Video Marketing for Local Business is a 3 part series to help small businesses gain a basic understanding of how video marketing can help grow their business and how to get started. Part 1: Getting Started, Part 2: Local SEO, Part 3: Getting Going.
If you’re just joining us, check out Part 1: Getting Started.
What is Local SEO?
For part 2 of our Video Marketing for Local Business, we’ll be talking about how video can help your local SEO. For many businesses, Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, equates to showing up on the first page of a Google search. While this is an admirable goal, for brick and mortar businesses, showing up first on a search in Seattle for coffee may not be very helpful if your coffee shop is in Atlanta. Which brings us to local SEO. In essence, local SEO is similar to national SEO with the exception that it focuses on “place” rather than solely your website. When a person is looking for a gift shop, a dentist’s office, or a restaurant, they are searching for a business within a certain geographic area. So, while the elements are the same for the 2 types of SEO, local SEO adds the emphasis of geographic location. If your business gets some of or all of its customers locally, than local SEO applies to you.
There are a lot of ways to optimize your website, blog, social media channels, etc for local SEO. Here we’ll keep the focus on video marketing. Why? Because YouTube is now the 2nd largest search engine and at this point in the game, small businesses are just starting to catch on to video marketing and many are not optimizing for local SEO. In other words, it’s still early in the game and the more you do now, the further ahead you and your business will end up.
Optimizing Your Video Marketing Local SEO
The first step is to create a great video with relevant and engaging content. For more tips, check out 10 Keys to Making A Successful Video Marketing Production.
Once you’ve created your video, follow these tips to help you and your business to be found locally.
Use YouTube
Not only is YouTube the second largest search engine, but it’s also owned by the first largest search engine, Google. By uploading your video to YouTube, Google indexes that video, which in turn helps with your ranking. When your video shows up in search listings, it takes the user to YouTube to watch it, which may not be what you want. So, there are some additional steps to take.
Use Geotags
Geotagging your video associates it with the geographic coordinates of your business. To geotag your video follow these steps:
- Sign into your YouTube channel
- Go to My Channel > Videos
- Select the video you want to edit
- Click on the Info and Settings button
- Click on the Advanced Settings tab
- Click on the Search button located by the video location field
- Click on the location on the Google map that displays and Save Changes
Include your NAP in the Video Description
You want to make it as easy as possible for your customer to reach you. Include your Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) in the video description. Important: Use the same format for your NAP across all medias. If you abbreviate St on your website, don’t put Street in your YouTube description. Does your phone number use dashes or parentheses (888) 555-1212 vs 888-555-1212? Be sure to include your NAP and be sure to be consistent in your format.
Include your NAP in Your Video
Think auditory and visual. Verbally include your NAP somewhere in your video and write it in the closing credits. This will help not only imprint it in your viewers mind, but will include it in the transcript if you choose to include it.
Include a Link to Your Website in the Video Description
Again, make it as easy as possible for your customer to find you and learn about you. This will also help your website SEO.
Use Long-Tail Keywords
YouTube allows you to add keywords to in the video manager. Try and match the search terms your customer will look up. “Dentist Office Omaha NE” “Dentist Omaha” “Teeth Cleaning Omaha NE”. There are a lot of possibilities, so use tools like the Google Adwords Keyword Planner to help you narrow down what your customers are searching.
Also, try typing various keywords in the YouTube search bar and see what the auto-fill comes up with. Usually, it will show you popular searches containing your keyword or phrase.
Embed Your Video
Use the embed code on your video from the share section of YouTube to embed it into your website. You can embed it in the HTML code or, if your using a WordPress site, there are a multitude of plugins to choose from. Having your video embedded directly into your site enhances SEO and increases the number of views of your video, which increases your ranking.
Be sure to include associated text on the page that you are embedding your video. This helps Google better understand what your video content is about. Consider writing an introduction to the video above it and including a transcript below. (You can also include a transcript in the video description)
Share Your Video
Don’t be shy. You’ve created a great video and you want people to see it. Utilize all your social media channels and ask friends, fans, and followers to share as well. The more views it gets, the higher the ranking, and if you’ve optimized it for local SEO, the more customers will be able to find you.
Every business should be using all the resources they have available to reach their customers. This can be challenging especially for smaller businesses. The key is to maximize whatever tool you are using. With the shift towards video and the power of YouTube search, small businesses can benefit by not only creating video that promotes their business, but using it to be found as well.
For help on optimizing your video for local SEO, contact us at Real Digital Productions.
Stay tuned for the next and final piece of our series Video Marketing for Local Businesses. Part 3 will help you get started with ideas and suggestions on how to get going with video marketing for your small business.
