When you think about SEO, you likely think about text.
Pages with big blocks of text, like blog posts, resource pages and product pages, need to be optimized for specific keywords and user intent. That’s absolutely true.
But.
How much of your marketing content is plain text anymore? What about your images, long-form video, video clips, podcast episodes and animated GIFs? That’s where digital asset optimization comes in.
What is digital asset optimization?
Digital asset optimization (DAO) is the practice of optimizing all of an organization’s content for search, including images, audio, video and beyond.
Since search engines can’t reliably crawl audio, images or video content (yet!), DAO means tagging and organizing your digital assets in a way that makes sense to robots, your potential customers, and your employees.
Digital asset optimization for images
Images can be valuable search assets once they’re optimized. Image searches comprise 22.6% of all web searches and 62.6% of all searches from Google’s home page. And these figures are rising steadily.
Here’s how to make your images more search-friendly.
Optimize for file size
Be sure your images are the proper resolution for web browsing. Ultra high-resolution images are great for print, but can slow down your load times enough to affect your site’s rankings. Keep file sizes below 20MB.
Optimize file names
It’s hard for you to find a specific picture if all your filenames are “image13245.jpg.” The same is true for search. Filenames should be descriptive and linked to a particular keyword, like “Data_asset_optimization_chart.jpg.”
Use descriptive alt tags
It’s important to use alt tags for their intended purpose: describing an image so it’s accessible to screen readers for the visually impaired. Within that purpose, you can include your keywords, but don’t compromise accessibility. For example, “A chart showing three elements of eco-friendly waste reduction: reduce, reuse, recycle.”
Use structured data elements
To be eligible for rich search results such as Featured Snippets, Google needs to understand what your images are for and what text they should accompany. Structured data markup makes this possible. Start with Google’s structured data policies for an introduction.
Add images to your site map
Your site map should include every part of the site that you want search engines to crawl. This includes images and video. Make sure each entry includes titles, descriptions, captions, license information and URL.
Digital asset optimization for video
According to HubSpot’s 2023 State of Video Marketing survey, 66% of consumers have watched video specifically to learn about a brand or product. Video remains one of the fastest-growing ways to consume content. So it’s important to make sure yours is searchable.
Include transcripts for long-form video
A complete transcript turns that uncrawlable video script into easily-parsed text. Services like otter.ai make it easy to generate a transcript to post along with your video.
Use YouTube for short-form video
Since Google owns YouTube, you have access to more SERP (search engine results page) features if your video is hosted there. Longer videos can be hosted privately or with a service like Vidyard or Wistia, which offer their own optimization tools.
Create memorable titles and descriptions
Pay as much attention to a video title and description as you would to a blog headline and description. Your title should clearly state what the video is about, and your description should be designed to grab attention (and then reward it).
Put your most important video first
On a page with multiple videos, list the most important one at the top. Google typically only indexes one video per page, so make it count.
Only embed a video on one page at a time
Embedding the same video on multiple pages puts you in conflict with your own content for rankings.
Use structured data markup
Google offers structured data guidelines and best practices to make your video available for enhanced search results.
Digital asset optimization for audio
Podcasts are the most common audio marketing assets for most businesses (unless your brand has a truly rousing theme song or earworm-y jingle). Use these practices to make your audio more visible to search.
Use descriptive filenames
As with other types of digital media, filenames matter. They should include relevant keywords and should be unique for each file.
Post transcripts of recordings
All audio recordings should be accompanied by a full text transcript. Consider using headers to help both users and search engines scan the conversation and its topical coverage.
Customize your podcast RSS feed
Most podcast hosting platforms will produce an RSS feed (the way your content gets syndicated to listening services) for you. It’s important to make sure the feed includes a title, author name, description, and tags for each episode.
Use relevant keywords in podcast episode titles and descriptions
It’s a good idea to be straightforward with your episode titles and descriptions. Make sure each attribute tells people exactly what they’ll be getting.
Great content + SEO + DAO = Great results
Our agency has a saying: Good content is the best SEO. Even as Google algorithms evolve and content types change, that statement holds true. Optimization starts with creating meaningful, valuable content based on proven search demand.
Start with creating something great. Then, whether your content is an image, video, audio, or text, make sure it has the proper formatting, tags and metadata to make it visible to search engines.
Do you know where your site stands with SEO? Request a free SEO report card to find out.
