Does Embedding YouTube Videos Help Your SEO?
Some SEO pros tell you to absolutely embed, and others say you’re wasting your time because your content already talks about whatever it is. We’re in the middle but leaning more toward “Yes, embed!” than “It’s in your head.” For one thing, we seem to have great results with video marketing every time we do it. Plus, embedding makes sense in terms of SEO best practices.
Google SERP Features
When people think of Google, they often think of the traditional organic search results, those beautiful blue links. But these days, Google serves up a lot more than text at the top of the page.
Many search queries turn up a video carousel. If your video has high-quality information, keyword tags, and an optimized title, you may rank higher than you would with a well-written article.
The Lord of Google SEO
In one 2021 conversation, Google’s John Mueller seemed to indicate that embedding videos can help with search rankings, at least in some situations. He didn’t come out and directly say that it’s better to embed, but he explained that having more content on the page could make Google’s algorithm choose an embedded video.
Imagine that you create a comprehensive guide to buying surfboards. In this 1,500-word buyers guide, you cover a range of products, show specific advantages, share up-to-date pricing info, and break down factors to consider.
You also create a YouTube video overview covering the main points and key takeaways. It makes sense that Google would show your embedded page version in search results because there’s so much more helpful content for the target audience.
How Does Video Help SEO?
Even though “has a video” isn’t a direct ranking factor for web pages, video content helps SEO in several indirect ways:
- More traffic: With a link to your website in the video’s description, people who watch it (even if another channel shares it) can visit you.
- More engagement: The average engagement time for YouTube videos is two minutes, but almost 40% of users stay engaged with videos up to 30 minutes long.
- Schema markup: You can add videos to your site’s schema, which may help your content rank for AI overviews and knowledge graph search results.
- Lower bounce rate: More engagement means less bounce. In turn, Google sees this as a sign that people like your content.
- Backlinks: If you embed your YouTube video in a blog post and other websites like your video, there’s a good chance they’ll link directly to your site’s URL, not the YouTube URL for the video.
Most importantly, users love video, and Google loves users. Many SEO changes in recent years have focused on making search less about rigid keywords and more about delivering the content that visitors want. Video harmonizes with that 1,000%.
The Best Way To Discover If Embedding YouTube Videos Helps SEO
SEO success depends a lot on what your target audience wants and needs from you. Our team can help you discover exactly what that is. Learn more about SEO content best practices, including how-to articles and more info on embedding YouTube videos to help your SEO.
