Cut across channels with the power of multimedia

Crystal says: “Use multimedia to cut across channels in your SEO strategy. I'm talking about audio, video, images, etc. Engage with clients, customers, and users across multiple digital spaces, using lots of different types of media.

SEOs are amazing at the written word. That's something we've mastered as a community. However, we need to be thinking about different media, and optimising for all the different media across our channels. When we do that, we're able to engage with more customers who are expecting to have content in different ways.

Video is something that users absolutely love. If you look at the stats, users are watching around 84 minutes of video per day. That's the equivalent of watching all the original Star Wars movies (and enough of the prequels to remember you never liked Jar Jar Binks), every single week. One survey found that 9 out of 10 users want more videos from brands. YouTubers have known this for years. They have millions of followers and they’ve been getting millions of views every week, launching entire brands off their channels.

Previously, video was out of reach because of production cost restrictions. However, there are now channels that require less production and methods of creating video that are less production-heavy, making video more accessible, and the expectation for video from users higher. Users expect to see a video of what an outfit looks like on a model. If I'm looking for clothing online, I will always watch a video, because you can tell a lot about fabric by how it moves. It’s completely different from looking at fabric in a photo. It's easy to make a photo look fantastic, but it's more difficult to fake it in a video. That's something that users really value.

Additionally, video gives you a great opportunity to connect with your users. Almost every streaming platform has a comment section. When you're adding those channels into your marketing mix, and adding those videos onto your website, you're creating a back-and-forth conversation with your users – which is more challenging to do on a website alone.”

How do you distinguish yourself from all the other videos out there and what format should you start with?

“That will depend on your audience. It’s been very public that TikTok is the go-to place for Gen Z. If you are advertising to a younger audience, TikTok is great.

YouTube is really valuable for SEO. Every single video that gets published publicly on YouTube gets indexed on YouTube. Even videos that have 25-30 views. Not every page that gets published on the web gets indexed on Google, but every video that gets published on YouTube gets indexed on YouTube. When you add information about your webpage in the description of your YouTube video, you're adding a link from an indexed page to your webpage.

If you embed that video onto your webpage, Google's recently released loads of tools for SEOs to get great data and information about video in Google Search Console. There are video pages now, and you can see whether they're indexed, how they're working, whether it's perceived as the main video or a secondary video, etc. You can get great stats to give back to your clients and show the value you're adding by embedding those videos.

There are a lot of criteria for Google to index a video as a main video within Google Search Console, but most of them default to YouTube. They set the rules, and the rules favour YouTube. If you use YouTube for a web-first SEO project, that's going to work in your favour.

Vertical videos are great for connecting with customers, and for repurposing content and driving traffic to content to help with indexing and content discovery. You can add live links in the comments of YouTube Shorts. With Instagram, you can put a ‘Link in bio’. It's a great place to keep your customers engaged.

Media is an important tool for SEO because it tends to be associated with social feeds. Therefore, users can engage with you regularly, be driven to your content regularly, and know that you're there regularly. You can also get that content out there regularly, and Google's crawling it. Google's indexing tons of content from Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and all of these different places.

When you're thinking about the format, it’s important to think about your overall objective – whether it's to drive awareness of new content that you're creating or repurpose content to demonstrate that it will appeal to a certain audience. The title of a blog might not tell someone whether or not it's for them, but you might be able to rephrase it on social media to show them that it’s really useful.

If you're repurposing content, use things like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc. If you are trying to push SEO and organic traffic directly from Google, then use a standard YouTube video.”

Can video work for every type of content, or is it mainly useful for ‘help’ content?

“I engage with video in lots of different ways. Alongside the statistic that 9/10 customers are saying they want more video from brands, Google has said that 55% of users are looking at videos when they're physically in a store making the decision to buy something. That’s not when they’re doing home research and late-night scrolling to buy a kayak at 3 a.m., but when they're in the store looking at the kayak. They’re looking at a video review. If it's a big-ticket item, they want to know if it’s going to float or sink.

It's important to engage with folks in a way that is accessible, and folks engage with video in lots of different ways. One of my favourite TikTok creators is somebody who reseals driveways. There's a special sealant that can be added to a driveway, and it's fantastic to watch. He shows up and gives you a ‘before’ shot of the driveway. Then he gets out the goop, spreads it around, and shows off how neat it looks afterwards. It’s very satisfying.

Whatever space you're working in, there's going to be a reason why you're working in that space, and why people engage with you. You make things better for people. That might sound grandiose, but my handheld vacuum cleaner literally changed my life. I live in a two-story house, and I had a vacuum cleaner with a plug, and it was really annoying. I really hated it. Trying to do my stairs was a pain. Now, I have a handheld vacuum cleaner, and it's the best thing ever. I can do my stairs in 3 minutes, and the whole house in 20.”

Can you encourage your customers to create videos like that or does it happen naturally?

“When it comes to customers, if you are social, they will be social. They will engage with you if you are engaging. Don't be shy – and don't forget to engage folks in your teams.

