Stories are the latest video marketing trend. Described as snackable tap-through mobile video content, stories were first introduced on the social media platform Snapchat in 2017. Since then, the stories feature has appeared across multiple platforms, with many brands hopping on the bandwagon. But this format isn’t just for social media – Google introduced its own answer to the trend called Google Web Stories, formerly known as Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP Stories.
This content type and feature enables “dynamic consumption experiences” through the popular tap-through stories format. What’s great about Web Stories on Google is that you can optimize them just like any other web page and leverage them to drive online engagement.
The goal is to turn your editorial content into an engaging and immersive Web Story that increases engagement, conversions, and lead generation. Use search engine optimization (SEO) tactics such as Web Stories SEO to ensure that your target audience can find this content fast and easily.
Anyone with a basic understanding of social media content or Digital Marketing Agency tactics can create Web Stories – it’s a simple and fun exercise. However, having a video marketing company by your side gives you the upper hand. A team of experts will assist you in creating the best possible content to bolster your business activities and growth goals while helping you make the best use of webstory Google tools.
Let’s look closer at what Google Web Stories are, how to use Google Stories to your advantage and how to optimize your Web Stories for search.
What Are Google Web Stories?
Google Web Items elevates editorial content by transforming everyday news stories and blog posts into an immersive and engaging experience for your readers. A Google Web Story combines videos, photographs, audio, text, and animation to create a fascinating storey that is broken up into seconds-long segments, making it easy for viewers to skip ahead or go back to the portions they want to see.
A travel blog that uses a tale to highlight a travel destination is an excellent example of how to make the most of the Web Stories format. Instead of a two-minute film that may be too long for certain viewers, they may create a five-part Google Web Story that highlights the greatest aspects of the site. The user would receive a quick glance of the storey and decide whether it was worth watching.
Why You Need Web Stories on Google
Although video has always been a powerful medium, Google Stories offers a unique viewing experience. Creating mobile-friendly content allows you to reach out to your target audience wherever they are and boosts the likelihood of interaction. A Google Web Story is also a popular approach to communicate your brand’s message to your customers via extremely unique and creative mobile video.
How Web Stories Elevate Your Video Marketing Strategy
- Improved Online Visibility
- Available to Anyone, Anywhere
- Unmatched Creative Freedom
- STEP # 1: View Existing Google Stories
- STEP # 2: Plan Your Content
- STEP # 3: Select Your Preferred Web Stories Tool
- STEP # 4: Start Creating
- Make sure your Web Stories content is relevant to your audience.
- Don’t cut off your Web Story to bring the user to another page.
- Include great titles, descriptions and text captions.
- Link to your Web Stories from other parts of your website.
- Include your Google Stories in your sitemap.
- Implement other digital strategies to drive traffic to your Web Stories.
- Keep your publisher name under 20 characters to avoid truncation.
- Your publisher logo should be at least 96px by 96px with an 8px padding.
- Don’t embed text into your portrait poster.
- Keep your Web Story title under 40 characters.
- The recommended aspect ratio for your portrait poster is 4:3.
- Keep your video under 4MB, 720p or smaller, and under 10 seconds viewing time.
- The video container should be MP4 or WebM.
- Codecs should be H.264, VP9 or AV1.
- Don’t place burned-in text on your video files.
- Layer semantic images on top to be read by search engines and screen readers.
- Use the title attribute to describe the video and improve accessibility.
- Include video captions to make it usable without sound.
- Recommended image dimensions are 1080px by 1920px.
- Crop your images to the desired size and don’t load the entire image.
- Image file format should be .jpeg if it’s a photo and .png if not a photo.
- Don’t use GIF for animation and use a video instead.
- Add alt text to your images to support accessibility and indexability.
Google Web Stories are, essentially, hosted web pages that use the stories format. Web Stories on Google are treated similarly to regular web pages – they are crawled, indexed and ranked by search engines. Web Stories increase your brand’s discoverability by driving traffic to your site, and you can monitor their performance on Google Analytics.
Web Stories, unlike social app-based stories, are freely available on the internet with no ecosystem constraints. You can find them on Google Discover, Google Search, and Google Images, or you may link directly to them. Video SEO tactics boost your online visibility, and video SEO best practises also apply to Google Stories.
Anyone with a device connected to the internet can view Google Web Stories. Your viewers don’t need to be signed in to any app to view your content, and your Web Stories don’t expire. You can freely share your Web Stories on other platforms by embedding or linking to them.
