Videos can supercharge brand visibility and engagement, but only if people can find them. Because search engines can’t “watch” a video, they rely on the context around your video (titles, descriptions, transcripts, markup, page signals) to understand and rank it. Use the playbook below to make your videos discoverable and clickable.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is about making your content easy for algorithms to understand and users to engage with. Higher visibility in search leads to better CTR and more conversions. Ranking is influenced by content quality, intent match, engagement signals, technical markup, and site authority, all of which you can improve for video..
Research by Backlinko found that:
Many factors can influence SEO ranking visibility, including the quality of your content, keywords, and engagement rates. Understanding these different factors is important when optimizing video content for SEO, especially when determining how to use video content for SEO in small businesses.
One of the most important things when considering video content for SEO is how engaging your content is.
Engagement signals (e.g., dwell time, completion rate, bounce rate) are core to video SEO.
Hook fast (first 3–5 seconds). Promise the payoff early.
Front‑load value. Tease the key answer/benefit up top.
Tight edits, clear audio, steady framing. Production quality affects trust and watch time.
Add a clear CTA. Tell viewers what to do next (watch another video, read a guide, start a trial).
Engaging content increases dwell time, the amount of time a user spends on your page before returning to the search results. Dwell time is one of several factors that increase SEO.
Conversely, engaging content reduces bounce rate, another factor that SEO considers. Bounce rate is the number of users who return to the search results without clicking on additional pages on your site. A high bounce rate is bad for SEO and can lower your rankings.
In addition to engaging content overall, eye-catching titles, video descriptions, and tags can also help boost SEO.
Three different titles are important for SEO for video content:
Three different titles are important for SEO for video content:
Video descriptions tell people what your video is about. These are often key to helping boost your SEO, as they add relevant text to the page.
Your description should include:
2–3 sentence summary including the primary keyword naturally.
Skimmable bullets with key points, timestamps (YouTube), and a CTA.
Place the most important keywords and value in the first 150–160 characters.
Because the first part of your video description is often visible in search results, you should put the most important information and keywords here. For longer descriptions, break the information into short, easy-to-read paragraphs or bullet points.
High-quality thumbnails also help increase engagement. Thumbnails are the small images you click on to take you to the video, and the more visually interesting they are, the more likely you are to get clicks.
Thumbnail should be:
There are two types of metadata:
Tags are keywords that you input to help users find your content. Most algorithms put a higher priority on the first few tags you use, especially the very first. Use your most significant keywords as tags and organize them from the most to least relevant.
Tags/keywords: Use 5–8 highly relevant terms; lead with the most important.
Transcript: Upload a clean transcript (.srt/.vtt) to make content machine-readable.
Chapters/timestamps: Improve UX and qualify for rich features on platforms.
Structured data (Schema.org): Add VideoOBject with name, description, thumbnailURL, uploadDate, duration, and content URL/embedURL. (Include contentURL when the file is hosted; embedURL for players like Youtube/Vimeo).
To choose effective keywords for your metadata, you need to start with keyword research. Begin by creating a short list of broad topics relevant to your content and aligned with your customers’ interests. For example, a food website may include keywords like “recipe ideas,” “meal planning,” and “healthy eating.”
Many keyword tools can help you analyze the strength of your keywords. These tools can tell you how often people use those search terms, how much competition there is for that term, and related keywords you may have missed.
Seed topics from customer questions and high-intent use cases.
Expand with People Also Ask, Related Searches, YouTube autocomplete.
Validate with a keyword tool (volume, difficulty, intent).
Map one primary keyword + a few supporting variants to each video/page.
Capture both YouTube and Google demand; they differ.
We mentioned above that your videos must be engaging to increase dwell time and reduce bounce rate, but video quality must also be good. High-quality videos will keep your customers watching and help build trust with your audience.
On-site videos should have:
Dedicated video page per primary topic (not buried on a generic hub).
Unique, indexable copy around the video (summary, key points, FAQs).
Place the video near the top of the page; avoid heavy elements above it.
Lazy-load other media, but do not block the primary video.
