective way to optimize your animated video. Google crawlers will able to find your videos and rank them. Thus, your video will be easier for your target audience to find and watch it.
When posting videos on landing pages and your homepage, don’t forget to post them on YouTube, the largest video hosting platform. There are billions of users online watching videos on YouTube; it’s a wonderful opportunity for your brand to interact with your target audience.
Moreover, to increase your brand awareness, you also need to post videos on other video hosting platforms. That includes Dailymotion, Vimeo, and others.
7. Evaluate Your User Engagement
Evaluating and measuring your animated video’s performance is one of the prime factors of how Google works. Therefore, you must constantly monitor your video’s performance. If it doesn’t gain much traction, then work on strategies to make it popular.
This is because the more engagement your video gets and the more chances it has to rank on the top of SERP. However, there are few factors you need to work on to rank your video.
First, you need to gauge the user engagement via Session Watch Time. YouTube wants people to engage on its platform for a longer period of time and rank those videos with a higher number of views.
The second aspect is the users’ intent. You need to have a thorough understanding of what your target audience is looking for in creating an animated video and its title. Let’s get to the previous example of baking cookies. When a user types a query for “how to bake cookies, ” several videos will start to show up relating to baking cookies on the YouTube search engine.
Finally, you need to pay heed to the Watch Time. It works on how much time is spent watching a video, not how many times a video is watched. For instance, watch a 50% percent of 30 minutes and watch a two-minute video thrice. YouTube will prefer and rank the 30-minute video because they spent more time watching the video.
8. Conduct A Thorough Research
A well-thought-out plan is one of the primal aspects of a successful video marketing strategy. Likewise, optimizing your animated video requires thorough research and knowledge of your niche.
If you don’t have adequate knowledge, it’s better to get in touch with someone who does. You can hire a digital marketing agency with relevant expertise that has a deeper insight into your niche.
Moreover, you can also find the basic knowledge of SEO and your niche yourself by browsing through the internet.
Conclusion
There are numerous effective ways to optimize your animated video. However, these tips will give you a head start in your pursuit of spreading awareness of your brand across various platforms.
As long as you’re following the search engines’ guidelines, especially Google, you will never go wrong.
When you’re doing SEO for your video, you also need to have a thorough research of your niche. It will help in increasing brand awareness, improve your SEO rankings, and boosting ROI.
