4 Common Mistakes Lawyers Make With Web Video SEO

It’s undeniable that video offers a rich and engaging way to interact with potential clients. There is no other online medium that can give a potential client the sense of sitting across the desk from you in the same way video can. More law firms are venturing into web video as a marketing tool. However, I see the same types of mistakes over and over again with the way law firm’s are implementing their online video strategies. I’d like to discuss 4 of the most common mistakes I see with online video strategy and SEO.

1. The Videos are Just Advertisements for the Firm

While this point isn’t specific to video SEO, it has implications about how a video can be effectively marketed via SEO so I chose to include it. Far too many firms think of web videos in a very narrow scope. They produce a web video that is essentially a 30 second television commercial for the web. The videos talk about all of the firm’s accomplishments, how many awards they’ve won, how hard they’ll fight, and perhaps throw in the practice areas they service for good measure.

In my opinion, you should be thinking about your web video from the standpoint of demonstrating your knowledge and expertise while providing good, helpful information to your potential clients. You should be addressing common questions they have and helping to break down complex legal issues in terms they can understand. When putting together a video, always consider if it is something you would find interesting, helpful, or insightful if you were looking for information on the topic. Remember, people only care about how it helps or informs them about their problems. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “What’s In It For Me” used in marketing. It’s the idea that the visitors to your website don’t really care about you or your successes unless it somehow can be tied back to how it will help them with their problems. Here is an example of an informational-style video explaining what a brachial plexus birth injury is:

2. Videos Are On A Page With Nothing Else

Pages that include a variety of different types of media appeal more to both search algorithms and potential clients. Even though web video is a great way to connect with your audience, it doesn’t resonate with everyone. By including images, text, and other types of media on the page it will help to provide more context for the search engine to understand what the page’s content is about, as well as allowing the visitor to engage in a variety of ways.

3. Videos Are Simply Embedded On Your Firm’s Site From Youtube

If you are going to get serious about your firm’s video SEO, it’s time to think outside the Youtube box. I’m not suggesting that you don’t have a marketing campaign that includes uploading a version of your videos on Youtube, Vimeo, etc. But you should be investing in a good, video hosting solution that includes SEO capabilities. A professional video hosting solution can open up avenues for implementing great video SEO on your site.

The hosting solution we use, and the one I would recommend, is Wistia. These guys get video SEO. The solution provides a slew of features including customizable players, Video sitemaps, analytics (with heatmaps), transcription services and more. A subscription ranges in price from free to $239 a month at the time of this writing. When implemented properly, using a solution such as Wistia allows for video rich snippets in Google’s search results that are tied back directly to your own site (rather than youtube).

This offers all sorts of opportunities for increased visibility, better click through on your results, increased conversion on your site, and more.

4. All Of Your Firm’s Videos Are On A Single Page

I see this all the time. A firm has a “Video Section” of the website that has a long running list of all their videos. Sometimes they are organized in a logical way and many times it’s just a long list of embedded videos. This just isn’t a very good user experience for your site visitors, nor is it optimal for Google.

Spreading out your videos across relevant, specific, and targeted pages (as well as including other types of media as discussed above) allows you to target more keyword terms, increase the visibility of each video, and provides more opportunities for rich snippet results. If your videos are simply one long running list on the page, you aren’t giving Google (or your site visitors) good context about what each video is about or relevance of the page in general.