Your competitors' are investing in marketing and there are no longer any 'secrets' to search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, there never was. There is just good old fashion work on the right things that will bring your firm the right results long term.
You must work on being the best answer to the solutions your prospective client's are looking for and you must have more answers available than your competitors' for them to find online. YouTube reaches more adults than any cable TV network and with your videos on the 1st and 2nd largest search engines in the world.
Over 6 BILLION hours of video are watched each month on YouTube as well.
What platforms do you concentrate your law firms marketing efforts on? Email marketing, Twitter, Facebook, and Google, right? It isn’t just you, everyone else concentrates on these channels, too. Which is the reason why it is difficult to receive traffic from them. On the flip side, I bet you do not imagine YouTube as a channel for marketing. YouTube includes the 2nd most popular website on the Internet, according to Alexa.com. YouTube even beats Facebook out in popularity. In leveraging the following seven simplistic, but effective strategies, it’s possible to generate over 1000 visitors per month from YouTube.
Oftentimes, YouTube will get overlooked for marketing because of the entertainment factor. Well, 47% of people go to YouTube to be educated!
Just 9% of small businesses utilize it, but it is amongst the most powerful social media channels in existence. Each day, the website racks up millions of views worldwide. If I had to take a guess, I would say individuals overlook YouTube because it tends to be intimidating. It seems as if you need to put in a ton of work and build up a popular platform before it’s possible to gain any attention. Realistically, it’s amongst the levelest playing fields available. It does not take a lot to gain tens of thousands of views upon your videos, even if you aren’t a famous YouTuber. You do not require millions of subscribers to gain a lot of views. However, you should not stop once you gain all of those views.
#1 GET VIEWS!
Before driving traffic from YouTube over to your website, you must obtain that traffic. It’ll come down to making outstanding video content, optimizing the videos for search, and then sharing it. First off, you must offer valuable content. By far, this is the most critical step in this whole process.
#2 OPTIMIZE VIDEOS
You’ll want individuals to have the ability to easily locate your videos. If you are familiar with search engine optimization, optimizing the videos should be a breeze. You have done this before. Concentrate on the video tags, title, thumbnail, and description. The title must address an issue your users have. As far as tags are concerned, do not go overboard. Ten to twelve is an excellent ballpark to shoot for. Select keywords which are relevant to your video’s subject. Descriptions will be a little trickier. There isn’t any precise formula for developing a good description. But, you should not stuff it full of exact-match keywords. You also should not make it extremely long.
#3 Create Eye-appealing Thumbnails
It’ll take a while to get it right; therefore, do not be frightened of experimenting with color schemes, text overlays, and different kind of images. Keep in mind, most individuals decide to view a video based upon the thumbnail alone; therefore, place some serious time into this step.
Let us now discuss a few methods to send visitors from your videos over to your website. Ask individuals to go to your website. It sounds simple. It is the easiest strategy within this post. However, do not pass this one up merely because it sounds obvious. Here is the thing: Many individuals are not taking advantage of this strategy.
#4 Ask individuals to go to your website
Let us now discuss a few methods to send visitors from your videos over to your website. Ask individuals to go to your website. It sounds simple. It is the easiest strategy within this post. However, do not pass this one up merely because it sounds obvious. Here is the thing: Many individuals are not taking advantage of this strategy.
And why not? We oftentimes believe that if something is overly simple, it will not work. However, this will work. Research from Bain & Company uncovered that 87% of customers would provide referrals if asked. However, only 7% of sales representative request referrals! That same idea will apply to YouTube videos. You will receive more traffic than you believe simply by asking individuals to visit your website. I recommend a bookend approach for every video.
At the start, state, “Hello, this is (name) from (yoursite.com).” This will instantly tie you to your website and informs your viewers where they should visit if they need more of your content. At the end, state something along similar lines. This time, it’s possible to go into a bit more detail since you have given away some valuable, free content.
Try something such as, “Thank you for watching! If you would love to see more about (subject), visit (yoursite.com) for more content.” It’s an excellent strategy to utilize. Your viewers do not need to make it through the whole video to know where they should head for more content. Also, it helps to place your URL upon the screen within a prominent area.
If you have a desire to put in a bit more work, at the end of the video, add an annotation. Viewers may click on that annotation to go directly to your website. In order to add an annotation, you will initially have to verify your website. Visit your account icon and then visit Creator Studio > Channel > Advanced. You will notice a section referred to as “Associated website.” Put the URL there and push Add.
You will be redirected to the Google Search Console, in which it’s possible to finish this process. Once you have verified your website, visit YouTube and push your account icon. Push “Creator Studio” then “Video Manager.” Locate the video you need to edit. Push the arrow close to the Edit switch and choose Cards.
There you may add the link by visiting Add Card > Link. Then, you may choose your website and edit the card. You may edit the text and upload an image, and it is recommended to do both to gain optimal visibility. Note: A lot of YouTubers add one arrow that points to the card in question when they are telling viewers about it. It’ll ensure everyone knows precisely where they should click.