Hobby Lobby went viral with a video of their employees dancing around the shop. Marks & Spencer's teams do great viral videos. You don’t have to be in a customer-facing and super-fun industry. People are giving really interesting and valuable advice on TikTok, about serious topics like health, law, and SEO. Take the opportunity to get in there.

The same applies to images, Instagram, Pinterest, podcasts etc. Sometimes people think their vertical's really boring. They sell industrial epoxy resin, for example. I think that’s great. That's how I've always felt about SEO. When people say they work in a really boring industry, that means the bar is really low. There are going to be people wanting to hear people talk about it on TikTok, and they will all find you because nobody else is talking about it.

Someone else that I follow is the bee lady from Texas. I love her. She goes around and removes bees from different places, and she makes little videos around it. She speaks very calmly and gently explains what she’s doing. She has millions of views and people love her. Don't be afraid of it being boring; be helpful and get involved.

It also helps to have a regular thing that suits what you can do. At Wix, we do a webinar every month on an SEO topic. That’s really useful. We get SEO experts in to talk about different things. We were having lots of experts talking about general SEO information, and then people in the chat were asking how to do it in Wix. So, I started including a little section at the end where I explain how to implement all the great things they’ve heard about from all these great people in Wix. It's a two-way conversation. People are asking you for content, and you're giving them the content. We do this regularly and schedule it well in advance, so it’s a lot easier to manage.

Similarly, with our podcasts, we look at the conversations that we're having with folks around SEO when we're putting our podcasts together. We look at what’s happening regularly so that we can create podcasts that are topical, and those are things that work for our schedules, resources, etc.

If you have a fantastic venue, video can be really useful. Recently, I was working with someone who hadn't made videos before. During COVID, they used video to explain which days they were open, how to keep safe, what measures they were taking, etc.

Sometimes people will also check different media for a vibe check. They’ll look at the images on TripAdvisor, they’ll look at the beautiful images from the brand, and then they’ll look at the ones that other people have taken. Does that tiramisu look the same on the plate as it does in the promo? That is really important.

Google Business Profile is a great source for getting people to engage with your media, particularly for images. Google Business Profile actively encourages users to leave reviews as a Google Local Guide, and they encourage them to add images to those reviews. When people add images for your brand, thank them. Say, ‘I'm glad you really enjoyed that tiramisu, that's really awesome! We've got some more coming out next week. Hope to see you then!’ Engage with those folks. People will see that you’re engaging, and they’ll be more likely to add more videos, comments, and content like that.

People are adding videos to Google Business Profile as well, which is particularly important for local businesses. It shows at the very top of the SERP. If you're thinking about your SEO, that's another great place for making sure that you're engaging with multimedia to cut across your channels.”

Is AI changing your content production process?

“AI can sometimes be helpful, and it can sometimes be a bit of a distraction. I recently made a post about ranking and opportunity, based on Wimbledon. The thing I find interesting about ranking in tennis and SEO is that it's anybody's game. You have your big star players but, on the day, it's anybody's game. The woman who won Wimbledon this year was entirely unranked. How did she do that? With skill, determination, etc. That happens in SEO all the time. Smaller brands outrank bigger brands because they've done it better on that particular occasion.

I was looking for an image for this piece and I tried using an AI-generation tool, and it was terrible. It took me ages. Then I went on a stock photography site and found a perfect picture straight away. You have to find a balance. If you're doing lots and lots of video, there are some tools that do great video editing. For example, GoPro can do some AI edits on your videos, which can be really useful. Some of these are built-in, and they can help you with your production costs. If you’re transcribing, then use AI all the way. AI can help you update your transcripts, edit them, make sure they work well, translate them, etc. Those transcripts are really useful for adding natural language to your webpage.

I haven’t looked too deeply into it for video production, but there are a few tools available for that. Synthesia has some great video tools that will allow you to create video with an avatar speaker, for instance, which can be useful for teams that are looking to get started and don't have a presenter to hand.

Think about how it might work for you and how you can make it efficient, effective, and resonate with your audience. Barry Schwartz uses a lot of AI images for his posts around Google updates and Google information. They look fantastic. That's something he uses regularly, which means that they're more consistent with regard to his branding style. If you get good at it, then it can work really well. I'm still refining my image prompting skills.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time on multimedia in 2024?

“Be mindful of the time you spend looking at all of the AI tools that are out there. At Wix, we have some great AI tools that are built into the platform. We have things that allow you to edit images, create text, and so much more. They're all great but don't fall into the trap of endlessly researching them. Set out with an objective to complete and try to find a tool that meets that need. Then, stick with it for a while because you need to get good at it.

Artificial intelligence should be there to amplify your actual intelligence. If you have a really messy closet and you get a closet organiser, you still have to put the clothes into the organiser. You have to use it properly. If you don't know how to use it, then it’s not going to help you.

Focus on your objective and use AI as a tool. Focus on the destination rather than the journey and don't fall into using AI for AI's sake. If you need it to complete a task, use it to complete a task, but don't use it for no reason. Sometimes, you can just use your actual intelligence, and that's totally fine.”

Crystal Carter is Head of SEO Communications at Wix, and you can find her over at Wix.com/SEO/Learn.