How to Rank for Videos on Google as a Wellness Brand [Brief Guide]
If you want to be found by prospective patients in this digital and social era, it’s not enough for a wellness brand to simply provide great products and services. You also have to have fantastic content, be relevant, and “show up” when your ideal customers are searching for solutions that you can provide.
In the midst of all the Google search results (search ‘doctor near me’ and you get 6.6 billion results), it can be tough to get in front of the right crowd. And that’s why you have to move beyond generic advertising and start providing graphics, helpful blog content, and videos to attract and engage prospective patients and customers.
Videos are here, and they’re here to stay. In fact, one third of online activity is spent watching video. Even better, 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos. And if you’ve done your own searches lately, you’ve probably noticed there are more video results on Google than ever before.
This isn’t super shocking considering that Google owns YouTube and would be smart to capitalize on (and promote) the video platform’s insane popularity. And so, Google now incorporates “video carousels” into their search results, which means that three YouTube videos can be viewed at the top of every search.
So, what does all this SEO gobbledygook mean for you? Well, in order to reach more potential patients and customers, your wellness brand should produce more video content. But not just any video content – content that is thoughtfully created and optimized in order for your brand to show up in front of your ideal patients.
Basically, if you’re not ranking in video results on Google and YouTube, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach your target market in health and wellness.
The question is: how do you get your videos to rank on Google’s first page?
There are a lot of ways to go about it, and some of it is a bit more in-depth when it comes to the actual creation of your videos. You can learn more about the specifics here.
However, we’re going to talk about two of the very, very basic things you can do in order to improve your search results ranking as a wellness brand. Here’s how to get your videos in Google’s video carousel results.
How to Get Your Videos to Rank on Google (So Patients Can Find You)
Google’s video carousels seem to rely on two main ranking factors (according to video SEO ranking guru Brian Dean): video SEO and video popularity. Here’s what you can do to improve both of these.
Video SEO
Your video SEO (search engine optimization) is extremely important. In order to make sure your wellness video content is optimized for search, make sure it has the following key identifiers when you publish it on YouTube (if you’re not sure how to publish a YouTube video, here’s a quick how-to guide):
- Incorporate keywords you want to rank for. To increase your likelihood of ranking, aim for long tail keywords rather than 1-2 word keywords. For example, you might aim to rank for “wellness tips for lowering your blood pressure” or “healthy hacks for eating better right now” versus “blood pressure” or “healthy snacks”. You can use Google Keyword Planner to help you identify keywords with high search volume.
- Create an optimized title using the keyword or keywords you’ve chosen to focus on.
- Create a full description for the video (and make sure to incorporate plenty of relevant keywords).
- Make sure that your video is relevant to your potential patient or customer and that it matches with the keywords you’re trying to rank for. Keyword stuffing for no reason other than to rank is a big no-no. Make sure your video is helpful, full of valuable content for your audience, and is exactly what they’re looking for.
- Add a powerful, relevant CTA and a link back to your website either in the video itself and/or in your description.
- Start promoting your video on other channels (social media, blog, etc) in order to maximize exposure online.
Video popularity
While Google needs to know that your video is a good fit for the person’s search (hence why you used the steps prior to fully optimize your wellness video), that’s not the only factor in search result rankings. Video popularity is also important.
Basically, Google wants to feature videos that have a lot of viewer engagement (also known as “engagement signals”). So, the more engagement your video has (likes, comments, shares) the more “popular” it is considered to be on Google and YouTube and the more likely it will rank in search results.
You can improve your video’s popularity by:
- Creating content that’s highly targeted towards your ideal patient
- Encouraging your current database and audience to interact with the video
- Encouraging likes and shares on social media
- Asking your viewers what they think of it and prompting them to leave comments.
- Share it on your website
- Link to it in your email newsletters
Basically, do whatever you can in order to maximize exposure and increase audience engagement.
No matter how well your video is optimized for the right keywords, and no matter how much you try to encourage viewer engagement, your search ranking potential still boils down to one simple thing.
And that’s creating outstanding content. If your video content is “meh” then you can’t expect to rank on Google or YouTube search results. More importantly, you can expect to miss out on the opportunity to reach your potential patients and engage with them in an incredibly meaningful way.
Your patients and customers are expecting helpful, thoughtfully created, and thought-provoking content – content they can’t find from other providers or companies. If you do that, your health and wellness brand will absolutely stand out (and you’ll grow your customer base in the process).
Are you looking for more ways to improve your search ranking without spending any additional money?
Download our FREE Wellness Website Checklist for steps to help you make powerful (and simple) changes to your current website.
Resources:
https://searchengineland.com/video-optimization-not-underestimate-power-youtube-234618
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics
