What Are Webinars and How Can They Support SEO Activities?
We’ve been familiar with online meetings and courses for quite a long time. However, due to the increasing popularity and importance of video formats in content marketing, it’s really worth taking advantage of this solution and applying it in the campaigns. Webinars can be highly beneficial and help you improve various parameters, especially now in the era of remote working and online shopping.
Webinars – What Are They?
In order to find out how webinars affect website positions, first, we need to analyze what they actually are. The webinar is a blend of words web and seminar. Therefore, it can be described as online activities or business meetings.
It’s very important to mention that webinars and the use of online tools enable mutual communication between the meeting leader and participants. Moreover, webinars are usually saved to ensure that users who weren’t able to take part in the meetings also have the opportunity to watch them. Webinars are also known as webcasts, online workshops or seminars, and web conferences.
Types Of Webinars (Categorized By The Format)
- Audio-video streaming
Real-time audio-video webinars definitely belong to the most frequently chosen type. Participants can feel like during a traditional meeting or training – they can be active, ask questions and get answers. Very often there are special chats or surveys.
- Audio and slideshow/whiteboard/real-time screen sharing
This is another frequently used type which is based on screen sharing, whiteboard or a prepared slideshow. The meeting leader uses the audio format and comments on things displayed on the screen. Here, participants usually also can take advantage of a special chat and ask questions.
- Pre-recorded webinars
Pre-recorded webinars are the third type, they resemble audio-video streamings, however, they’re usually recorded earlier and published after some time. This group includes webinars that have been conducted live and then made available to a wider audience.
Types Of Webinars (Categorized By The Objective)
- Educational webinars (workshops)>
This is definitely the most popular type among all mentioned. Thanks to it, you can share your professional expertise in a given field and educate participants. Slideshows or whiteboards are perfect for this purpose.
- Corporate communication (meetings)
This type usually comprises business webinars that resemble online meetings rather than training. Obviously, they also serve the informative function, however, it’s much less visible than in the case of educational webinars. Corporate communication webinars, which are real-time audio-video webinars, focus on the exchange of views and ideas.
- Product demonstration webinars
Webinars can also be used as a means of advertising. Product demonstration webinars are recently gaining in popularity. Meeting leaders usually aim at introducing a new product or service. So, it’s no longer necessary to invite potential customers to an in-person meeting, it’s enough to create an appropriate webinar. This will give users the possibility to learn about all the relevant details and ask questions. On the other hand, product or service owners can get valuable feedback concerning their offer.
Main Advantages Gf Webinars
Convenience, time and money-saving
When looking from the perspective of a webinar host, such a form of meetings doesn’t require renting a room, leaving a house or dealing with many other formalities.
Webinars allow you to save money, moreover, you don’t need to worry about geographical restrictions. You can run a webinar sitting in your home or in a hotel on the other end of the world. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection and optionally a proper microphone or a special lamp if you want to present yourself as a real professionalist.
However, participants can also benefit from this form of meeting as it helps them save time and avoid problems resulting from their location. Users can watch webinars lying in their beds or sitting in the armchair, all they need is a computer and internet access. What’s more, there are plenty of free webinars, therefore, it’s also a great way to learn new things without spending any money.
Affordable online branding and authority building
As it’s been already mentioned, all you need to run a webinar is a computer with internet access. Next, you have to choose a specific subject, title and format that corresponds to your objectives.
It’s up to you what the webinar will look like in the end or what you’ll be talking about or showing during the presentation. Therefore, as you can see, the possibilities are almost endless. If you know what you want to say and are confident in the field, running a webinar should be a piece of cake. It’s worth noting that webinars have simply become trendy, so if you want to reach a wider range of potential customers, take advantage of this marketing tool. This way, you can easily improve your authority or brand recognition and attract new customers and recipients.
Easy access to both free and paid tools
If you decide to run your own webinars, you can do it with the use of both paid and free tools. The most popular ones include:
- LiveWebinar (a tool dedicated specifically to create webinars; free webinar room for 5 people – up to 2h)
- Google Hangouts Meet (free; 10 speakers and an unlimited number of participants)
- Click Meeting (from 10 USD per month; 7 speakers and 1000 participants at the same time)
- Zoom (free up to 50 participants and 40 minutes / paid version from 15 USD/month; 1 speaker and 1000 participants at the same time).
How Can Webinars Support Your SEO Process?
Content Creation
Content is undoubtedly the most important factor thanks to which your webinars can significantly and positively affect your positions on Google. As you know, content is crucial when it comes to conducting the SEO process. Moreover, many elements of your webinar can be later used while creating texts on your website. One webinar can be divided into a few short videos or you can write blog posts based on the information provided in the webinar. It’ll definitely have a positive impact on traffic to the site.
Quality Links
Users visiting your website will certainly appreciate your effort to present a given product or service in a creative way. Product demonstration webinars are a great way to position yourself as an expert in a given field, moreover, webinars are much more appealing than lengthy and mundane product descriptions. Thanks to them, your current and potential customers will see you as a reliable source of information. This, in turn, increases the probability that in the case of any doubts people will choose or share your products over goods offered by your market rivals.
What’s more important, creating valuable content ensures that recipients will eagerly share your webinars. Consider taking advantage of link baiting. Publishing given webinar content on your website (photos, graphics, slideshows or texts) and social media platforms, which redirect users to your landing page, increases the number of valuable links to the site. This translates directly into bigger chances of your website being displayed higher on specific keywords.
Creating Website Traffic
Every webinar is a great way to improve brand recognition and strengthen its position on the market. Participants of your webinars, who learned something valuable and got interested in your company, will naturally generate traffic to your website while visiting it again. What’s more, people sharing your content also contribute to improving the position of the website in the search results. In this case, user-generated content is particularly important.
User-Generated Content
In marketing, creating webinars and allowing users to add comments and reviews has a significant impact not only on the UX but also on user-generated content meaning all content created by visitors to the site. It’s a form of extra texts which are constantly updated and effectively reduce your internal duplicate content and at the same time increase the number of keywords your site is displayed on.
Moreover, user-generated content makes your website more credible. After all, for potential customers, comments and reviews written by other buyers are more believable than even the most sophisticated and thorough descriptions published by website owners. Thanks to such feedback, you also get a clear indication of elements that work well or need to be improved to increase your reach and the number of satisfied recipients.
Webinar Optimization
The first step to optimize your webinars is to select a specific platform or tool and a title that corresponds to your needs and objectives. The title should be a summary that briefly outlines the content of your webinar. Make sure it’s engaging and contains a keyword that can be used to advertise your event. Moreover, remember to place the word webinar in the title so that both users and Google robots know how to analyze your content and what to expect.
Well-thought-out activities on social media as well as e-mail marketing can help you reach the intended target group and encourage users to take part in your webinar and visit your site.
Apart from that, you should also create an appealing and optimized meta description that will attract potential recipients. If you want to transcribe the webinar on your own, make sure that everything is optimized! Prepare everything you want to say in advance and use the keyword from the title from time to time. It’s worth remembering that now Google robots tend to analyze not only written but also audio content.
The takeaway
As it can be deduced from today’s entry, employing solutions such as webinars can help you significantly boost the results of your marketing activities. It’s not enough to simply create webinars, apart from that you need to remember about their optimization, content and advertising.
If you aim at improving your positions in the search results, make sure that you constantly improve your brand recognition and position yourself as an expert in the field. Attracting new recipients will allow you to generate more leads. Actions performed after the webinar are equally important. Try to stay in touch with the participants, encourage them to give you feedback and think about implementing solutions that lead to conversion.
