The Ultimate Guide to SEO for OTT Platforms

Listen to this article

You've poured your heart and soul into creating a fantastic streaming service. You've got the content, the passion, and the popcorn ready to go. But how will people find your platform amidst the vast sea of streaming options? 

Running a streaming service is like hosting a party. You want all the cool kids in town to know about it, like you did when you were in high school. SEO is adding the right keywords, meta tags, and apt descriptions to shout out  "Hey, everybody, come on in! The party's right here!"

SEO is all about making your streaming service irresistibly attractive to search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They're the gatekeepers who can open the gates wide for your viewers!

SEO is not just about keywords and content. It also involves technical aspects that can be intimidating for those unfamiliar with web development. 

Factors like website structure, site speed, mobile-friendliness, and proper indexing require technical expertise to optimize effectively. Without a solid technical foundation, even the most brilliant content may struggle to rank well.

You're probably thinking, "SEO sounds complicated and time-consuming!" I hear you, but here's the thing: the benefits of SEO far outweigh the effort it takes. Plus, it's a long-term strategy that keeps on giving.

SEO is not a one-time fix; it requires ongoing effort and dedication. Building a strong online presence and maintaining visibility is an ongoing process that demands consistent optimization, monitoring, and adaptation. 

It's like tending to a garden, where you need to regularly nurture and care for your platform to keep it thriving. Quick fixes and shortcuts may offer temporary boosts, but the true benefits of SEO come from a long-term commitment to doing it right.

Once you lay the groundwork and implement the right tactics, you'll enjoy the fruits of your labor for years to come. So, think of it as an investment in the future success of your platform

SEO Best Practices for OTT Platforms

It is crucial to implement effective SEO practices to enhance visibility, reach, and ultimately, the success of your streaming service. In this blog post, we'll explore the best SEO practices specifically tailored for OTT platforms.

1. Keyword Research and Optimization

Keyword research is a fundamental step in optimizing your OTT platform for search engines. Thorough keyword research helps you understand the language and terms that your target audience uses when searching for content similar to what your platform offers. 

Here's how you can optimize your keyword research process:

Identify Your Target Audience

Start by defining your target audience and understanding their preferences, interests, and demographics. This information will guide you in selecting keywords that align with their search intent.

Use Keyword Research Tools

Utilize keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Moz, or Ahrefs to discover relevant keywords and phrases. These tools provide valuable insights into search volumes, competition levels, and related keywords. Look for keywords with a healthy balance of search volume and competition.

Long-Tail Keywords

In addition to broad keywords, focus on long-tail keywords, which are more specific and often have lower competition. Long-tail keywords usually consist of three or more words and have a higher chance of matching the specific search queries of your target audience. These keywords can help you capture highly targeted traffic.

Competitor Analysis

Analyze the keywords your competitors are targeting. This can provide valuable insights into the keywords that are performing well in your niche. Identify gaps or untapped opportunities that you can leverage to differentiate your platform.

 In this example, we can see that Hulu and Disney Plus are both competing for the keyword ‘watch the clearing’

To have an advantage over a competitor streaming the same content make sure your title and descriptions have the right long tail keywords optimized based on search intent

Incorporate Keywords Strategically: 

Once you have identified relevant keywords, strategically incorporate them into your titles, descriptions, and metadata. Optimize the titles of your videos, playlists, and pages by including primary keywords at the beginning. 

Craft compelling descriptions that not only include keywords but also entice users to click and engage with your content. Metadata such as tags and categories should also incorporate relevant keywords to help search engines understand the context of your content.

Monitor and Refine

Keyword research is an ongoing process. Continuously monitor the performance of your chosen keywords and make adjustments as needed. Analyze metrics such as search rankings, click-through rates (CTRs), and conversions to evaluate the effectiveness of your keyword strategy. If certain keywords are not driving the desired results, consider replacing them with more effective alternatives.

2. Optimize Content

Crawlers understand your content by its titles, descriptions, thumbnails, and metadata. 

Content optimization enhances the visibility and relevance of a webpage, making it more likely to rank higher on search engine results. Here are some key aspects of content optimization that contribute to improved rankings:

Title

Crafting optimized titles that accurately represent the content and include relevant keywords can increase the likelihood of appearing in search results for specific queries.

Description

Make sure your descriptions provide a clear overview of the content, incorporate relevant keywords, and appeal to the user’s search intent – this helps search engines recognize your page’s relevance.

Thumbnails

Optimizing thumbnails with descriptive alt text helps search engines understand the content of the image and can contribute to better search rankings.

Associated Metadata

Utilizing appropriate metadata, including tags and categories, enhances the page's discoverability and helps search engines categorize the content effectively.

Optimizing Metadata for SEO

While filling in the metadata for your videos or creating your shows, ensure that you fill in the right title and description.

This will make sure your default pages (other than the Home page) are optimized for search engines.

Metadata for Videos/Movies
This can be filled in either while you upload your videos or later by editing the information from the video library.

