As we often emphasize, video marketing can be an effective tool for your salon. That being said, with the rise of video marketing comes the rise of video competition.

Because it's easier to create and share videos online, there is now an influx of them everywhere. Just like your other forms of content, your videos need to be optimized for searching. The good news is that this is just another opportunity for your business to grow as your salon website gains more attention.  

Video SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an extension of regular SEO, meaning you're specifically optimizing your video(s) to be indexed and ranked in search results. From your 3D virtual salon tour video to an introductory video of you and your staff to the hair how-to, we've broken down the basics of where to begin when optimizing your videos for searching.

The Basics 
If you're familiar with regular SEO, you know that keywords are an essential part of optimizing your content. When practicing video SEO, it's important that you focus on what is known as the metadata. Unlike a document, videos do not come with textual keywords. To optimize your video for SEO, there is metadata, or the data of your video in a text format. This is where titles, descriptions, tags, and transcriptions are assigned to your salon website's video content. Starting with metadata, your videos can begin to show up in search engine results.  

Metadata
Metadata is the fastest way to get indexed and begin ranking in search engine results, using language that is frequently searched (your chosen keywords). Once you've chosen the keywords for your video, you're ready to optimize your video's informational text. Below are the four main components of metadata:

Title
Rather than sticking with the default name that is often given to videos when exporting, rename your video to include one of your chosen keywords.

Video Description
If your video is being hosted on a site that gives you the option to write a description, optimize this section of text to include your tagged keywords, specifically your primary one, multiple times throughout the section.

Video Tags/Metatags
Your video's tags are nothing more than a set of keywords that accurately describe the content of the video.

Transcription
Another method of increasing your visibility in search engine results is transcription, or the written version of your video. Aside from a video's title, description, and tags, transcribing your video is what a search engine will crawl in order to index and rank your video. Of course, the rest of the metadata is also crawled, but a transcription is a good opportunity to evaluate your keywords (Do they exactly align with your frequently used written keywords?) and even include a link to your website at the end of the speech text. Thankfully, this isn't something that you have to do entirely on your own, as video text can easily be transcribed with speech recognition technology that is now widely available.

Other Important Factors

Video Sitemap
A video sitemap, an extension of the original XML sitemap, is another way to potentially improve your video's ranking. Video sitemaps can be made with various plugins. They provide additional information about your video that allows a search engine to locate it on your website by knowing what page it resides on, its length, etc. By using Google Search Console, you can then submit your video sitemap to Google for indexing.                                      

Video Placement
Creating a video sitemap leads to reconsidering the placement of the video. Making a striking impression on your web pages is especially important for salons, as the beauty industry focuses on visuals. A landing page is the first thing a viewer sees when visiting your site, which means you have seconds to make an impact. Having a video as a header or a video elsewhere on this page is one way to do this. However, the placement of your video matters. A video should not be difficult for a user or search engine to find on a web page, nor should it be on the same page as other videos.

Key Takeaways for Your Salon 

• Video marketing is on the rise, meaning you should be optimizing your videos to increase traffic to your salon's website.

• A video's metadata consists of its title, description, tags, and transcription and optimizing it is one of the fastest ways to increase your video's search engine ranking.

• Other important factors to consider when optimizing your salon's videos for indexing are the video's sitemap and its placement on your web pages.

About the Author: Lucas Renfroe is a founding partner of Salon.Marketing, a digital marketing agency specializing in the salon and spa industry.  Lucas also owns Roots Southern Salon, with his wife Susan, in Savannah, GA.  He works with other salon owners on a daily basis to overcome the challenges of leveraging Search Engines to generate more new clients.  You can reach him at lucas@firstpagelife.com.