9 Tactics to Boost Your Video Merchandising Efforts

4. Put videos "above the fold." In the context of the web, above the fold means the area of the screen visible without having to scroll. In testing performed by Invodo, videos placed above the fold achieved a one-and-a-half times higher view rate than videos below the fold. If your video player won't fit above the fold, include other tools such as icons or image overlays to ensure that you're making it easy for consumers to find your videos.

5. Use effective video thumbnails. When a consumer visits a web page that has video on it, they naturally gravitate toward the video thumbnail rather than text. If the thumbnail isn't interesting, they're less likely to click. Your thumbnail images should be compelling and representative of the content. Also keep in mind that video thumbnails will show up in organic search results and can improve your clickthrough rates.

6. Avoid autoplay (mostly). A visitor who reaches a product page via search or navigation doesn't expect to be greeted by a video playing. Tests show that users respond negatively to video autoplaying in such contexts. However, there are times when autoplay is appropriate. When a user clicks a "Play Video" callout in an email message, it makes sense to drop them on a landing page where the video autoplays. If in doubt, ask yourself what a typical user would expect. Unless they would fully expect to see video playing when the page loads, avoid autoplay.

7. Submit video site maps to Google. Video site maps help Google better understand what's included in your video content. Forrester Research estimates that properly submitted site maps can increase the chances that a video will receive a front-page organic Google placement by 53 times. You can submit a video site map to Google using Webmaster Tools. Submitting site maps isn't difficult unless you have a large number of videos that need site maps. Some video platform providers will do this for you in an automated way.