Best length for a video on a website
-
Most of us deal with UI/UX questions and SEO questions from clients on a daily basis. I was discussing video length with a client recently and I realized that he was in his video. This made me think about the thrill of seeing yourself in video might cause someone to make their video longer at the expense of UX. So, I thought I would put it to the Moz community. If a company is doing a "typical" home page "Explainer" video that tells about a company. This can be in the B2B or B2C sectors. I want to withhold my opinion at this point for the discussion.
-
When I worked in the newspaper industry and they started to use video, we were always told to keep it to under a minute and a half - I think if you go beyond that then people lose interest. Even so, if you go to the full time it has to be interesting throughout. The shorter the better really and don't do it for the sake of it - it has to add something for the viewer.
-
The answer to this would have to be "it depends" but in general my opinion would be a home page explainer should be 30-60 seconds.
But this is a clear situation where opinions or personal preferences are useless - let the data tell you what the visitors demand. This question screams for split testing - or at the very least doing close Analytics tracking via events to know how many even start the video, how long they watch, and whether they watch to the end.
Just showing the client that - say - fewer than 20% watch the video past 30 seconds would settle the discussion pretty quickly.
My $0.02
Paul
-
I appreciate this and that you added two to three minutes. I was trying to avoid detail for fear of contaminating people's opinions. My discussion came up with a service business that wanted what we call an explainer video. In other words: this is the problem, this is the solution, and this is why we are the choice.
Typically, I do not like these to run beyond 90 seconds and feel like anything closer to 60 seconds is better. The one for this client is animated, but we have another client who does videos and "stars" in them. They tend to be longer and, in agreement with your first point, I think they lose people.Thanks again, EGOL,
Robert
-
Even the tiny businesses that I run have a diversity of clients and types of clients. Far too many to summarize well in one short video. I believe that the message should be customized different types of clients.
If I was making videos they would be one click below the homepage. There I would post very short videos that simply present the product range, the value propositions that we offer our clients, and the support that we provide to help clients be successful. What we do for YOU.
Each business service or major product category would have one of these videos.
Instead of showing the CEO's face in these videos, I think it would be better to feature the staff members who will do the actual work and interface with the clients. Show staff in the work areas and offices where client work is accomplished. The goal is to show the experts who offer their skills and services and the assets that we have to accomplish the work.
How long? Two or three minutes.
I think it would be better to cover a limited range of information. That way the video is relevant to the listener's interests and not go into services that are not what the visitor has clicked into.
-
+1
This remind me when i talking about websites with some movie director. His idea was "all sites should have something cover page, when you visit it for first time you should see it. Even see this page every time on your visits as initial.". I was WTF?
-
I agree, this is excellent. So, assuming that it is about their services how long are you willing to endure? Obviously, if they are not getting to a point, etc. you are going to leave before it ends no matter what. My interest in this is in trying to get clients to understand what works vs. what looks good to them.
Do you look at video length when you begin to watch it or before you hit play? Does a certain length make you less likely to go forward?Thanks as always EGOL,
Robert
-
"typical" home page "Explainer" video that tells about a company.
I'd rather see explainer videos about products and services. Information that I want and need.
An explainer video "about a company".... sounds kinda sleepy.... I go to Wikipedia for that type of info because C-level company people are going to be thumpin' their chests and I'd rather read just the facts, presented with lots of subheadings so I can jump over what I don't need to know.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Which is the best way to rank a site?
Hi, I have been working on SEO for a long time, recently I started a new site where I was aiming to rank different niches but I am stuck. First I covered some keywords related to sports then I shifted the niche to hunting. My idea was to cover a niche fully then move on to the 2nd so the authority of the site can also help rank the 2nd niche but the problem is I am unable to rank my site. Should I be considering only a very specific niche site or should I continue doing all the stuff on the same site. Please checkout my site ReviewsCase.com and let me know. And if has also done the same please let me know.
Algorithm Updates | | seoasikhan20 -
Using a sites custom code for multiple websites: good or bad?
Is it bad to utilize a custom codebase for multiple websites? Does that play a factor within Google? Also, what about hosting sites with the same custom codebase on the same dedicated server?
Algorithm Updates | | WebServiceConsulting.com0 -
Website dance on Google Map results and organic seo results
My website is daily showing different position on maps.google.com and for the last few days like yesterday it was on 21st position on some keyword and today it is no where and same with other keywords. Is this a Google Dance ?? what can be its period ? and what is tyhe solution to handle it ??
Algorithm Updates | | mnkpso0 -
Parallel mobile website
After researching and comparing desktop keywords vs mobile keywords, I came to the conclusion that they are pretty much the same, with minor variations. The new keywords for mobile website do not have a great potential for bringing in much traffic. If I don't want to go after those new mobile, do I need to build separate links to our parallel mobile website (URL) to rank better or the link building for my desktop website would be enough to rank for my parallel mobile website as well?
Algorithm Updates | | echo10 -
Why a terrible website ranks number 1??
Hi, I'm an SEO newbie. A couple of months ago I launched a new E-Commerce website for my client : http://www.corporategiftsshop.co.za The site has over 1000 pages indexed in Google. I've done some link building and on-page SEO for the keyword terms : corporate gifts
Algorithm Updates | | MarnusW
promotional items
promotional gifts Currently the website ranks number 31 for "Corporate Gifts" in Google.co.za What I cannot comprehend, is that the site which ranks number 1 is simply shocking! http://www.corporategifts.co.za/ It is a single, static webpage with all links pointing to another website : http://www.promogifts.co.za It has 1 back link and a page rank of zero, yet it still ranks number 1? Can anyone give me a reason or some insight into this as it has me stumped.. Some of the other sites in the top 5 are also poor, yet they still rank high. Our site has a Page rank of 5 and 67 unique domains which links to it ( according to our webmaster tools ) yet it still only manages a 31 ranking?? Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I need to make sense of this, otherwise hang up my SEO gloves.. Regards, Marnus.1 -
Best Practices for Page Titles | RSS Feeds
Good Morning MOZers, Quick question for the community: when creating an RSS feed for one of your websites, how do you title your RSS feed? Currently, the sites I'm managing use the 'rss.xml' for the file name, but I was curious to know whether or not it would, in any way, benefit my SERP if I were to add my domain to precede the 'rss.xml', i.e. 'my-sites-rss.xml' or something of that nature. Beyond that, are there any 'best practices' for creating RSS feed page titles or is there a preferred method of implementation? Anybody have any solutions
Algorithm Updates | | NiallSmith0 -
What is the best way to build a Mobile Site?
I am looking into building a mobile version for my website, knowing that Google Likes Google should I stick with using their mobile building tool or build something from scratch in Dreamweaver? How to optimize for Google Mobile? Thx
Algorithm Updates | | Ben-HPB0 -
Perfect Landing Page for jewelry website?
What would be the Perfect Landing Page for jewelry website? Show me some examples and tell me why do you think so. Thanks in advance to everyone who participated.
Algorithm Updates | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0