• Tweet
• Sharebar

Everyone’s banging on about the importance of online video and how it can really help your website grow and reach new levels. But you’re still a bit sceptical, you’re not sure how video is going to fit onto your site, then you’ve got the technicalities of the production to worry about but it’s really quite simple.

Firstly let’s make sure you understand why you need to get into video. More and more search queries are returning blended results; this means you’re no longer just seeing a list of websites when you do a search. Now you’ve got relevant images, useful news stories, some shopping results and your video results then somewhere in amongst that lot you’ve got your websites. If you’re not getting your site in as many of those blended result options as possible you’re losing potential traffic.

Then you’ve got the onsite attractions video can bring, in our technologically advanced society we’re getting far to lazy to actually read through pages and pages of text when we could just listen to the same information and watch a video. Video is going to keep your traffic on your site for longer and it’s going to ensure they’re more likely to remember you if they’re only at the beginning of the buying cycle.

So how do you get video on your site? First off you can get the idea of fancy production work out your head, you just don’t need it. Keep it simple, just get a standard video camera (although I’d recommend something slightly more sophisticated than your average camera phone) and some basic editing software. The video is meant to highlight the products or services on your site not the editing skills of your IT department.

Film your boss

What can you turn into video content? Every website out there has to have something they can turn into a video or something they can create a video about. The most obvious one every business can do is the Q&A with the CEO or director. Every website has an ‘about us’ page that, in all reality, is probably looking a bit boring. Film the boss explaining why he started the business (or why his father / grandfather etc) started it, get him explaining what it is about the industry he loves and where he sees the business moving over the next few years. Next time a potential client clicks your ‘about us’ page to find out who they’re thinking if giving their hard earned cash too they see a video and they can see the person at the top genuinely cares about what he’s selling and about his company and you’ve given your site a friendlier feel.

Film your products

Another great idea for getting some video content on your site is a practical demonstration of your products or service. If you sell clothes get some catwalk videos up showcasing your stock, if you sell kitchen utensils shoot some videos of them actually working. This can work just as well if you sell software; have a practical demonstration of how it works or some common trouble shooting tips. If you’re selling a service rather than a product, video the process, if you’re a wedding planner have some videos of some of the venues you’ve used in the past and explain why they were chosen. If you sell something more complicated video someone considered an expert in your company explaining the technicalities behind it. For example if you sell SEO, shoot some basic videos explaining what SEO is, have some flip charts to draw some visual examples.

Film your clients

You’ve filmed your business identity and your products now you need to film your customers or at least your testimonials. Like the ‘about us’ page, most sites have a ‘testimonials’ page where your clients write a small bit of copy saying how amazing you are and how impressed they were with the service. Why not take the camera next time one of your reps goes over for a client meeting? In five minutes you’ve got your glowing testimonial and some new video content for your site.

Now you’ve got your video content don’t forget to add it to your XML sitemap and give it a quick syndicate round the usual video sites.

About the guest author:
Kim is an SEO who is currently working on injury compensation for compensation claims.