Rich media and content is in high demand these days, thanks in large part to search engines now prioritizing websites that provide this type of content (among other things). In order to build an effective SEO and content marketing strategy for your brand, you need to have a balanced portfolio when it comes to content. Blog posts, infographics, videos, podcasts and other types of media combined in one location will ensure that as many people’s different interests are being met as possible. Videos are a great way to build quality content, but there are instances in which they can hurt user experience and engagement – which harms SEO efforts in the long-run. Today, we’ll talk about some of the ways in which videos can harm your brand’s efforts, so that you can make sure not to make these mistakes.

Dead Videos

It can sometimes be easy to create a video, post it to your site or blog, and then forget about it. Months or years can pass by without giving it much notice. Sooner or later, you come across the post in question and remember that you moved your videos to a different source, the video service changed its URL structure, or some other snafu has occurred. Because of this, your video links have been broken for an undetermined period of time. A lack of properly working videos on your website makes it more difficult for users to engage in the ways you desired. Pinging links to broken videos also decrease user experience, and make people feel as if your website is out of date or improperly managed. As such, keep notes of every post or page on which there is a video, and periodically check them to ensure 100% functionality.

Videos That Are Crammed Together

In years past, it was common for websites to pack media together on one or more pages, sorted by category. A “videos” page would feature all of the embedded and linked content that a site had to offer. In today’s world of user experience and design, however, this is a big no-no. Not only is this not aesthetically pleasing, but it can also cause performance issues across a variety of devices (especially for mobile users). Google’s algorithms tend to view these pages as less favourable, so it’s important to optimize the video experience for all users. As such, it is important to thoroughly space out videos on the same page with other forms of content (preferably text).

Poorly Optimized Video Landing Pages

There are times where a particular video deserves its own page. Rather than pinging links from your main pages to this video, you might use it as part of a marketing campaign or email campaign. Unfortunately, many people make the mistake of not optimizing these pages for SEO along with the rest of the page. Additionally, user experience matters. If the page in question only has a video on it – but lacks the formatting, design and optimization features present elsewhere – then that leads to low quality user experience. Additionally, any video page should be linked to from at least one other page on your website in order to ensure that it is indexed and given the SEO credit it deserves.