How an Explainer Video Can Help You Rank Higher on Google

The internet has increasingly turned into a massive video streaming platform.  The nearly explosive use of mobile devices has made videos the best way to reach a savvy audience who do not want to read reams of text. Google has noted this trend and blends video content into its search results. So how can your business use video content to rank higher in Google’s search results?

The answer is simple – through an explainer video embedded into your website. Let’s look at how this can help in more detail.

What is an Explainer Video?

An explainer video is a short video that explains your business idea in a clear and compelling manner inviting potential customers to engage with your product or service. Many successful explainer videos are animated making sure that they grab a viewer’s attention.

4 Key Benefits of Explainer Videos

• Keep Viewer Attention: A well-made explainer video makes sure that your viewer is more likely to watch it to the end, absorbing your message and possibly responding to your call to action at the end.
• Explains Your Business Idea: They explain what your business is all about and your brand values in a matter of seconds.
• They Instil Trust: Consumers are more likely to buy into a brand or product after watching a video.
• Increase Traffic: Explainer videos can increase traffic to your website.

How Explainer Videos Can Help SEO Rankings

Placing your explainer video over the centre of your homepage can do wonders to the traffic to your website and average time customers spend on it. So how do explainer videos increase traffic and rankings?

Every business wants to find the secret to having their webpage show up on the coveted first page of Google’s search results. Now Google’s SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) algorithms are fairly unfathomable to most users, but the experts all agree on one main concept – video is the way to go. Having an explainer video on your web page makes it 53% more likely to show up on the first page of Google search results. That is a massive leap ahead.

Another factor Google takes into account while deciding how your website should stand in the SEO results is how long users spend on your website on average before clicking that dreaded back button. Explainer videos can help keep your visitors engaged on your website for longer making Google rethink your placement results. Let’s look at some numbers to understand this:

The average user spends about 8 seconds on a webpage, which is really not a lot. An ideal explainer video is between 30 to 90 seconds although many do stretch up to two minutes. An engaging explainer video can keep the user on your home page for a couple of minutes instead of a few seconds, and if your video is good enough, maybe even longer if the viewer decides to watch it twice. That’s a 1500 percent increase in the time spent on your website. The longer your audience spends on your website increases its “usefulness” according to Google’s algorithms making it rank higher in the search results.

Keywords: Another way an explainer video can help boost your SEO results is through keywords. Yes, even the title of your video can help! A short title, less than 70 characters using keywords can help your video (and therefore your website) rank higher in a search engine’s results. Using your keywords naturally in your video as well and transcribing the script can help get better results as Google will look through the transcription for search terms as well. A word of caution though make sure your keywords are relevant to your business, as you can get penalised in terms of rankings for high bounce rates.

Shares: It’s simple, the more your webpage is shared, the more chances it has of showing up on the first page. High quality and engaging explainer videos are highly shareable. Remember the Dollar Shave Club? It went viral. No one has pinpointed what makes a video go viral but chances are that the better your explainer video is the more likely users are going to share it. And the more your users share it, the more CTRs you will get which automatically tells Google to increase your rankings for that keyword. For example, having an update on your company’s LinkedIn profile in the form of a video can result in a 75 percent higher chance of it being shared by your followers.

Explainer videos can help with so much more than search engine rankings. Have a look at our blog Digital Explainer Videos: Why Your Business Needs Explanation to see how explainer videos can benefit your business.

At Toolbox Studio, we know how to make a great explainer video that can help your business spread the message it needs to and grow. Get in touch with us and begin your journey to success through explainer videos today.

Utkarsh Salunkhe

Last updated: October 4, 2024

Utkarsh was honored with the 7th Dadasaheb Phalke film award for his short film "Grey," and presently, he is working on post-production of a Trilogy feature film project called 'SHADES' for which he is responsible as a Writer, Director, Editor and Art Director.