Google’s “Fresh” Video SEO Tips for Website Product Pages

Google wants to always be featuring the freshest and relevant product information; and does so with their “freshness algorithm’ – originally released last fall as part of their effort to provide more relevant, real-time results for search queries. In this article you’ll learn of special opportunity and urgency for updating your product page videos so you don’t get left behind!

Why Search Marketers Need to Wake Up (to Google’s “Fresh” Update)

Thad Rueter, Senior Editor for InternetRetailer.com, reported last December that Google’s fresh update was designed to demote websites with low-quality and unoriginal content around this Spring. This especially includes sites that rely on the same manufacturer product descriptions that many other retailers display, and which web users seem to find of little value.

The Fresh Opportunity for Search Marketers with Video

What was especially interesting is the article also reported the “big winners” in Google’s algorithm update included “sites that feature a lot of video,” which suggested Google gave special weight for rankings boost along with constantly updated content.
Search marketers handling websites featuring video now need to treat Google’s Fresh Update as both a big opportunity and a big urgency. You can’t expect to let your same old video content to just “sit” on your site. Not updating your site’s videos and their landing pages can depress a site’s position in Google’s organic search rankings (i.e., demotions). If you aren’t already planning on releasing new video content and having that featuring prominently throughout your site, you need to do so now.

 “Fresh” Google Video SEO Tips for Product Pages

I’ve been in the SEO space since 1997 and doing video SEO since 2006, and am glad to see that Google’s social technologies are allowing for more recent and relevant results to appear at the top of search queries. What I’ve done here is taken some of the ideas from the original Internet Retailer article, and combined them with my own experience in the online video and e-commerce industry, for some content-related improvements with web video for e-commerce sites – certainly for better algorithmic SEO, but more importantly for better consumer experiences that lead to social sharing and link popularity (which ultimately count with Google as much more valuable SEO factors).

• Be Unique. Don’t rely on product videos and manufacturer descriptions. Create your own unique videos with original content.
• Be Fresh. Don’t repeat the same thing that’s already been done. Change up your home page to feature your latest (new) videos, including on your videos category page and product category pages.
• Be recent. Getting fresh videos onto your site quickly, such as in a response to online conversations around any of your products; or on a larger scale, any topics in mainstream media or industry media that relate to your products, brand, or consumer lifestyle.
• Listen. Pay attention to what people are saying in the news and online conversations on social media channels, search queries, and directly in contact forms, emails, and consumer surveys. Pay attention to topics around your products, your brand, your competitors, and even your consumers’ lifestyles.
• Monitor. Key an eye on what consumers are searching for on your website and adjust your videos accordingly. If your search queries and page analytics show that people are querying for a particular product or product line, or even spending more time on pages with those products, then feature new and related videos around the most queried items more prominently on your site (including on the home page).
• Respond. Organize your feedback from consumers and create video content that responds to not only their search queries on products, but also more general items like FAQs and mainstream media topics that related to consumer needs.
• Encourage. Encourage text conversations and reviews around your existing videos – and promote those conversations around your existing videos on your own web pages. The easiest way to do this is by having a comments section on your video landing pages, and including social widgets for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest sharing.
• Promote. Make your own customers the stars! Many SEO experts say featuring user-generated videos are a great way to provide fresh content for Google’s search algorithm. You should try to feature consumer-generated product video reviews and testimonials along with your own brand-generated videos and in-house videos on your related product web pages. Consumers will also be more likely to link from their own blogsites and social media sites to your own video pages, boosting your link popularity and SEO as a result.
• Test. Test your own pages to make sure pages upload properly. Google penalizes sites that have content that causes pages to load relatively slowly, and sometimes videos that are poorly coded or having server issues can cause a slow loading time.
• Rotate. Add video user reviews to existing content and rotate new reviews in regularly.
• Be social! As Internet Retailer’s Thad Rueter says, “SEO is social media, and vice versa.” You should duplicate your website Video SEO efforts on your social media sites. I recommend regularly scheduled blog posts that feature new video content, and post them also to your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and other social media channels where your audience already is. Take it from the experience of Ellen Burgan, Internet Marketing Manager for Drs. Fosters & Smith, an online retailer of Pet Products, who says: “A strong social presence, one that demonstrates a loyalty among consumers that can translates into links, is another sign of good content, and therefore another way to earn the good graces of Google.”

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