How to do SEO with videos: Key tips for appearing on Google, social media and even AI!

Stop doing SEO the way you did 1 year. Yes, one year—you read that right!

AI and social media have changed everything.

Did you know that your videos can rank on Google, social media and now also in AI tools such as ChatGPT or Perplexity? Let me correct that: they can do more than just rank—they are increasingly ranking on Google because users are tending to consume this content rather than 3,000-word articles.

Video has gone from being merely a visual social media format to becoming a powerful discovery and SEO ranking tool.

You may also be interested in:

• How to do SEO on Instagram + Checklist
• How to do SEO on TikTok

The episode on our marketing podcast (haven’t subscribed yet?):

1. Conduct keyword research and identify opportunities
   Identify keywords that return video results on Google—not just those with search volume.
2. Create the video. Platforms such as HICARI let you purchase custom, already-edited videos.
3. Upload the .srt file to YouTube; on Reels/TikTok, use native text (the Apps’ captions).
4. Title = keyword + hook
   “How to make cold brew in 3 minutes. My favourite recipe” (example of a video for a coffee brand).
5. Optimised description
   • Include the key phrase in the first 120 characters.
   • 200–300 words in total: explain the context, add synonyms and links.
6. Subtitles and closed captions
   • Auto-captions + manual review
   • Although subtitles edited with Apps such as CapCut or Edits are more visual, remember that your goal is to rank, not to make the content as cool as possible.
7. Forget about Hashtags
   • Yes, they no longer work. According to Instagram’s own CEO (Source).
8. Thumbnail or cover frame
   • Strong contrast, short text (3–5 words).
   • Human face + action.Forget about Hashtags
9. Initial engagement (first 24 h)
   • Reply to comments and pin one with a CTA (“Visit our website”).
   • Share the link and ask your colleagues for interactions (that add value).
10. Schema Markup if you embed it on your website: use VideoObject and add contentUrl, thumbnailUrl, duration and uploadDate. Include a transcript below (Google crawls it and it adds semantic relevance).
11. Configure the Instagram, TikTok or Youtube Apps correctly
    • Instagram: configure it to (1) upload videos in maximum quality, (2) allow it to be embedded on the web, (3) allow Google to index it
    • Youtube: don’t forget the keywords (yes, there’s a section for them)

Ask yourself: what does my audience search for on Google, YouTube or TikTok?

👉 Then, use SEO tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs to find out what users are searching for. If you don’t have paid tools, use alternatives such as Answer The Public, Google Trends, Google Suggest or TikTok Search to find real questions.

Examples:

• “How to apply sunscreen correctly”
• “Summer outfit ideas”
• “Which camera is best for recording UGC videos”
• “What is Disneyland Paris like”

• YouTube (ideal because it belongs to Google)
• Instagram, which is already indexed and ranks very well on Google
• TikTok, whose results already appear on Google
• Your own website, paid landing pages, product pages, etc. Embed the video using SEO schema (VideoObject)

A good initial hook is key to capturing attention. If the video is ignored in the first few seconds, it loses momentum in the visibility algorithm.

AIs such as ChatGPT or Gemini transcribe audio and recognise brand mentions or the keywords you want to rank for. If you say your name, it’s easier for them to associate you as a relevant source and for you to appear in future answers.

• UGC
• 5 Examples of UGC videos
• UGC content in Spain

We’ve said it time and time again. These platforms don’t just rank within the social network; they already appear on Google for many transactional and informational keywords. It’s the SEO 3-for-1: you rank within the social networks themselves (search results, surfaced videos, and so on), on Google by ranking the content URLs, and AI systems can also use them as sources.

New generative AI systems don’t just summarize text or websites. They also read, analyze and cite video content. This has a huge impact on how your content is discovered and consumed. Here’s why:

Tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude:

• Can’t watch and play content directly from YouTube or the social network, but they can understand its relevance or ranking on social networks or search engines.
• They can extract data from relevant videos: title, summary, publication date, views, etc.
• If given the file, they can transcribe the audio, read subtitles, recognize on-screen text (OCR), and identify faces, objects and settings. In other words, in the near future they’ll be able to do this directly from videos on social networks.

This creates a new source of high-value traffic from AI systems such as:

• Perplexity.ai, which actively cites videos in its answers.
• ChatGPT (with browsing or plugins enabled), which provides links to or summaries of relevant videos.
• Bing Copilot, which combines web results, videos and AI summaries in its answers.

Additionally, if you embed videos on your website using Schema markup (VideoObject), you increase the chances that:

• Google will display them in featured snippets.
• AI systems such as ChatGPT or Gemini will recognize them as a reliable source (especially if your brand is mentioned in speech and text).

More and more users search directly on:

• ChatGPT
• Google Gemini
• Bing with Copilot
• Perplexity

And these searches now return not only websites or blogs, but also videos. That’s why having optimized videos increases your chances of being cited, linked to or suggested on these platforms. In other words, greater visibility for your brand.

That way, a good UGC or branded video can become the content AI uses as its primary reference to provide an answer.