How does YouTube affect SEO? Interview with an SEO expert

multiflowmedia — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:30:13 +0000

Does publishing episodes on YouTube affect SEO? We talked about it with Jairo, SEO expert and owner of Phanum. In this interview, you’ll also find a lot of insight into SEO and why video content is becoming more and more important for SEO strategies.

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Can you first explain how YouTube and SEO affect each other?

Jairo: I will frame most of my answers from my experience from eCommerce.There might be multiple approaches based on the industry and vertical where you work. YouTube (YT) is a social network such as LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

The content you publish on YT has the power of building credibility for your brand (subscribers, views, comments, etc). The more engagement you can get the higher will be your authority. For SEO there is barely anything more important than authority. You can build authority in multiple ways:

Many websites ponting at yours (known as backlinks)
Digital PR or getting your name and brand in the news
High social media engagement

#3 got quite relevant in the last 10 years. Before social media, Google could verify the authority of a website through backlinks, being the media backlinks the most impactful. Let’s say you get a backlink from the New York Times. That will help Google to easily understand that your website is highly influential on your niche.

After social media appeared, then Google got another platform so they could “judge” if your website (or brand) was trustworthy and authoritative. Let’s say that you make YT video that get millions of views each, then is relatively easy for Google to understand that your website (linked to your YT channel) is good to be positioned #1.

Social media became a “hack” for SEO. While old backlinking techniques remain relevant and impactful, creating content to reach a wide audience through social media (YT) became one of the fastest ways to provide your own website a strong signal for SEO and reach top rankings.

What's the reason why video content is becoming more and more important in search engine optimization?

Jairo: Video is one of the easiest (and strongest) ways to put yourself (or your brand) in front of your customers.

Almost everybody will go to YT before they make any purchase. YT review videos “unboxing” are fundamental for most people before they buy anything. Also, it is a way to provide personal support as opposed to just let people read content on your website.

Videos + podcasts on YT have become the most solid and demanded type of content the last 5 years. Many times, people feel they have a companion while listening to podcasts or watching videos on TY. I guess it is just a different way of consuming content more closely, hearing stories from other people that might fall very close to your own experiences.

Examples of episodes we have produced for our clients

What are the key factors that influence how YouTube videos are ranked in search results, both on YouTube and on Google?

Jairo: I guess the main factor for videos being ranked #1 is that they are up to the highest quality for your target audience. There are not many technical factors anymore as the algorithms are getting smarter and there are no “hacks” anymore. Just create the most amazing videos and content out there for your people.

For SEO I just make sure we put amazing content in the website other than just having a strong technical set up for the website and that’s it. I am not experience on creating YT content so I cannot tell much.

Can you explain the role of backlinks in YouTube SEO? How can one effectively build backlinks for their videos?

Jairo: I stopped building backlinks a while ago. I invested that time into creating better content that will naturally get backlinks on its own.

Why is SEO considered a cost-effective marketing strategy compared to traditional advertising?

Jairo: The problem with advertising is that you cannot exponentially grow your ad-budget 10 times or 100 times. With SEO you could increase your website traffic by 10 times or 100 times with virtually 0 extra costs.

What are some long-term benefits of investing in SEO for a business?

Jairo: By investing in SEO you will:

know deeply your customers
Be more effective with marketing budgets
Understand how to find demand for your products
Know how to position your business in different channels
Lower marketing costs
Increase brand visibility
Be top of mind in your industry
Start being more effective in different marketing channels other than SEO

How important is it for businesses to stay updated with SEO trends and algorithm changes, and what risks do they face if they don’t?

Jairo: SEO has evolved substantially in the last 10 years. While before it was a lot more technical and you needed to please the Google robots, nowadays you have to care about your customers and offer the best possible content and experience.

Website speed, copywriting style, user experience, etc got a lot more impact than small tweaks in the headings of the page of hidden keywords in the content.

If you stay doing strategies of 10 years ago or try to spam your way up to the SEO rankings you will be easily penalized by Google core updates. Each Google core update has the goal of providing less garbage for users. The higher the quality of your content the less negative impact you will suffer.

What would you say to companies that are not yet convinced to use video marketing in their businesses?

Jairo: Just provide what your customers want:

They want video: give them video
They want guides: give them guides
They want audio: give them audio

If you do not give your audience what they want then they will go somewhere else. Investing in marketing strategies is a must for any business. To lower the risk of each investment, invest time to find the most experienced video partners like Multiflow Media.

The worst you can do is stay still and do nothing. You will go bankrupt in 2-5 years.

And lastly, please tell in a few sentences how you as an SEO specialist can help other companies:

Jairo: I can help companies in 4 different ways:

Power hour: 1h consultancy session to share my +10 years experience doing SEO
Technical SEO Audit: a 3-month roadmap for technical fixes only blocking SEO growth
90-day SEO Sprint: a 3-month roadmap for SEO technical fixes and SEO content upgrades
90-day SEO Sprint Team: 3 months of intense SEO work AND tailored SEO training so your team learns from me and my team to become the best in their industry

We can support you...

… in the whole process of creating and developing your YouTube channel

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