5 reasons why video blogging is great for SEO and marketing

Video blogging (adding video clips to a blog) can help to drive traffic, lower bounce rate, increase engagement and conversions, and generally improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Internet marketing.

Video blogging also provides plenty of "different" marketing opportunities that written content can't.

Bloggers who rely on written content only may find their rankings in search engines suffering as Google continues to include more and more video results (especially from YouTube) in its organic search results.

Why start video blogging?

In order to capture as much valuable search traffic as possible, it is important for businesses and bloggers to create as much high quality, relevant and engaging content as possible. Finding ways to get that content in front of people is just as important.

Video blogging can help content to rank more highly in search results, and adds new channels for online visibility. This is mainly because video content is becoming more and more popular as a medium for social communication and marketing.

How to get started with video blogging

Getting started with video blogging is super easy. All you need is a:

• decent webcam
• YouTube account

Most modern webcams come with built-in YouTube integration. Once you have created a YouTube profile, it will be easy to upload videos recorded with a webcam to your YouTube account.

YouTube makes it easy to annotate and describe video content, as well as embed it in other webpages or blog posts.

5 top reasons why video blogging is important for SEO and Internet marketing

Most of the world's Internet traffic originates with search, and more specifically, Google search.

Search optimization and Internet marketing is all about finding innovative and creative ways to rank better in organic search results and drive traffic via social media, backlinks, and anywhere else potential readers and customers may be found.

As a result, video blogging in 2012 and beyond is perfect for SEO and Internet marketing for the following reasons...

1. Google search results include more video

With recent changes to Google's search algorithms, video content (in particular YouTube video content) is starting to feature more prominently in Google search results.

From an SEO perspective, that is all the motivation you should need to start generating highly focused video blogs that come with SEO rich titles and descriptions (to help Google decide where to display the clip in search results).

2. YouTube is a great social marketing platform

One of the most important aspects of any blog is to drive a steady (and steadily increasing) flow of traffic. Building decent traffic volumes isn't always easy, and all succesfull bloggers use a combination of SEO, social and Internet marketing.

We've already seen how video blogging can help SEO by appearing in organic search results, but it's important to note that YouTube is a huge and potentially lucrative social platform that can be used to build a following of avid readers, viewers, listeners, fans, followers and customers.

By integrating YouTube into existing content marketing, SEM (search Engine Marketing) and social marketing efforts, you can add a new dimension to your blog or business' online profile.

3. Video helps to establish trust

Blogging is one of the most effective methods of online marketing. A good blog can not only drive organic search traffic, it can also integrate with social media to create buzz and hype.

Regardless of the business function of your blog (i.e. to generate revenue from advertising, affiliate links, nurture leads, or make sales), conversion rates will be higher when visitors "trust" you.

Video blog content allows people to see and hear you. Visual communication is hugely important, and there are plenty of non-verbal signals video can send that written content cannot.

In other words, people may decide they "like" you, trust you, understand you, simply by watching you talking about something - instead of reading what you have written.

4. Video can be more versatile

There are some things that written content is better at, and some things that video content is better at.

For example, when I am doing research I look for written content because I can skim it and pull out the relevant information. When I am looking to learn a new guitar solo, I want to watch someone doing it.

Find out what aspects of your niche are best demonstrated with a video clip, and present that information as a video. This will improve visitors' experiences and will ultimately lead to more trust, authority and conversions down the line.

5. Video blogging offers additional opportunities to increase visibility

There are more and more opportunities to share video content on other platforms. In particular, Google wants you to share video content via Google+.

Google wants people to use their social media platforms, and bloggers who share their video content are rewarded with additional exposure from these networks in search results.

In other words, a video blog has a different social and SEO profile to a standard content post. This can lead to different SEO and marketing opportunities that may not arise without video content.

Do you have a video blog, or add video clips to your blog? What's been your experience with video blogging and SEO? Has video content made your blog more popular, or helped to drive more traffic and conversions? Share your video blogging experiences in the comments, or join me on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ to continue the conversation.