Add an XML video sitemap (or include video data in your main sitemap).
Internal links from relevant pages; link back to related articles/videos.
While videos are a great way to boost your brand and engagement rates, they aren’t accessible for everyone. Providing transcripts or closed captions of your videos allows those who are hard of hearing to engage with your content and also helps boost your video SEO.
A video transcript is a written account of the spoken content in your video. Viewers can read through the transcript as the video progresses to understand what’s happening. Adding transcripts is a great way to boost SEO because it allows algorithms to read what your video is saying, helping improve searchability and revealing keywords.
Closed captions take the audio transcript and sync the words within the video, making it easier for viewers to follow along. Closed captions require a text file that search engines can read, helping to boost SEO in the same way transcripts do.
Crafting high-quality, engaging content, conducting keyword research, and optimizing metadata can go a long way toward boosting video visibility and engagement. However, your content can still get lost in the crowd because so many videos are online. If you’re finding that your videos aren't receiving the engagement they should, promoting them is a great way to boost visibility.
Social media is an excellent tool for promoting content. You can do this organically by posting videos to your brand’s page or account. To expand your reach to an even wider audience, try creating targeted ads.
Additionally, embedding your video into an article or web page on your website can drive engagement, especially if you put it on a page that includes other helpful information for users.
Once your video is published, you should track its performance to see how people are responding so you can adjust accordingly.
Several tools are available online to help you monitor your video’s analytics and metrics. Some are offered by video and social media platforms, and others are available to help you determine how well you’re ranking on SERPs.
Analytics tools can tell you how many views, clicks, and conversions your video generates. Analyzing these metrics can help you decide about your future content.
By breaking down your metrics, you can determine where your video is struggling and where it’s succeeding. For example, if you’re getting a lot of views but not many clicks, you may be missing a compelling CTA. If you aren’t getting views at all, you may need to adjust your metadata.
Once you determine what’s working and what isn’t, you can use this information to improve your video marketing strategy. You can make smart moves to adjust metadata and thumbnails to increase visibility, repurpose content for maximum reach, and create new content that reaches the top of the search rankings every time.
Improve weak points:
Low CTR? Test title/thumbnail/meta title.
Low retention? Tighten intro/edits, add pattern breaks.
Views but no conversions? Strengthen CTA/offer/next step.
Primary keyword in title and first 150 chars of description
Custom thumbnail (high contrast + readable text)
Transcript/CC uploaded
Timestamps/chapters added
VideoObject schema implemented
Internal links added; included in video sitemap
300–600 words of unique supporting copy
FAQ section (match to schema for rich results)
Clear CTA and relevant next video/article links
When you combine engaging creative with airtight metadata, strong on‑page signals, and consistent promotion, your videos earn clicks, and keep them. Charter & Co can handle strategy, production, and distribution so your content ranks and drives real outcomes.
Contact us today to build your video SEO engine.
Video SEO helps your content show up in search results, especially on Google and YouTube. Proper optimization increases your video’s visibility, click-through rate, and engagement, leading to more views and conversions.
Add keywords to your video title, description, tags, and transcript. Use a primary keyword naturally in the first 150 characters of your description and include it in the filename before uploading the video.
Yes. Transcripts make your video content readable by search engines, improving indexability and keyword coverage. They also boost accessibility and help you rank for long-tail queries.
Both have benefits. YouTube boosts discoverability through its massive user base and recommendation engine. Hosting on your website with proper schema markup can improve on-site engagement and SEO if paired with supporting copy and internal links.
Video schema (structured data using VideoObject) helps Google understand key details about your video—like its title, description, thumbnail, upload date, and duration. It increases the chance of your video appearing with a rich result in search.
Hook viewers in the first 5 seconds, deliver clear value fast, maintain high production quality, use custom thumbnails, and always include a strong CTA. Shorter, punchier videos typically hold attention better.
Yes. Closed captions provide additional text for search engines to crawl and improve user experience—especially for those watching with the sound off or who are hard of hearing.
Use YouTube Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and third-party SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to track rankings, CTR, engagement, and conversions.