If you don’t consider SEO when writing your video scripts, well… you really should. By utilising a video SEO strategy, you’ll help the right people find your content, and it’ll ensure that your script is on topic too.
By keeping SEO in mind, you’ll serve a focused message to your audience once they arrive. Here are five tips for how to do it – without sacrificing on quality.
#1: Research and select the right keywords
Good SEO performance isn’t something that happens by chance. It happens when you use the right keywords in your text. These keywords need to be relevant to the content of your script, and be what your audience is searching for online.
How do you find the right keywords? You can find out which search terms people are looking for when looking up your topic and then incorporate them into your script. Use a keyword research tool, like Moz Keyword Explorer, Google Keyword Planner, or Semrush.
To use one of those tools, just type in the topic of your video and you’ll see a bunch of terms people use when searching online. Choose a couple of those commonly-searched-for keywords to focus on, and incorporate them into your script. That goes a long way toward making your script SEO friendly.
#2 Don’t overdo the keyword targeting
If you’ve read tip #1 and just thought “No problem, I’ll just sprinkle those SEO-friendly keywords all over my script,” you’re in for a surprise. And not a good surprise, like an extra slice of cake or finding some cash in the pocket of last year’s winter coat. No. You’re in for a bad surprise, like finding your page doesn’t perform well at all online.
The reason is that search engines will punish you and your site for the practice of putting keywords all over the place in a text in an attempt to improve the SEO. This is known as ‘keyword stuffing’, and search engines will actually make your video harder to find as a result.
That’s because, with keyword stuffing, you’re basically trying to trick Google or Bing. And they will see through that trick, and punish you for it.
#3 Prioritise readability over optimisation
Readability matters. So even if you’re not stuffing your script with SEO-savvy terms, it’s still possible that you’ve ‘forced’ the relevant search terms into your text. The absolute priority is to write a great script that sounds natural and reads well.
The SEO value of your script – while very important – always takes a backseat to the sweet sweet flow of the text. So by all means use those keywords we learned about in Tip #1, but incorporate them into the text in a natural-sounding and organic way.
If you’re unsure how to do that, there are some simple guidelines to follow.
- Use short sentences.
- Avoid the passive voice.
- Write the way people talk.
- Keep it short. So, get in, say what you need to say, and get out.
Bottom line: don’t sacrifice flow and readability to sneak in another keyword.
#4 Write for your target audience
To make a truly SEO-savvy script, you need to actually write for humans. And not just any humans, write for your people. The people who use your products and services. That’s your target market.
Then, you create content that appeals to their interests or answers their questions. And to do that, you need to make sure you know who your target audience is!
You probably have an idea of who your audience is, and what they like and are interested in. Create content that appeals to them. Oh, and don’t just advertise at them!
People don’t love to be advertised at, no matter how much they like your product or service. So create SEO-optimised videos and posts that provide value in the form of genuinely useful, entertaining and appealing information. Your target audience (and search results) will thank you for it.
#5 Stick to the point
Your well-written, audience-focused, SEO-friendly script should stick to one topic. It can happen in the course of writing that you meander a little or expand your topic, but don’t lose the focus.
Say you’re writing about on-page SEO optimisation for website content. You may include related information such as the importance of link building and page ranking, but you don’t want to stray from your topic: on-page SEO optimisation for website content.
The reason is simple: when you promise a potential page viewer that certain information will be available on a page, you want to make sure that when they come to that page, they find what they were promised!
If a subject is too big or feels unwieldy, that’s a sign that it should be split up into smaller topics, which may become different pages or videos.
Top SEO tips for your next video script
Well, there you have it. Five actionable tips to level up your scriptwriting. Writing your script with SEO in mind – when done well – will improve the focus of your content, the satisfaction of the viewer, and how it performs online.
Just remember: always write for people first, and search engines second. Lights, Camera, SEO!
