How Providing Video Transcripts Boosts Your SEO

Chances are, you already know the SEO basics, right?

Researching keywords, optimizing your website, measuring the results, and tweaking your strategy are the fundamentals everyone should take to heart to increase their leads and enhance their conversion rates.

Video schema markup and embedded videos are also powerful techniques to bolster your SEO.

However, we aren’t discussing any of that today.

Instead, I’m explaining how to use video transcript SEO.

This method enhances your visibility, and it’s all the more vital today as video is such a huge part of online marketing.

Most surveyed marketers realize how essential using video marketing is. According to research, 91 percent of businesses use video marketing, and 96 percent state that it’s an “important part” of their marketing strategy.

However, if you want to get the most out of your videos, you can take it a step further and use transcripts for video SEO to maximize your accessibility and reach.

That’s not all, though.

There’s another reason video transcripts are so essential, and that’s accessibility, but more about that later. For now, let’s just focus on video transcript for SEO.

Video Transcripts and SEO

Video transcript SEO is a valuable tool, and there are several ways it contributes to your site’s visibility.

• First, transcripts make your video content accessible to a wider audience, including those who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing or prefer to watch videos with the sound down.

• Looking for a way to get your videos indexed by search engines? Then add transcripts. They enable search engines to crawl your video content and give context to the information you’re sharing. You can also see your indexed videos in Google Search Console’s video indexing report.

• Readers can use transcripts to scan through content and understand the main points if they don’t want to watch a whole video. This can increase engagement and enhance your video transcript SEO.

• You can use transcriptions for internal link-building opportunities on your website. Do you have content complimenting your transcriptions and giving the visitor extra value? Then link to it and keep your visitor on your site for longer.

• Transcripts provide valuable keywords and phrases that you can use to optimize your videos and improve your ranking in search results.

• Finally, evidence suggests that captions can enhance video views by a whopping 80 percent, according to Sendible. In addition, closed captions give search engines crawlable content, increasing the chances of your content getting indexed.

Additionally, you can use transcripts as part of your overall SEO and content strategy. For instance, you can use them to create various forms of written and visual content, including:

• Blog posts and eBooks

• Individual quotes for social media

• Graphics

• Infographics

How To Start Transcribing Your Videos

We’ve established that video transcript SEO can be a boon for your site. But how do you get started?

One free method is manual transcription: just typing the content word-for-word yourself. Of course, while this is the most accessible option, it’s also the most time-consuming. You don’t just need to type it; you must edit and format it perfectly.

Now, I can understand if the manual option doesn’t appeal to you, so you’ll be pleased to know other methods are available to you, like:

Mobile apps: You can now use many mobile apps for transcription purposes. Some of the best mobile apps for transcriptions include Otter and Trint.

Use Google’s automatic captioning: YouTube’s speech recognition software creates automatic closed captions for YouTube long-form content, live videos, and Shorts. The captions are AI-generated so you’ll need to check the quality before publishing.

Speech narration and dictation software: You can use software like Dragon Naturally Speaking to dictate transcripts, but you’d still have to edit, proofread, and format the completed piece for your video transcripts to maximize SEO.

Free transcription tools: Descript and oTranscribe are just two resources that allow you to do transcriptions. Descript also has paid options.

Google’s doc’s voice commands: If you have Chrome, you can use Google’s free voice typing. To use it, open a document, go to docs, find “tools” in the top menu, scroll down, and select “voice typing,” then wait for the microphone icon to appear. Click the icon, and you’re ready to start dictating. To finish the transcription, click the microphone icon again.

Speech-to-text application programming interfaces (APIs): Amazon Transcribe and Deepgram are two examples, but there are many more to choose from. Deepgram gives you a free $200 credit when you sign up for their Pay-as-You-Go service, and new users of Amazon Transcribe get 60 minutes free a month for the first year.

Use captioning: You can also use video editors such as Adobe’s Premiere Pro for a more hands on approach. Start by transcribing your video, then use “create captions” to add captions to your video timeline. When you’ve finished editing, export the captions as burned-in subtitles or other file formats. Plans start at $20.99 per month.

Best Tools for Video Transcriptions

Transcription services have come a long way since they first emerged. Over the years, the quality of transcription services has improved drastically, and you’ve got plenty of tools to choose from.

Here are a few tools for your video transcription SEO, many with a free trial if you want to give them a spin.