1. In the video details page scroll down to the SEO Details section
2. Fill in the details such as Title, Description, Keywords, H1 tag, Paragraph
3. Hit the Save button
And you will see the SEO details updated on the page



Similarly, you can update the SEO details at a Show level on the Show details page

Case Study: Let's Search ‘watch the legend of lwanda magere’ on Google

Here is the first result:

Title: "Watch THE LEGEND OF LWANDA MAGERE on kweliTV"

URL: https://www.kweli.tv/watch/kweli/the-legend-of-lwanda-magere

SEO Meta Description: "A long, long time ago, on the shores of the great lake of Africa there once lived a superhuman warrior by the name of Lwanda Magere.”
Page Description: “A long, long time ago, on the shores of the great lake of Africa there once lived a superhuman warrior by the name of Lwanda Magere. He had skin of stone and the strength of ten men. Invincible, benevolent and loyal, Lwanda was the hero his people had always longed for, a hero to protect them from the deadly neighboring raiders. However, the secret source of Lwanda’s powers was the target of his enemies — enemies both from the outside and within.”

Now let’s analyze why this page ranks number 1 for this result, even above the youtube videos.

• Keyword Placement: The title and URL effectively incorporate the primary keyword, "The Legend of Lwanda Magere." This optimization helps search engines understand the content's relevance to the search query.

• Compelling Title: The title explicitly highlights that viewers can watch "The Legend of Lwanda Magere" on kweliTV. This clarity aligns with user intent, enhancing its visibility in search results.
  
  Furthermore, this results in a higher click rate, which helps to improve and raise search engine rankings

• Informative Description: The description provides a captivating overview of the show, including keywords such as “young warrior," "superhuman powers," and "integrity." These keywords, combined with an intriguing narrative, further establish the show's relevance and entice potential viewers.

• Proper Metadata: The URL structure is clean and includes relevant keywords, aiding search engines in understanding the content's context.

• Thumbnail Optimization: Optimizing the thumbnail with descriptive alt text, such as "The Legend of Lwanda Magere with the  image of a young warrior on the shores of a lake, provides additional context to search engines. This can contribute to better search rankings and visibility.

 3. User Experience

User Experience (UX) is a critical aspect of any OTT platform's success. A user's experience relates to their overall interaction with your platform, including aspects such as usability, accessibility, performance, and satisfaction.

Here are certain factors that you should consider while designing your website

Page load speed and layout

Core Web Vitals is a set of specific metrics that Google uses to measure and evaluate the user experience of a webpage. There are three main metrics that you should focus on

Mobile Optimization

With the increasing prevalence of mobile usage, optimize your platform for mobile devices. Ensure that the design is responsive and adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes, providing a consistent and enjoyable experience for mobile users.  

Seamless Content Discovery

Enhance content discovery by implementing robust search functionality, personalized recommendations, and intuitive menu navigations. Help users easily find the content they're interested in, increasing engagement and satisfaction.

Quality Playback

Ensure that your streaming quality is reliable and consistent. Offer adaptive streaming to adjust the video quality based on the viewer's internet connection, preventing buffering issues and providing a smooth playback experience.

4. Technical SEO

When it comes to video content, technical SEO plays a crucial role in ensuring that search engines can understand, index, and rank your videos effectively. Here are some key aspects of technical SEO for video optimization

Closed Captions and Subtitles

Adding closed captions to your video not only increases accessibility but also helps search engines understand its context. Closed captions are synchronized text that appears alongside the video, allowing viewers with hearing impairments or those in noisy environments to understand the dialogue and narration. Search engines can also crawl and the index closed captions, providing more textual content to analyze and understand the context of your video.

JSON-LD Schema Markup

JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is a structured data format that provides additional information to search engines about your video content. Implementing JSON-LD schema markup specific to videos, such as VideoObject schema, helps search engines understand the video's title, description, duration, thumbnail, and other relevant details. This structured data improves the visibility and presentation of your videos in search results.

Sitemaps

Sitemaps are files that contain a list of pages on your streaming website, as well as information about your site's content. This list helps search engines understand the structure of your website and allows them to crawl it more efficiently. It also allows you to tell search engines which pages on your site you want them to prioritize in their search results. 

5. Link Building

Quality backlinks signal to search engines that your platform is a reliable source of information and that it is well-trusted within the online community. This can help increase your visibility and make your platform more likely to show up in search engine results, which can help to draw more viewers and subscribers to your platform.

Collaborating with popular sites relevant to your niche and having them link to your content can significantly enhance your visibility and attract more viewers and subscribers

Building Links on Review Sites

Collaborate with popular influencers or content critics in the streaming industry. Offer them access to your platform or exclusive content in exchange for honest reviews, recommendations, or mentions on their platforms. Their positive reviews and backlinks can attract viewers to your streaming website. For example, if you are a movie streaming platform, backlinks from websites like rotten tomatoes and IMDb can be of great value to your website.

Press Releases and Media Coverage

Issue press releases about significant updates, new content releases, or partnerships within your streaming platform. Reach out to relevant media outlets or journalists to cover your news, leading to backlinks from reputable sources. This will help to increase visibility and trustworthiness of your streaming platform. It will also give you the opportunity to get your story out to a wider audience, helping to build your reputation and credibility.

Awards and Recognition

Participate in industry awards or recognition programs for streaming platforms. Winning or being nominated for awards can generate publicity and result in backlinks from relevant websites covering the awards or industry news.

Wrap Up

Remember that SEO is an ongoing process, and results may take time. Stay up-to-date with industry trends, algorithm updates, and user preferences to refine and adapt your SEO strategy for your streaming business.

Choose an OTT platform provider lile Ventuno that enables you to optimize your content for visibility, loading times, and user experience. This includes optimizing videos for technical SEO and optimizing content for user experience to help drive organic traffic to the streaming service.