Having video on your website makes it instantly more intriguing and keeps visitors around longer. Website videos helps with search engine optimization, improves your placement in search results, and is way more aesthetically pleasing than static imagery. These aren’t just our opinions, they’re facts that have been proven time and time again and reported in statistics from reputable sources like Forbes and Adweek.
Recently, we’ve been updating our own website masthead. The clips we’re adding are based on a postcard series we created for lead generation. We’re adding more interesting video to grab the attention of visitors the second they visit our site and communicate instantly with taglines that strongly represent who we are and the type of work we create for clients.
There are, however, right and wrong ways to include video on your site.
Proper placement and quantity of website videos
When you’re adding video to your website, considering the value it will add to your visitor experience, you want to make it as easy as possible to find. Great places for video on your website are:
Masthead Videos
If your website has a masthead (and most do these days), it usually spans the entire width, and sometimes height, of the page. Having a video play in your masthead, without audio, is a good way to add some movement and interest to your site right away. It’s also a much more interesting background for introductory text than still images.
If auto-playing video isn’t your thing, there are other ways to include video in your masthead, like adding a play button there. Regardless, having a video as the first thing visitors see when they arrive at your site is the best way to communicate who you are and what you do.
Product or Service Page Videos
There’s no better way to highlight your products or services than with video. Forbes reported that 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text. Consumers remember video content better than written content, and they are more likely to follow up in some way after watching a video about your product or service than after just reading about it. Video can have a huge impact on your bottom line.
Profile or About Page Videos
Convey authenticity and personality with video on your team bio pages or your company’s about page. Showing your potential customers a glimpse of who they’ll be working with creates a better connection than just listing out facts about your history or education. Showing always works better than only telling!
But don’t go overboard!
Having too much movement on a single page can be overwhelming. Don’t have multiple videos automatically playing on the same page, and be careful not to combine background video with other moving page elements or GIFs.
Make sure your website videos are properly encoded
I know, I know. That sentence just made you blink and say, “…huh?” Video encoding involves everything from file type to quality, resolution, compression, and other technical aspects of the actual video file that will go on your website.
If a video isn’t encoded properly, it will slow your site down and frustrate visitors. That’s exactly the opposite of what you want! Search engines (and people) don’t like slow websites, so let experts handle your video encoding to make sure it’s done right.
Have professional looking videos
We recently heard that an agency has been telling clients that not all videos need to look professional. We disagree, and not just because we’re a video production company. Even if we were a butcher shop, or sold tiny glass elephants, we’d say that having anything on a business website that doesn’t look professional or in line with branding would just be stupid.
If you want to have a video that is candid, fun and loose, that’s okay, but it still needs to be done well – otherwise, people will just move right along. With the vast amount of video content in the world today, we as an audience can spot crap content a mile away
If you’re looking for incredible website video, we can help!
Leeway Films is a video production company in Chicago, IL and Seattle, WA. Our team of video marketing experts know what works, and we can help you create a website video that represents your business in the best way possible. Call us at (773) 609-1041 , or email hello@leewayfilms.com for a quote.
