Blog vs Video: What's Best for your SEO Strategy?
Recently, I had the pleasure of being a visiting lecturer for a group of brilliant Digital Marketing Master's students at the University of Westminster. My lecture focused on the fundamental principles of SEO, metrics, KPIs, and interpreting SEO data (All the fun stuff!). However, throughout the session, the students were buzzing with questions: Why blogs? Why not videos? Who reads blogs anymore? Isn't that old school? While I presented arguments for both, their inquiries left me pondering long after the lecture had ended.
So, what's the verdict for the best SEO strategy? Blogs are easy to create, cost-effective, and a fantastic way to incorporate relevant keywords onto your website. Yet, as the students noted, blogs can feel outdated and lack engagement. Recent updates from Google have prioritised visual content, which users find more appealing. However, creating engaging videos requires time, budget, and resources that may not be feasible for everyone.
In today's digital age, a user’s attention span dwindles to four seconds. Pairing that with the fact that content is being produced at alarming rates means capturing their attention has become increasingly challenging. As a result, it's more important than ever to make a lasting impression on your customers. In this blog post, we'll delve into the most effective ways to achieve this in your SEO strategy by weighing the benefits of blogs against videos. So, which one should you choose to maximise your chances of success?
The Pros and Cons of Blogging for SEO
Blogging can be a powerful tool for improving your SEO rankings. By creating high-quality content that incorporates relevant keywords and links to other pages on your website, you can attract more traffic to your site and increase your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Blogs can help you establish yourself as an expert in your industry, further boosting your online reputation and increasing your credibility with potential customers. However, genuinely engaging your audience through blogs can take up many resources and time, making it challenging to captivate your audience through blogs.
Pros of Creating Blogs for Your SEO Strategy
Blogging is an effective and affordable way to improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. Here are some of the key benefits of creating blogs for your business:
- Keyword Targeting: blogs can target specific keywords related to your business or industry. Using targeted keywords in your blog posts can improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This, in turn, can increase organic traffic to your website, boosting your online visibility and potential customer base.
- Authority: blogs are an excellent way to establish your brand as an authority in your industry. Creating informative and engaging content can demonstrate your expertise and build trust with your audience. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and more conversions and revenue.
- Shareable Content: Blogs are highly shareable and can drive social media engagement. When you create compelling blog content, your readers are likelier to share it on their social media accounts, increasing your reach and exposure. This, in turn, can lead to increased website traffic and improved SEO performance. Overall, blogs are a powerful tool to enhance your SEO strategy and establish your business as a thought leader.
The Con's of Creating Blogs for Your SEO Strategy
While blogging can be a valuable addition to your SEO strategy, there are also some drawbacks to consider:
- Potentially Low Engagement: Another challenge of blogging is the potential for low engagement and low ROI. If your blog posts don't attract much traffic or generate many leads or conversions your efforts may not be worth the investment. This is why it’s crucial to have a tailored content SEO strategy, targeting specific advice-led keywords that align with your brands goals.
- Low-Quality Content: The risk of producing low-quality content can harm your SEO efforts. Google's algorithms prioritise high-quality content that provides value to readers. If your blog posts are poorly written, unoriginal, or irrelevant to your audience, they may hurt your search engine rankings rather than help them.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Video for SEO
Google has been placing greater emphasis on visual content for some time now, as evidenced by their recent updates. For example, in February of this year, Google made improvements to the Google Search Console (GSC) that made it easier to track the performance of videos. The Video indexing report now includes information on the number of daily video impressions over time.
In December 2022, Google launched the Visual Elements Gallery, which helps users identify the most common and impactful visual elements on search results pages.
“Our new setup makes it easier for us to add new visual elements to the gallery without too much effort on our part; that is in fact, our plan: as a visual element becomes popular on search result pages, we may add it to the gallery.” -Google, Dec 2022
Pros of Creating Videos for Your SEO Strategy
In recent years, video has become an increasingly popular medium for businesses looking to boost their SEO performance. Here are some of the key benefits of using video in your SEO strategy:
- Engagement: video content has the potential to be much more engaging and memorable than text-based content. Studies have shown that viewers are more likely to retain information presented in video form, making it a powerful tool for building brand awareness and educating your audience.
- Multi-platform Experience: Another critical benefit of video is its versatility. Videos can be used for various purposes, from product demos and explainer videos to behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business or industry thought leadership. This versatility can help you reach a wider audience and capture attention in new and creative ways.
- Boost Rankings: video can effectively drive traffic to your website and boost your search engine rankings. Videos can be optimised with relevant keywords and metadata to increase their visibility in search results while providing valuable backlinks to your website from video-sharing platforms like YouTube.
Cons of Creating Videos for Your SEO Strategy
While there are many benefits to incorporating video into your SEO strategy, there are also some potential drawbacks.
- Cost: One of the main disadvantages of using video for SEO is the cost and time investment required to produce high-quality video content. Unlike written content, video production requires specialised equipment, software, and skilled professionals. This can make it more challenging for small businesses or individuals with limited resources to create compelling video content.
