When we think of SEO, we think of written content as the most important aspect. However, a video transcription service also plays an important role. Video is unquestionably the winner when it comes to user-relevant content. Businesses are using live video to build brand engagement. Live streaming is a popular pick among consumers for Q&As and product presentations. Video transcription services help in search engine optimization (SEO) and significantly spread the information to a larger audience.

When you start to optimize for search, you'll begin to see benefits across the board. After all, increased traffic should create more leads, and more leads will generate more sales, which drives revenue. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned expert in search marketing, transcribing videos is one strategy that you should dig in your heels and implement.

Overview

Google's algorithm has hundreds (if not thousands) of ranking factors determining your rightful place in the search results. Because of this, it can seem not easy to stay on top of things when trying to build an SEO strategy.

But here's a hint: start where your audience lives. And regardless of your niche or what you're selling, your audience is consuming content through video. That's why transcripts for videos are important to search marketing.

Why Use Video Transcription?

We know video is important, but what's the deal with transcripts? Well, providing a transcript for a video will boost engagement and reach a wider audience right off the bat. Because we consume content fast, we want to get to the point faster, but sometimes videos take time to tell a story.

Transcripts help customers follow along or quickly pull out the main points that are useful to them. It also allows for easy sharing of content. But most importantly, video transcription and closed captions should be used to provide the same value to those who are hard of hearing or in a location where it's hard to hear (coffee shop, train, bus). That's why transcripts are an easy way to broaden the reach of your video content — you're connecting with users who wouldn't normally engage with just a standalone video.

Videos Are Great, But Search Engines Like Google Cannot Crawl Videos.

While the Google AI is pretty intuitive, it doesn't have superhuman abilities yet. It can't determine what an image is or even crawl the content of a video. So just like alt tags are important for impressions, transcripts are important for videos.

Having a transcript allows Google to crawl the content of your video and understand the subject matter. Without it, a crawler has no way to determine context and will be left to its own devices. And one thing you don't want to do (especially if you're working on building an SEO strategy) is leave Google to determine its context. You always want to provide crawlers and, more importantly, your audience with as much information as possible. Fortunately, transcription offers all the information a crawler or customer could need while benefiting your business in several ways.

4 SEO Benefits to Video Transcription

SEO plays a huge role in the success of your website and, in turn, your business. There are ample benefits to SEO when it comes to transcription. We'll discuss 4 today, but there are plenty more reasons to Transcribe audio to text. Having even a little focus when transcribing video to text can help you reach weekly, monthly and yearly goals.

1. Transcription Helps Your Video Rank

You include keywords in your content for Google to find and rank by providing a video transcription. Transcripts help your content rank in several ways. In short, they create content for Google to crawl. And when Google crawls content, it's searching for key indicators that content is useful to searchers.

Also, because crawlers need transcripts to determine intent, this extra information will provide more relevant information, and relevance is a large ranking factor. As Google AI is learning, it's trying to give the searchers the most relevant results, so having material that shows your content is important; it'll help boost your rankings in the search results.

2. Transcription Increases Site Traffic

Rankings and traffic go hand-in-hand when it comes to SEO. If one goes up, it will usually affect the other, and vice versa. So if transcriptions benefit rankings, they will also help your traffic. The higher your target keywords are in Google, the closer to position one, which drives more traffic and clicks to your landing pages and content.

The reasoning is pretty simple — no one usually clicks past the first page of Google. You'll rephrase your search query if you don't find what you're looking for on the first page. That's why ranking in at least the top ten results for your prime keywords is important. A higher order will generate more traffic, and increased traffic drives higher rankings. It's all intertwined.

3. Transcription Creates Link-Building Opportunities

A link-building strategy can include internal and external links, meaning you're linking to content within your domain and trying to convince external sites to link back to you. Video transcripts provide benefits for both.

For internal linking, transcripts allow you to link to other relevant content on your site. For example, if your video discusses product features, you might link to a specific product page on your site. As you build these links, you'll start to create a web where your customer can easily navigate from one subject to the next simply by clicking through your content.

In terms of external links, a few years ago, Moz conducted a study to determine what types of content consumers linked to the most. They found that content with videos, images, and lists received 70% more links than pages with just pictures and lists! That tells us that people WANT to share content. It just needs to be compelling and easy to share.

Transcription allows users to easily determine whether or not they want to share your video. And if your video was carefully curated and relevant to your industry, it'll be an easy decision.

4. Transcription Lowers Bounce Rates

Transcription provides more content for a customer to consume. If someone hits a page with just a video and cannot listen to the audio, they will click away. A transcript will give an assist if a user needs to consume content in a quiet environment. And by allowing them to do so, they'll stay longer on your site and get more value out of what you produced! Because putting video transcripts on your website will increase engagement and widen your audience, it's pretty self-explanatory why your bounce rates would shrink and the average time on the page would increase.

Extra Tip: Transform Transcripts Into Different Communication Mediums
As a bonus, transcripts can also provide you with a surplus of different content opportunities. Your video has a text version, and transcripts are easily turned into blog posts. With a few tweaks and optimizations, you'll have a piece of long-form content that will also be able to rank in the search results, further benefiting your SEO.

You may also consider breaking your transcript into snackable social media posts or creating an easy-to-follow checklist to show how much value your business can provide. Building assets around transcription will make your content more shareable and allow you to reach different audiences.

Conclusion

The countless benefits of video transcripts for SEO and your customers are undeniable. This simple process of transcribing videos will not only boost the health of your site, but it will also make for a much better user experience.