In this article, we’re going to show you how to identify what kind of videos your business needs to create and publish based on evidence from search engines like Google. This process has helped us effectively grow businesses online.

Watch this video for a quick intro:

Performing Keyword Research for Video

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying what and how people search for terms related to what your business offers. We use SEMRush (get a free 7-day trial through that link) to do keyword research.

Let’s say you work at a plastic manufacturing company.

Using the Keyword Magic Tool in SEMRush you can enter the keyword “plastic manufacturing.”

 

 

Now, you can see that term “plastic manufacturers” gets searched over 3,600 times per month on average, but what we’re really interested in is identifying what keywords that include the words “plastic” and “manufacturing” or “manufacturer” show or feature a YouTube video on Google’s search engine results page (see example below).

 

 

In order to determine which keywords bring up a video in Google, all you have to do is filter your keywords by those that show a video in Google (screenshot below).

 

 

As you can see from this image, we put in the keyword “plastic manufacturing” then selected the filter “Video” for SERP (search engine results page) features.

This is showing us (from left to right) that there are 291 keyword combinations that include a match to “plastic” and “manufacturing” that also will at some point show a video in Google.

We can see some of the keywords and their average monthly search volume based on the last 12 months in the United States.

Now, some of these videos don’t appear on page one and results will vary from user to user. However, if your keyword research tool identifies that at some point Google has included a video in their results page, then you should take note.

“Performing keyword research for video isn’t just about getting your videos to the top of Google. It’s about identifying what kind of video you should have on your website based on what search engines like Google deem important.”

Google is smart. They are constantly getting better at offering searchers better, more relevant results. If they think that a video is important to their searchers, and your potential customers, you better pay attention and create a video around that topic. That’s especially important if the user’s intent behind their query leads them down a path to becoming a potential customer.

Why Video and SEO Work Together

If you are a manufacturer, for example, and you want to start dominating SEO for manufacturing, you need to identify the formats your content needs to take.

Simply having a page on your website that talks about your product or solution is not enough.

Content is no longer just written. It’s visual, moving, and interactive. Google wants to see videos because they can help the searcher understand better what they’re looking for.

By doing strategic keyword research you can identify exactly what kind of video Google likes to see. If Google likes it, your target audience is probably going to like it too. Google particularly likes to see videos when the intent behind the keyword is to self-educate. Any keyword that includes terms or phrases like the following are likely to trigger the importance of video.

  • How-to
  • Process
  • Works
  • DIY

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about offering great, trusted, and relevant content on a web page that matches the intention of a keyword.

Great content, more often than not, includes video and Google knows that.

This is why it’s crucial to consider making video a vital part of your SEO and digital marketing strategy and executing a keyword research strategy can help identify exactly what kind of video you should have on your website.