Once again, do not overlook this tactic. You will be shocked at how much referral traffic you’ll get. Edit the description box. Your description box is sort of a double-edged sword. It’ll exist to allow your viewers to know more about the video and your company in general. However, after a couple of lines, YouTube will cut off your description using a “Show More” option.
Therefore, if you have lengthy video descriptions, they probably aren’t getting read within their entirety. The ideal method of handling that includes breaking up the description into bite-sized segments. Be certain to begin with just a few lines in order for viewers to see them without clicking on the “Show More” tag. Do not merely write anything which comes to mind. Your initial few lines should get the viewer’s attention right off the bat. You essentially are doing copywriting for the YouTube video.
Also, I suggest experimenting with having your URL within the first few lines. It might do really well for you, or it might not make a difference. You will need to gain a feel for how the audience engages with the video. You even can establish a UTM parameteron the link to keep track of how many clicks you are receiving.
Alternatively, you might refrain from placing a link inside an annotation and instead, utilize a description box link. This way, if you view referral traffic from the video, you will not need to guess what link it is coming from. If you include a link within the description, be certain it begins with https:// or http:// If it does not, your viewers will not have the ability to directly click on it. (They will need to instead copy and paste it.)
Do not slow down after you have written your initial two lines. Your whole description must be compelling and well thought out. You also should optimize the description for keywords. If you do that, you will have the ability to gain even more eyes on the videos, and the description may really be more helpful with keywords than without any. You simply must correctly use them.
It isn’t a good idea to utilize a lot of exact-match keywords, yet you may utilize one or two so long as they sound natural. It’s possible to get very creative by utilizing LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords. Those are keywords which are closely associated with the focus keyword. You may utilize quite a few latent semantic indexing keywords and still completely sound natural.
YouTube advises placing the primary keywords at the start of the description. Also, they recommend using the focus keyword within the title. I know I have discussed a lot about keywords, yet an excellent description must be your eventual goal. Do not crowd it using keywords merely to increase your visibility. After all, individuals read your description box for a description; therefore, be certain to deliver. If you follow those steps, you will get the most out of the description box. It is a helpful tool for referrals, and it actually can be the primary traffic source for you.
#5 Include a Call-to-Action
It’s a long-term plan, yet that does not make it any less effective. With those strategies, I have discussed thus far, the aim includes instantly sending users to your website. This technique is not as direct, yet it may get you more consistent traffic over the long-term. Here is the idea: ask individuals to take action.
Never end a video without asking viewers to do something!
#6 Optimize the Channel’s About Page
Thus far, I only have discussed optimizing individual videos. Plus, there isn’t any doubt that any user probably is going to discover one of your videos, not your channel. However, your channel still is a critical part of your formula. If somebody is interested in what you are doing, they’ll check your about page out.
If you keep it updated with relevant details about your business and you, your about page is going to become one other method of sending traffic to your website. However, if it is useless and boring? Forget about it. The about page includes the ideal chance to inform your readers what you are all about and how you may help them.
If you wish to send the most visitors to your website, your site ought to go within the first position to gain the most visibility. In this section, you may have just your site if you do not want to send visitors anywhere else. The about page, surprisingly, is amongst your most visited pages upon any given website. That also is a fact for YouTube.
If you generate excellent content, viewers will flock to the about page to hear more about you. That is the time you close in and take all of that traffic to your website. You will offer your viewers what they came for (more details on you), and you will gain some crazy traffic to boot.
Partner with Attorneys and Business Professionals in Your Community
Have you ever thought about interviewing another attorney? Record the video and upload it to your YouTube channel and drive traffic back to your website. Odds are, there are attorneys outside your practice area desire the same thing that you do: more traffic and more exposure. In partnering up, you may share audiences, and both parties gain a new traffic source.
In Summary
YouTube includes one of the most neglected channels of social media marketing, yet it does not deserve to be underutilized. Its potential is huge. We discuss so much about Google Search Console or Facebook Ads, and these are both amazing tools. However, they aren’t the only incredible tools in existence. Why not utilize one other powerful tool?
YouTube has more than a billion users, and it is simple to gain tons of views upon your video with a little social sharing and search optimization. Plus, it is completely free. Absolutely, it’ll take a little effort to develop valuable content, yet once you get accustomed to it, it’ll become second nature.
Video is a great medium for answering questions and offering value, and YouTube includes the ideal channel for sharing video. If you offer the content your target audience is searching for, they will want to know more. They’ll gladly visit your website, yet you must initiate it. The simple action of telling individuals to visit your website may result in hundreds of fresh visits a day.
Try this strategy, even if you just have a couple of videos. Be certain that you keep track of your YouTube referral traffic in order for you to refine the process. You do not require any special qualifications or existing audience. You simply require the drive to make incredible content and then follow through.
Ready to use YouTube to drive visitors to your website? Schedule a FREE consultation now.