2020
Is Your Video Player Hurting Your SEO Efforts?
Using tools that make a difference
It is undeniable when considering the user experience on any website that speed is among the most critical elements necessary to both retain, and have users engage with your product and/or services on a deeper level.
How many visitors are you losing?
Estimates have stated that nearly 12% of all video streams online are abandoned prior to the video commencing, and according to Google’s own data even a delay of one second has a marked impact on the viewability of ads as seen below.
The chart (right) demonstrates a viewability decrease of 3.6% for mobile traffic and 2.9% for desktop traffic with an ad latency of up to 1S. Viewability as it applies to video pre-roll advertising is defined as having the ad at least 50% in the field of view and displayed for a minimum of two seconds.(1)
It therefore is reasonable to expect that achieving a faster loading page and interactable content, leads to lower bounce rates, heightened user engagement, longer time on site and in theory more valuable advertising inventory as viewability is enhanced.
A comment from Google
“A premium video experience can drive more value for your viewers and make your video ad inventory more appealing to advertisers. By making your videos load quickly, easy to find, and offering captivating content across screens, viewers will keep returning to your platform and your viewability rates can increase.
An impactful update you can make is to improve the speed of your website or app. Start by using tools like PageSpeed Insights or App Speed reports to understand your existing speeds.†- Marketing and Google Ad Manager, Jamie Jordan.(2)
Furthermore, Google’s algorithm takes site and page speed into account when indexing and ranking on its search engine, meaning your continued improvement in this area stands to impact your SEO efforts in a very positive way.
“The simple answer is that page speed does affect SEO. Page speed is a direct ranking factor, a fact known even better since Google’s Algorithm Speed Update.†comments SEO Analyst, Adrian Cojocariu. “At Google, users come first. Studies by Google show that average 3G loading speed is very slow. They also show that users leave the site after about 3 seconds. This means that their experience is bad and Google doesn’t like ranking sites which provide a bad user experience.â€(3)
Serious publishers looking to become or remain competitive in a vast market littered with consumer choices or simply put, alternatives to your property, must keep the user experience and therefore page speed front of mind if they are to achieve a prosperous business; there's simply no way around it.
- https://web.dev/fast-ads-matter/
- https://www.blog.google/products/admanager/3-ways-improve-video-viewability-and-grow-revenue/
- https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22865/page-speed-seo/
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