How to use video to improve your estate agency’s search results

Getting your business high up the Google rankings, where you’re visible to new vendors and landlords, is vital to the health of your estate agency business. But as algorithms change and artificial intelligence plays an ever-greater role in online systems, acing search gets increasingly tricky.

Video is one of the most important marketing tools you have at your disposal for grabbing – and keeping the attention of potential customers. So, optimising your video content for search is a good way of improving your visibility and boosting engagement with your brand in 2024.

The increasing sophistication of smartphones means that just about anyone can upload great content to the main platforms – YouTube and Vimeo. While, on first glance this space may seem crowded, it has certain advantages for anyone optimising their videos properly.

Video does very well in Google search – it has its own area, which is less dominated by the big national players than the standard organic pages. Plus, if you’re not optimising your video content for search yet, you’re not alone. Start doing so now and you’ll be ahead of the game.

If you’re using video but not quite making the most of its search potential, here are a few tips.

1. Terrific titles

Your video’s title is just as important for search as the heading to your blog so make it count. Make sure it includes the primary keyword you’re looking to rank for and that it’s informative, and intriguing, so people will want to see more – and do all this in 70 characters or less.

2. Definitive descriptions

You have the opportunity to talk about your video in the description so make good use of it. While less crucial for search, the description is important because it forms your video’s meta content with the first 160 characters your opportunity to convince viewers that the video is worth a look. You can include links to your website in the description but do so early in the copy, so they don’t get lost behind a ‘read more’ tab.

3. Take note of transcriptions

Videos are automatically transcribed on YouTube, which can also boost search so make sure you include the keywords you’re looking to rank for, your business name and your call to action in the script.

4. Don’t ignore thumbnails

YouTube lets you select the thumbnail that will be the face of your video or add your own. Don’t just go with anything – think carefully about which thumbnail will spark interest and get people viewing.

5. Embed for success

Embed your videos into relevant web content to increase the number of views. Use a video plug-in on your site to better showcase your content.

6. Don’t forget the funnel

The customer journey matters as much to video content as to blogs, social media and other elements of the digital marketing mix so match your messages to the part of the funnel you’re targeting – most likely your videos are about raising awareness, but not always.

7. Give your channel some love

People who like your video will click through to your channel to find out more about you, so keep it up-to-date and welcoming with good additional content.

8. Always analyse your results

As with any content, it’s important to use the insight tools to find out more than just the number of views and shares. Look at the keywords that brought viewers to your content, for example.

9. Consider video schema

Video schema is an online language you can use to help search engines understand your content. It allows you to enhance your website’s ranking and the credibility as somewhere with valuable, in-depth information about property. You can add video schema to your site without needing a programmer by using n add on – read more about how we’re using video schema.

10. Make is sharable

The more views your videos get, the higher they will rank. So make sure they offer great content that is fresh, engaging and tells people what they want to know. Promote your videos as you would any other content on social media and in your newsletters.

11. Look for new ideas

Finally, while video is perfect for property listings, you can do much more with this medium – without spending a lot of cash. Think of ideas that work for your business – interviews with industry experts, using the many tools out there to create animations or getting satisfied customers to record testimonials from the comfort of their new homes – all of which will play well across your channels.

Need help with digital marketing for your estate agency? Book a call with Art Division.