Your video production website might be failing you. Here's how to fix it

The days of your website simply being an extended portfolio are over. It is now more important than ever to understand how much video work you might be missing out on from a poorly targetted website. 

I’ll be the first one to admit, I’ve treated my website like an extension of my portfolio, and I suspect a lot of video content creators do the same. If you’re one of those people… Please listen up because when your business hits a dry spell, you don’t want to be left floundering. This isn’t a well-kept secret, just a shift in mindset. For years I groaned at the idea of even having a website, let alone staying current with it. If I could’ve operated with just a Vimeo, a slick black business card, and a phone number on it that would have been enough

Alas, the new world doesn’t operate this way, and your young competitors certainly don’t think this way either. Your video website needs to be your launch pad to the world, not just a pamphlet to support sales. As a result of neglecting it, I’m now suffering the consequences of my complacency. Needless to say, it’s been a very rough year for my business due to unforeseen elements out of my control, so this is where the new found emphasis is stemming from.

If I could’ve operated with just a Vimeo, a slick black business card, and a phone number on it that would have been enough.

Video content creators / marketers wear a lot of hats, and have tons of associated overhead costs. Truth be told, I cant afford to spend $3,500 - $10k on a proper website right now, even though it should have been a priority that would have generated 10x its return in a year. If you have the budget, it’s crucial to have a knowledgeable web firm build your site properly from the ground up for ranking, and a great user experience. For the record, I built our website years ago with Wix (now in HTML5), and that might have been a part of the problem.

Your video website needs to be your launch pad to the world, not just a digital pamphlet to support sales.

Like many of you, my video work has always been sourced by connections, referrals, and continued partnerships. In the six years my website has been online, not once have I ever received work from a web lead gen. Come to find out this is because I haven't been speaking to, and trafficking the right audience. This was made clear to me by my bounce rate, which was in the high 80 - 90 percentile. Now the site is trending 50 – 64 percent with an average time spent of 4 minutes per session in just a 30-day turn around! I’ve also received two phone calls, and generated a single meeting in that time frame. This is a modest start, but not too shabby given this needs some time to move up the ranks.

Redesigned Snap Shot of Desktop Website

I reached out to my old mentor (Word Press builder) to talk SEO. Turns out my website was "parked", and wasn't even ranking on Google for the proper keywords. Instead it was pulling weird traffic, Google not reading a majority of my content, and instead thinking I was some sort of gear / tech rental shop. I am now feverishly putting an emphasis on course correcting this to "get that phone ringing". More importantly, I have started to shift my website's content away from selling on "quality", and starting to talk about universal services / strategies / ROIs.

Now to be clear, I’m a video marketer, not a web builder, or SEO specialist, but I do want to offer some anecdotal solutions for you to walk away with if you are in the same boat as I was.

1. Link to Google Business, properly categorize (video production service), have a physical location if possible (P.O. Box is fine) to tie into Google Maps, and you tie in your website with Google Analytics. Dropping a Google Map on the actual bottom of the page helps rank locally.
2. Your header 1 & 2 tags are the most important part of your website to identify who you are, what you do, and why your video service is worth the look. The best headers result in a conversion by presenting a problem, and offering a solution with a form box at the top of your header 1.
3. Pump your website with meaningful video content / buzzwords, and local keywords that are useful to the user. If you’re a Wix user, make sure the text is sitting in boxes so Google reads these words (I think this was my original problem). 1200 minimum words for your main body!
4. Add photos / videos with alt tags and preferably geo referenced meta data.
5. Add sub-pages for click paths / conversion trafficking, all referencing individual facets of your services (pre / production / post / case studies).
6. Request 5 star written reviews from your best clients. Provide them a link to review this on Google found in your Google Business app.
7. Make sure you’re mobile friendly, and its simplified with only key information. Make sure your site is responsive design on both desktop and mobile.
8. Use video to engage your audience when they land on your page. Inform them, or catch them with “eye candy” to be jazzed up and learn more. Have a carousel of videos so users can see them on your landing page.
9. Offer a local phone number.
10. Blog. This will pump your website with organic, meaningful content relevant to video production services. If the content is good, hopefully it will get shared and back link to your page.
11. Blast your site with social outlets, tie them all into one another by interlinking, and invest into Google Ad Buys once you have course corrected your page.

The majority of us are right minded video creative’s, but we all have to pay a little bit more attention to the details regarding these new age tools. Don’t be like me, constantly work and improve your video website, it might just be your lifeline when the going gets tough! I hope this helps.

Have any other anecdotal solutions, suggestions, or stories regarding your own video website? Leave them in the comments section below.