To say the internet is a crowded place is an understatement. At least 720,000 hours of video are uploaded every day – which means it’s never been harder to break through the digital noise. You’re probably already using video to expand your business and engage new audiences, but even the highest-quality content is only successful if people actually see it. 

That’s where SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization” comes in. Google is a huge center of content discovery for, well, just about everyone. In its most basic form, SEO is the process of improving your content’s visibility in search engines. But there are only so many levers brands can pull to optimize their videos for SEO. 

We’re invested in the success of our video-loving community – which is why we are an early adopter of Google Search’s best practices for video players. We work with Google to enable structured data submissions on all of your public videos, providing Google with additional context about your videos, and ultimately giving your videos the best opportunity to appear for relevant searches.

What does this mean for me? 

Your videos can be made more discoverable on Google Search. Vimeo’s latest tune-up will enable more detailed video results on Google Search and potentially drive better traffic to your website, social pages, or wherever your videos live. 

How does it work? 

To reap the benefits of an improved search presentation, all you need to do is make sure your videos are listed as public – our technology will handle the rest (like ensuring your video is indexable, your metadata is optimized, and more.) It’s really that simple! This applies to public videos wherever they live, so you can drive better engagement to the pages that matter most to you.

How do I optimize my videos for Search? 

Vimeo’s SEO enhancements are already live (for videos marked as ‘public’), which means you don’t have to do anything to make sure your videos are getting a boost. If you want to give your videos an even better shot at being discovered by more users, here are a few tips we suggest:

  • Add chapters to your videos: Google doesn’t only review the title, but also the titles used for each chapter – which means adding chapters can help users discover the part of your video that is most relevant to their search. (Psst Chapters are available on Pro plans and above – head right this way to upgrade.)
  • Choose your titles wisely: The title is displayed alongside your video thumbnail in search results. While it’s great to have a unique and catchy name for your video, it’s also important to keep your title descriptive using keywords most relevant to your audience’s searches.
  • Research the best keywords: If you want new people to discover your video, it makes sense to describe it in the terms that people are searching for. We recommend using tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush to identify keywords with high search volume to help get your videos in front of more people.

Check out even more tips: from selecting the best thumbnail image to drive views, to adding a video transcript to help search engines understand your video – read up on our SEO best practices.

 Supercharge your SEO by adding chapters