Online videos are getting more popular each day. Successful ones get millions of views and shares, spreading all over the Web in an instant.
With Internet users being so much into video content, it’s time to add some variety to your blog with it. And the best thing is that it’s ridiculously easy to do: every smartphone these days has a camera of a more or less decent quality, and embedding a YouTube-hosted video into any web page will not take you more than a minute. However, there are several things to remember when using videos on your blog, if you want to make the most of them.
Don’t Overuse Video Content
Videos work best when they are posted from time to time, for a change. In addition, many of your readers will be browsing the web while in a public place or at work. So they won’t be comfortable watching a video and playing the sound. That’s why you don’t want to overuse this type of content on your blog: instead, give it to your readers as a treat to add variety to their experience.
Don’t Compromise the Quality
There’s no need to arrange an expensive professional shoot every time you want to make a video, but that doesn’t mean you can compromise its quality for the sake of time and costs. Amateur equipment and open-source video editing software can be enough to make a decent quality video – with a stable picture, clear sound, and free of background noises.
Support Your Video with Text Content
One reason for adding some text to go with your video is those readers. Who won’t be able to listen to it, and the other one is the search engines that are unable to index a video. An easy way to please both your readers and the search engines is to support the video with a written introduction and a transcript. That way the page containing your video will get indexed well and the blog visitors will be able to get your message without listening to the recording.
Don’t Make It Too Long
Try to keep your video under three minutes, unless it absolutely necessary to make it longer (for example, in a cooking tutorial). Internet users are busy people with short attention spans, and you want to keep them interested throughout the whole recording. If you feel that your topic can’t possibly be covered in 3-4 minutes. It’s better to break it into several sub-topics and cover each of them in a separate video.
Host the Video on Popular Resources
It’s not too difficult to embed the video into your blog without posting it on YouTube or Vimeo first. But that way you limit its accessibility. A YouTube-hosted recording will be available to millions of users. Showing up both in their YouTube search and Google search results. That means you can get additional exposure and traffic for your blog. Even though your video will compete with thousands of others.
Video content can spice up your blog and add taste to it. But like any spices, it should be used wisely. Keep in mind these simple tips and you’ll see your video content bringing new readers and more engagement to your blog.
Now, have you tried posting videos on your blog? How did it work? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.
