How Vlogging Can Dramatically Boost Your Blogs Performance
There is so much more that goes into having a successful blog than simply putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the digital case may be). Whatever your end goals may be for your blog, you want to get your content in front of as many people as possible. And one of the best things you can do to bolster the performance of your blog is to considering adding vlogging to your online repertoire.
Vlogging is short for video blogging and it effectively means using video as a big part of your overall content plan. You don’t have to make vlogging to exclusive or even the primary part of what you do on your blog, but it is a very good idea to include videos as part of the normal cycle and schedule. There are several incredible advantages that vlogging can have, particularly when you upload your videos to YouTube.
[toc]The Second Largest Search Engine
Its fairly common knowledge that Google is the largest and most popular search engine in the world, but do you know whats number two?
Its not Bing.
Its not Yahoo.
Its actually YouTube. More searches are conducted on YouTube every month than on these other search engines. When people are searching for tutorials, entertainment and other valuable video content on YouTube, you gain the opportunity to grow your audience and extend your reach.
This can be hugely successful in two ways that aren’t completely separate.
First, you can have people who are simply looking for content in your niche or industry. If you’re able to get your videos to rank for those search terms in YouTube, you’ll have some new people being exposed to your brand and hopefully following through to check out your blog. That’s why you should always have a link to your website in the video description.
Second, if the viewers like what they see, they may be inclined to subscribe to your YouTube channel. This means that they’ll always be kept up to date on your latest videos and they’re far more likely to watch more of your videos moving forward. That’s a great way to keep your brand and your content front and center.
Better Chance at Going Viral
Easily one of the most popular types of content being shared on the Internet through social media is video. When people come across a video that they particularly like, they are far more likely to share that video with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. When you keep producing new vlogs, you give yourself that shot at getting shared.
And if your video is especially great for whatever reason its really funny, its really unique or its really insightful you stand the chance at going viral. Imagine if the traffic to your video (and to your blog) suddenly skyrockets overnight and you become and Internet sensation!
The Search Engine Optimization Benefits
Google is constantly updating its search engine algorithms and many of the details remain a secret. However, it has been demonstrated time and time again that blog posts with videos are given preferential treatment over blog posts that don’t have videos. When you embed your YouTube video in your blog posts, you’re giving those blog posts a significant SEO boost.
The more vlogging that you do, the better opportunity you have to rank for your target keywords and search terms in Google. And the higher ranking that you achieve, the more likely you’ll be able to generate more targeted traffic to your blog. And this can have the added benefit of increasing your sales too.
More Accessible Content for Everyone
Blogging is great and it can be incredibly powerful. However, as you may have even noticed with your own web surfing habits, encountering a giant block of text on a website can be daunting and intimidating. These blocks of text are certainly useful, but vlogging can make the same content a lot more accessible. Visitors are far more inclined to watch your vlogs than they are to read the entirety of your blog posts.
This is especially true with product reviews or with tutorials, as the visual element really brings the content to life and makes it feel like the website visitor is right there with you. That’s really compelling and really helps to forge that strong connection with your brand that you want to establish.
And best of all, getting started with vlogging is really easy. You probably already have a webcam. Just get it set up, hit record and upload to YouTube. Its all free!