Google and WordPress experts mutually advocate for open access that benefits both users and creators. The Web Stories WordPress plugin is specifically designed for the widely used WordPress content management system (CMS) to make it even easier to embed and integrate your Web Stories into your strategy.
User-friendly tools, such as the official Web Stories WordPress plugin, enable you to easily choose your layout, fonts and more. WordPress experts can even code Web Stories from scratch. If you’re not on WordPress, you can use a third-party Web Stories app or visual editors such as MakeStories or Newsroom AI.
Social app stories might limit your creativity, but that’s not the case with Web Stories. You can set up your Web Stories to link out to external content or web pages, and you can monetize your Web Stories. But best of all, this content is easily created at no cost, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try out Web Stories.
How To Create an Impressive Google Web Story
Every brand has a story to tell, with a million different ways to tell it. Google Stories, formerly AMP Stories, enable you to create content that is authentic to your brand. Take note of webstory Google guidelines to develop and optimize Web Stories to your full advantage.
Create a Google Web Story the right way in four simple steps:
You need to understand the platform to maximize it. Find a Web Stories example that aligns with the way you want to tell your story. For instance, a good Web Stories example is a Lonely Planet listicle on five kid-friendly wildlife destinations. Instead of having users scroll vertically through a page alternating between text, images and video, they tap or swipe through a captivating visual journey.
Google is all about putting the user experience (UX) first, and relevant, informative content is king. A Google Web Story containing lackluster content will fail. Despite otherwise extraordinary visual elements, your story would not be of interest to your audience. Make sure to include a complete narrative in your Web Stories by enlisting professional content writing services. A video marketing company can ensure your Web Story has an outstanding title, a great story arc and superior copywriting.
You can choose the Web Stories tool or Web Stories app that suits your needs the best. Creators using the WordPress CMS have Google’s official Web Stories WordPress plugin. Choose from many other Web Stories tool options or even code your Web Stories from scratch.
Web Stories, unlike social app-based stories, are freely available on the internet with no ecosystem constraints. You can find them on Google Discover, Google Search, and Google Images, or you may link directly to them. Video SEO tactics boost your online visibility, and video SEO best practises also apply to Google Stories.
4 Expert Tactics on How To Optimize Web Stories
With Google bringing stories to the open web, we can expect the popularity of mobile video to increase and the capabilities of Google Stories to expand. As the platform evolves, applying webstory Google best practices will help you optimize your Web Stories effectively, stay ahead of the competition and pivot your strategy when needed.
Leverage and optimize Web Stories with these Google-approved tips
1. Use the Google Web Stories Test Tool
Passing the Google Web Stories Test Tool means you meet the minimum requirements for Google Stories, such as having the required metadata, being a valid AMP and being served via the AMP cache.
2. Prioritize Web Stories SEO
The best thing about Web Stories is built-in capabilities that help your SEO efforts. Your Web Stories SEO strategy will be very similar to how you optimize any other web page on your site: Put the user first and improve your search rankings in the process.
Key points:
3. Optimize Your Video Files
While your Web Stories can be viewed on any device, the stories format is primarily intended for mobile viewing. Use vertical videos that maximize the screen space instead of a landscape video awkwardly taking up a portion of the screen. Ensure your views load quickly or you will lose viewers within a fraction of a second.
Remember:
4. Optimize Your Image Files
Just like your video files, you want to optimize your images for fast page loading, improved indexing and the best UX possible. Any reputable video marketing agency will tell you never to use your images in the resolution they were originally taken in to avoid slowing down your load time.
Take note:
Get Started With Professional Video Production Services
While you should focus on the details of every Web Story you create, it’s equally important to look at the big picture. Having a video marketing strategy in place makes your Google Web Stories content intentional and results-driven. You avoid wasting valuable time and resources on video production services that don’t contribute to your specific business goals.
Services for professional video production Align the content of your Web Stories with a broader video marketing plan. With the help of an experienced video marketing agency, you can ensure that your Web Stories reach the proper audience and that your efforts contribute to the growth of your company.
Finsbury Media is a London SEO Agency growing businesses of all sizes and industries. We create engaging Web Stories and implement tried-and-tested video SEO techniques to boost your video marketing results. Our WordPress experts maximize the built-in Web Stories app capabilities to create high-quality content for both your viewers and search engines.
