Enhancing Online Video Visibility with Subtitles: A Deep Dive into SEO Best Practices
Nowadays, if you’re a content creator or marketer, online presence is one of the main keys to success. With billions of videos on YouTube and other video-sharing platforms, your content may get lost in the abundance of data. Luckily, there are ways to increase your video’s visibility and improve its ranking on search engines.
One of the most effective methods is by adding subtitles to your videos. Not only does it make your content accessible to a wider audience, but it also enhances its search engine optimization (SEO). In this deep dive, we’ll explore subtitle best practices to enhance online video visibility and increase SEO.
Why Subtitles Matter for Online Video Visibility
Subtitles are the textual representation of the dialogue or speech in a video. They can be turned on or off by the viewer. While they were initially created to assist people with hearing disabilities, subtitles have become an essential feature for all viewers. Here’s why:
● Accessibility for people with hearing loss
According to the World Health Organization, over 5% of the world’s population has disabling hearing loss. By adding subtitles to your videos, you’re making them more accessible to millions of people who would otherwise be unable to fully enjoy or understand your content. This improves the overall user experience and increases the potential reach of your video.
● Improved watch time for non-native speakers
English may be the dominant language on the internet, but it’s certainly not the only one. By adding subtitles to your videos, you’re catering to a wider audience who may not be fluent in English.
Just imagine, you can add subtitles to a video for free in any language that you are working on. This creates a more inclusive and diverse audience for your content.
● Impact on user experience
Numerous people actually prefer subtitles over just listening to the audio. It helps them stay focused, especially if the content is fast-paced or contains technical jargon. Moreover, many of us watch videos on-the-go, where it may not be possible to turn up the volume or listen carefully if you don’t have headphones.
However, viewers can quickly skim through subtitles to get the gist of the video without having to watch it entirely. This increases the chances of a viewer staying on your video for longer, which is an important factor for SERPs when determining rankings.
● Enhanced engagement
When done correctly, subtitling your videos can add an extra layer of entertainment or humor, making it more enjoyable for viewers. Subtitles also allow creators to add additional information or context that may not be present in the video or audio itself. This helps draw in the viewer and increases engagement with your content.
● SEO Benefits
When search engines like Google algorithms crawl through your video’s subtitles, they can extract valuable information about the content. This includes keywords, phrases, and topics discussed in the video.
Adding relevant and accurate subtitles provides search engines with more data to understand your video’s content, which results in better indexing and ranking for relevant search queries.
6 Key Ranking Factors for Your Videos
1. Relevant keywords
The foundation of search engine optimization, keywords help search engines understand what your video is about. When you strategically use keywords in your video title, description, and even in your subtitles, you align your content with the queries your target audience is searching for.
Use keyword research tools to find the most relevant and high-ranking keywords for your content. Don’t just focus on the most popular keywords, but also consider long-tail keywords that may have less competition and can still bring in targeted traffic to your video.
2. Engagement metrics
Search engines gauge the value of content by how users interact with it. High engagement rates (including likes, shares, comments, and especially watch time) serve as endorsements of your content’s quality, prompting search engines to rank your videos higher.
But what about subtitles? Well, if you make them accurate, informative, and engaging, they can increase watch time and encourage viewers to interact with your content more.
3. Video quality and content relevance
The digital audience demands high-quality, relevant content. Few people will watch a video in 480p with blurry subtitles and poor sound quality, unless it’s a meme or a viral video. Ensure that your videos are visually appealing and provide valuable content to the viewer.
Use video editors for Windows or the macOS ones to add effects, transitions, etc. This will increase the chances of users sharing your video on social media or through word of mouth.
4. Mobile Optimization
Mobile devices accounted for 63% of online video views on YouTube, and this trend has never stopped growing. This means that your videos, including subtitles, should be optimized for mobile viewing.
Use easy-to-read fonts and colors that contrast well with the background. Scale the subtitles proportionally to fit different screen sizes and ensure that they don’t cover important visuals or text on smaller screens.
5. Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that direct traffic to your content. They act as a vote of confidence, signaling to search engines that your video is high-quality and relevant enough for others to share. Having backlinks from authoritative sources can also increase the likelihood of your video ranking higher in search results.
You can generate backlinks by promoting your videos on social media, collaborating with other creators, or reaching out to websites and blogs in your niche. Subtitles can also help in this aspect by providing valuable information for other websites to link back to.
6. Video length
Longer videos tend to rank higher in search results, as long-form content is seen as more authoritative and informative. However, this doesn’t mean that you should make your videos longer for the sake of it. Keep your video length specific to the topic and engaging enough to hold viewers’ attention.
Adding subtitles can also help with this factor – a viewer may be more willing to watch a longer video if they can read along with the subtitles, making it easier to follow and understand.
Wrapping up
Subtitles are not just an afterthought or a mere compliance requirement. They are a powerful tool in the arsenal of video content strategy and online video optimization.
By enhancing accessibility, engagement, and the overall viewer experience, subtitles can significantly impact video visibility and ranking on search engine results pages. So next time you upload a video, don’t forget to add those subtitles. Your viewers (and search engines) will thank you for it.
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