- Challenging Optimisation: video content can also be more challenging to optimise for search engines than written content. While there are strategies for optimising video content, such as adding relevant keywords to titles and descriptions, ensuring that your video reaches the right audience and ranks highly in search results can be more challenging.
Choosing the Right Strategy for Your Business
When choosing the right SEO strategy for your business, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Instead, the best approach will depend on various factors, including your target audience, the type of content you want to create, your budget and resources, and your overall business goals.
To make an informed decision, it's crucial to research your target audience's preferences and habits and your competitors' strategies and successes. From there, you can weigh each approach's pros and cons and determine the best fit for your business.
How to Decide Between Blogging and Video for Your SEO Needs
So where do you start when deciding between Videos and Blogs? First, consider your target audience's preferences and habits to make an informed decision. For example, do they prefer to read blog posts or watch videos? Are they more likely to engage with your content if it's visual or textual? From there, think about your goals and resources. For example, do you have the time and budget to invest in video production, or is blogging a more feasible option? Ultimately, the best approach will depend on your unique circumstances.
Combining Blogging and Video for Maximum SEO Impact
Combining blogging and video can be a highly effective approach for maximising your SEO impact. By creating complementary blog posts and videos that cover the same topics, you can reach a wider audience and provide more value to your readers and viewers.
Incorporating relevant keywords and phrases into your blog posts and videos can increase your visibility in SERPs and improve your overall SEO performance. To get started, consider creating a content calendar that includes both blog posts and videos regularly. Then, promote your content through social media, email marketing campaigns, and other channels to ensure it reaches the broadest possible audience.
If you want to learn more about optimising content for your SEO strategy, we have written ‘Our SEO Content Optimisation Process: The Ultimate Guidebook’
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your SEO Strategy
Measuring the effectiveness of your SEO strategy is essential to ensure that you're achieving your goals and making the most of your resources. To do so, you'll need to track key metrics that indicate how your content performs in SERPs and resonates with your target audience.
Some of the most important metrics to track for SEO include organic traffic, keyword rankings, click-through rates (CTRs), bounce rates, and conversions. By regularly reviewing and analysing these metrics, you can identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions to refine your SEO strategy over time. Having an agency would give you a better understanding of the metrics and help your interpret data as well as compiling reports which can measure the effectiveness of your SEO blog or video strategy.
Key Metrics to Track for Blogging and Video SEO
Regarding tracking metrics for blogging and video SEO, some key indicators can help you gauge the effectiveness of your content. Here are some metrics you need to follow for both blogs and videos:
Blogs:
- Users
- Average engagement time
- Engagement rate
- Event count
- Scroll Event
Videos:
- Views
- Watch time
- Engagement rate
- Social shares
These can help you understand how well your videos resonate with your audience. In addition, by tracking these metrics over time, you can identify which types of content are performing best and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Using Analytics to Refine Your Blogging and Video SEO Strategies
Analytics can be a powerful tool for refining your blogging and video SEO strategies. By regularly reviewing and analysing your metrics, you can identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimise your content for better SEO performance. For example, suppose you notice that specific blog posts or videos are consistently underperforming. In that case, adjust your content strategy to focus on topics or formats that have proven more successful.
You can use analytics to refine your keyword research and targeting, ensuring your content is optimised for the most relevant and valuable search terms. Finally, using analytics to inform your SEO strategy can improve your content's visibility, engagement, and impact over time.
Staying Ahead of the SEO Game
As SEO constantly evolves, staying updated with the latest trends and strategies is essential to remain competitive. By doing so, you can ensure that your website remains visible and relevant to your target audience.
To stay current on the latest SEO trends, it's essential to check industry publications and websites that specialise in SEO regularly. First, look at Google’s and SEMrush’s blogs to keep up with industry news.
If you have an agency that does SEO for you, they will keep you updated too. In addition, by following industry experts on social media and participating in online communities, you can gain insights into the latest strategies and tactics. Keeping up to date on the latest trends and industry news can be difficult when you haven’t got background in SEO, having an agency that can do it for you can work wonders for your strategy.
Final Thoughts on Blogs vs Videos
The decision to choose between blogging and video for SEO can be a tough one. Both have advantages and disadvantages, depending on your business's specific needs and goals. Blogging is a cost-effective way to create content and target exact keywords, while a video can provide a more engaging user experience and has been favoured by search engines in recent years.
It's important to remember that a combination of both blogging and video can also significantly impact your SEO performance. By experimenting with different strategies and measuring key metrics, you can refine your approach and maximise your results.
Furthermore, it's crucial to stay current on the latest SEO trends and be open to experimenting with new strategies as the SEO landscape continues to evolve. Doing so lets you stay ahead of the game and ensure your business remains visible and competitive in search engine rankings.
If you want to learn more about content for e-commerce brands, then check out our article on How Does Content Marketing Work for Ecommerce Brands.
