📺Fresh video SEO opportunities

If a friend forwarded this link— sign up for your Free subscription. Inbox Hacking is packed with slick marketing insights, tools, & tactics sent every Wednesday.

Easter is upon us, Hackers. March Madness is in full swing. Life’s good. And today, we look at the future of video SEO – with new opportunities for brands to shine and show up in video searches. We’ll also mix in stats from a recent Wistia report on video, then move on to…

The Knowledge Base (includes micro-learning)
~~Self~~ Help (produce more, stay sane)
Facts & Stats (how ESPN gets clicks)
Get Hacking (Wild West Words)

Now… let’s sip on today’s Feature Story.

3 Key Video SEO Takeaways

🗝️Maybe YouTube’s search engine isn’t that great?

🗝️Valuable keywords / phrases lie in competitors’ video comments

🗝️Score on-page SEO wins by adding video recommendations next to videos on your site

I could stop there and nap and you’d be in better shape than when you rolled outta bed, but I’ll soldier on.

*Videos contribute to on-page SEO by improving user engagement, reducing bounce rates, enhancing content quality, increasing keyword visibility, and enabling display of rich snippets in search results.

Video SEO and Recommendations

Most of the billions of YouTube views happen because of YT recommendations. Fact.

Plus, if not for recommendations, most of us would never pick a Netflix show – we’d stare at endless options and drool.

So, it’s a no-brainer and an easy SEO win to add more videos to your web pages that already have one video.

Add video backlinks in text form, sure. But embed two or three more related videos visitors can watch without leaving your site.

One video reduces bounce rates. What would three videos do?

Ah, I hear ya…

Ramping Up Production for Video SEO

It took you 23 days to make that one video! So where will you find time to make more?

Simple – cut up longer videos into shorts. You knew that, but there are more options and a no-effort one is in the Get Hacking section later.

As for AI tools that chop up videos into small slices? Cool, but many are overhyped. So watch legit demos before wasting time on janky tools.

Small Business Video SEO Notes

Small businesses do struggle to produce enough videos. On average, companies with 1-50 employees managed just 15 videos in 2023 versus 118 videos large brands (200+ employees) pumped out (Wistia).

Besides slicing up videos, there are openings for small businesses by creating company culture videos. Great for video SEO and recruiting new folks (only about 1 outta 10 organizations are producing these type vids).

Same for video series – few brands produce series. Sounds like major work. But not if you reshape an idea for a long video you had planned.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty crevices of video SEO.

Keywords Only You Can Dig Up for Video SEO

Why only you? Most marketers are too busy… and some too lazy and pajama-clad to do it.

Here’s a free keyphrase some of you could use in content right away – “Crippling Procrastination.”

Loooow competition and gets like 90 searches a month (1,080 a year). I found that by letting one of my AI minions analyze the comments of a video from Ryan Holiday. In that example, if you were in a space related to his topics, that keyphase is a big help toward producing a unique / in-demand article, podcast, or – video for SEO boosting.

Not only does that AI hack give you great keywords, it helps you with new content ideas – much needed…

Because the Wistia report showed a whoppin’ 32% of marketing teams struggle with generating video ideas or content strategy.

No problem. Here’s another content tactic, using an unpaid minion.

Video SEO via Competitors’ Video Summaries

Use Gemini – it’s got time to assist since the Googsters took away its crayons🖼️. Let Gemini create a summary of a YouTube video from one of your competitors or any video that relates to your industry. Ask the bot for keywords. And tag suggestions that the video missed out on so you can use those tags for the video you’re gonna make – soon as you shed those PJs.

Want more head starts? Let the AI minion of your choice sift through video transcripts – free ones over at Rev.com. Over 700 pages of videos already transcribed. Most are speeches and government stuff, but you could still find new content ideas and keywords.

YouTube Not the Only Video SEO Game in Town

YouTube blows every other video platform out of the water with viewer experience. Netflix is second in UX. All other platforms are way behind.

However, some HubSpotters recently discussed YouTube’s shortcomings as a search engine. Listen if you like – just know that AI is changing how video SEO, video search, and optimization work. This opens up new possibilities to have your videos found.

Not only on YouTube. This page highlights a pile of video search engines that provide chances to lift your video SEO game.

Adobe is one that surprised me. Adobe searches are for their for-sale stock videos but that doesn’t mean there isn’t opportunity for big-brained marketers. Could simply use it for brand awareness, not caring if anyone buys your stock videos.

