A Quick Guide to VSEO vs SEO

In the video marketing realm, video SEO (or VSEO) is an aspect of search engine optimization that uses video content distribution to increase website traffic and engagement, sustain content visibility, create and maintain awareness and ultimately facilitate sales and ROI. Despite its specific purpose and definition, some digital marketers still believe that VSEO and SEO are one and the same with no added benefits.

While there may be some similarities in terms of the goals and objectives, VSEO has significant components that differentiate it from the standard SEO process. In fact, VSEO has changed substantially over the past few years, so to help you understand the difference between VSEO and SEO, we’ve created a quick overview of what VSEO is all about. Assuming you have a solid understanding of traditional SEO, we will focus more on VSEO moving forward.

The Difference Between VSEO and SEO

According to Wistia’s video SEO expert, Phil Nottingham: “All websites can rank in the video tab, but not all can rank in universal search with a video. It’s become a lot harder to get whitelisted than it was about 3 years ago, but easier to get your video indexed on the video tab.”

The traditional SEO method used for VSEO is to utilize tags and metadata to direct crawlers to the video, as actual video information cannot normally be seen or detected by web crawlers, which are usually built to locate text.

In other words, publishing the content in such a way that search engines can quickly index it can be a little tricky when it comes to VSEO. This is because video indexing guidelines are usually subject to change, which is also the reason why the most effective way to promote videos in searches to date is to have a video sitemap on the website. 

Since Google often only allocates rich snippets to websites with large video catalogs, such as YouTube, Daily Motion and Vimeo, having a video sitemap on your website can help search engines find your website more effectively.

Note: A video sitemap is basically a gallery of videos hosted on the website itself.

The Unique Benefits of Video SEO

If done right, VSEO is highly valuable and can drive a lot of traffic to your videos and ultimately to your market and audience. Here are some of the essential benefits that VSEO can provide your business:

• In search engine results, videos show up more easily. Thus, using VSEO can help you increase your chances of ranking in Google.
• High-quality video content along with sound execution of VSEO ensures more continuous traffic to your website.
• People simply love videos, which makes VSEO the most prosperous way to take advantage of such high demand and interest.

Conclusion

If you want to maximize the potential of content marketing and promote your business using the most current (and effective) strategies, VSEO is undoubtedly one of your best options to pursue and put into effect in your marketing plan.