Short and Sweet: The Power of Short Web Videos

Web videos can be as long or as short as you need them to be. However, before you take on a two hour documentary detailing your product or service in depth, consider the advantages of shorter Web videos.

Web Video Usability

First, consider your audience: Web surfers. People watch Web videos differently than they watch DVDs and television programming. For some, download speed remains a real issue. For others, watching videos on a tiny screen is hard on the eyes. For many, time is in short supply and plenty of diversions compete for their attention. Even with broadband connections, HD videos, and larger computer screens, few Web surfers are ready to settle in for a long video viewing session. With short attention spans, short Web videos are a must. In fact, if a viewer perceives that your Web video requires a large time investment, that viewer may never click the play button.

Web Video Discovery

Web videos can provide websites with an immediate benefit: improved visibility. Search engines often list videos in their results pages. Not only that, some users specifically search for videos, not text. Where your website may have a difficult time ranking for a given keyword phrase, the addition of a Web video could vastly improve your site’s visibility.

By optimizing your videos with relevant keywords, your Web pages could attract a much wider audience than text alone. By splitting a larger video into a series of shorter Web videos, you can get much more exposure and optimize far more pages than sticking with the longer, uncut video. This strategy also overcomes the attention span problem.

The Power of Web Video Series

In addition to overcoming the problem of short attention spans and boosting SEO, having a series of short Web videos provides you with an opportunity to engage, convert, and nurture prospects and leads. You could also use a video series in multiple ways. For example, you could offer a series of Web videos via email as an incentive for users to subscribe to your newsletter. Doing so ensures that Web visitors return to your website instead of becoming one-time visitors never to be heard from again. Each Web video could be posted strategically in your website, taking viewers step-by-step through a process that culminates in a strong call to action.

From reaching viewers with short attention spans and enhancing your SEO efforts to creating a video-to-lead funnel strategy that allows you to engage, convert, and nurture prospects and leads, short Web videos deliver a powerful punch.

Do you have a longer Web video that could be made into a series of shorter ones? How have you used short Web videos to your advantage? Share your thoughts, experiences, and ideas with

us in the comments section below.