Another key with other video search engines is filters. These give you chances to be found where other videos don’t show up. In the Adobe example, their search filter includes allowing searchers to look for granular details like close-ups or and camera angles such as top-down.

The Future of Video SEO

AI tools will affect video and video searches in the coming weeks and months and beyond. Here are extra ways those changes are showing up.

Companies (like Twelve Labs) seek to give people more efficient ways to locate specific info within videos.

Plus, rules are gonna show up without warning, so you need a plan B when your video content gets smacked down. YouTube’s new rules on altered content.

Lastly, AI thumbnails will improve and so will A/B (or A-Z!) testing – Tubebuddy already has an AI thumbnail analyzer.

Now for some email subject line help.

Top 3 Open-Worthy Subject Lines in My Inbox

And why they work.

#1 “How are manufacturing leaders using digital twins?” – McKinsey (hip term, sounds like less work for me)

#2 “Your Fandango Gift Card has been viewed.” -Fandango (triggered, so I expected it + knew the sender)

#3 “Don’t let the old man in” -Ray Edwards (curiosity. BTW, message was just a story, no sales pitch)

The Knowledge Base

💪Knowledge is power – so is helping unseen youngsters

😁Ironically long take on microlearning (insightful though)

😟Most ‘ridiculous’ USP of modern times – reliability

👷‍♂️Writing a bio is a nasty task – here’s help

🎧List of marketing podcasts (wide variety)

📩1-click unsubscribes (technical tidbits to know)

🚿‘AI Washing’ crackdown + more AI updates

🫠Don’t let your SERP preview suck

Sponsored

Spot Visitors, Spike Revenue

Avoid letting anonymous traffic disappear
Build your email list 10 times faster
Leads automatically sent to your ESP or Network Audience
Match leads from our 220,000,000+ shopper email database
End browse abandonment & the lost revenue it costs you

Schedule a Free Demo of Smart Recognition.

*Need US traffic & roughly 15k monthly visitors

Self Help

Please don’t depend only on digital systems to get work done.

Yep, digital’s 20x more efficient. But when you can add a million things, how can you get to all that?

So, clear some space in your head and SEE work that is actually within your power to complete. Not just my advice… saw the pros at Atlassian (Trello) in a YT video and they had sticky notes all over their glass walls.

(This fella’s got a good system and a new book out)

Facts and Stats

Over 90% of email marketers said email segmentation boosts performance (new Litmus report)

Video plays have risen by 15% and hours spent watching up by 44% (Wistia)

Quotes for clicks? At a glance, half of ESPN’s sidebar headlines contain quotes – i.e., ‘She’s a warrior’

Bonus: What percentage of brands say they’re using AI to create videos? Answer – 18% (Wistia Report link)

Sponsored

Shake Off Deliverability Damage

🫧Your sender reputation is at stake. So get the highest level of email list hygiene around.🫧

Inbox Mailers Activity Checker basically guarantees you will steer clear of SPAM Traps & Honeypots.

How? By showing you subscribers who’ve been recently active in their inbox (data you can’t get elsewhere). Try Activity Checker for free. No CC or commitment! Upload your list here to see how many of your subscribers are active (and real!). Then, if you need detailed data, download the results for just one penny per matched record.

*Inbox Mailers Members – see your dashboard for the new Activity Checker feature (Members get special pre-paid pricing).

Get Hacking

Today’s Hack is simple but requires popping open a book. Should you take on this task, your offers, ads, subject lines, etc., will move more people to take action. All you gotta do is read 4 or 5 pages from Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry). You’ll remember how moving language can be, and it’ll help you step up or refresh your writing game. Example below:

“It’s like I told you last night, son. The Earth is mostly just a boneyard. But pretty in the sunlight.” ~ Augustus McCrae

(ALT Hack: If using video marketing, test out a few low-effort videos. Ones that require zero editing and are super long – 2 or 3 hours. Won’t work for every type of business, I know. But if you’ve got crafty creatives on staff, let them brainstorm possibilities. Example video here with 10 million views – my idea would be to increase on-page SEO by making a page with relaxing sights and sounds for your employees or customers. Could also hide ‘easter eggs’ in the sound for giveaways or contests like radio does with song of the day, sound of the day, etc.).

Share Inbox Hacking with your marketing buddies – we appreciate it.