Multimedia streaming services all have the same challenges: huge sites that make it difficult to scale, and competition against universal search.
Just look at Disney+, which set out to offer 7,500 TV episodes and 500 movies in its first year. That massive amount of content can also create massive problems when it comes to scaling their strategy to earn visibility.
With the streaming industry already being as saturated as it is, those services now have to compete with Google itself, as the SERP introduces new search features that take up space and steal visibility.
To offer data-based research on the online streaming market, we decided to explore three streaming types in particular: video streaming, audio streaming, and live streaming. This analysis gave insights into the online streaming world.
To see the SEO strategies that streaming companies should follow, jump to the bottom of this page.
Video Streaming
To understand the video streaming industry, we used Topic Explorer, a feature within seoClarity’s keyword research suite, Research Grid.
Topic Explorer allows a user to discover relevant keywords or topics, or in our case, industries.
We analyzed the video streaming industry to uncover search behavior for the video streaming industry. Here’s what we found.
The search volume and massive set of ways users search is huge:
Video Streaming: The Competition
With advancements to the Google SERP, you no longer compete solely against other competitor domains. Now, you need to battle Google itself.
The Top Competitor view in Topic Explorer shows us exactly who we compete against in this industry, sorted by the keyword count:
(Top SERP competitors for the video streaming industry.)
But how do users search in the first place to land on these SERPs?
Video Streaming: Search Patterns
The most popular keyword patterns of the video streaming industry are listed below. Each “blank” represents where a keyword can be filled in to complete the pattern.
Here’s how users search, sorted by the amount of variations possible to complete the pattern (highest to lowest):
- _ online free (12,750)
- _ full movie (10,827)
- _ to watch _ (5,391)
- _ full episodes (5,365)
- _ season 1 _ (5,037)
- _ full movie _ (5,027)
- _ watch online (4,816)
- _ movie online (4,621)
- _ season 2 _ (4,490)
- _ episode 1 (4,319)
This data looks at the video industry as a whole, but there is also data to be mined for individual movies and TV shows.
What we mean by this are the topics that reveal themselves when a user searches for a specific movie or TV title. In that case, the content tends to include the:
- Trailer
- Cast
- Release Date
This is the information that you need to include on your pages to provide value. This is the information that people seek out, so if you want them to subscribe, you have to address their needs.
Audio Streaming
To understand the digital landscape of the audio streaming industry, we analyzed the music streaming and downloads industry data within Topic Explorer, and simply filtered out “downloads”.
This left us with the data that pertains to streaming. Here’s what we found:
Audio Streaming: The Competition
We again look to the Top Competitor view to uncover the true SERP competition.
(Top SERP competitors for the audio streaming industry.)
Audio Streaming: Search Patterns
Understanding how users search for terms relevant to this industry can help you form and execute a proper strategy to gain search visibility.
According to Topic Explorer, this is how people search in the music streaming industry (downloads removed) sorted by variation:
- how to _ (5,311)
- listen to _ (1,584)
- free music _ (1,335)
- how do _ (1,259)
- _ to get _ (1,196)
- how to get _ (1,048)
- _ free music _ (854)
- _ do i _ (848)
- _ iphone to _ (838)
- how do i _ (826)
When we research specific song and artist names, we discovered the main topics users search for:
- Top songs
- Latest songs
- Lyrics
- Album tracklists
This is the information you need to provide to meet the demand of users in this particular industry.
Live Streaming
To analyze the live streaming landscape, we took a look at the internet TV industry within Topic Explorer and filtered to add the topic “live”. Here's what we found:
Live Streaming: The Competition
There’s a seemingly endless number of companies that offer live streaming. Even the major network providers offer live entertainment. Here’s a look at the competition:
(Top SERP competitors for the live streaming industry.)
Live Streaming: Search Patterns
A look at the industry's keyword patterns reveals how online users search for this industry online.
- _ live stream (1,612)
- _ live streaming (923)
- _ live TV (713)
- _ TV live (658)
- _ TV live _ (629)
- _ live stream _ (607)
- _ live TV _ (528)
- _ live online (522)
- _ live streaming _ (515)
- live TV _ (455)
There are hundreds of ways that people use these search patterns to find the information they’re looking for.
When people search for specific live events, there is one recurring item that is of most importance: event start times.
Sports Streaming
To explore the world of sports streaming, we again look at the internet TV industry, but two filters (live and sports) allow us to uncover sports streaming topics. Here are the results:
Sports Streaming: The Competition
To truly understand the sports streaming landscape, we turn to the top competitors in the industry. Notice the two .google entities included in the list.
(Top SERP competitors for sports streaming.)
Sports Streaming: Search Patterns
To find sports streaming content, online searchers use the following keyword patterns:
- _ sports live _ (247)
- _ live stream (126)
- _ live sports _ (116)
- _ live sports (115)
- _ sports live (114)
- fox sports _ (92)
- _ live streaming (91)
- live sports _ (76)
- _ live stream _ (71)
- _ live streaming _ (64)
Online Education Courses
Many websites offer education, on-demand content. To get a better understanding of this vertical, we look at topics within the education and training industry. Here is a summary of what we see:
On-Demand Education: The Competition
The top competitor for this industry (based on keyword count) is a Google entity! Jobs.google.com to be exact. Here's a look at the top 10 competitors:
(Top SERP competitors for the on-demand education and training industry.)
On-Demand Education: Search Patterns
What queries do searchers use along their search journey? Here are the top keyword variations. Remember that a blank line is where another term would be filled in to complete the pattern.
- _ online courses (476)
- _ courses online (398 )
- free online _ (251)
- online courses _ (172)
- _ certification online (157)
- _ online courses _ (136)
- online teaching _ (116)
- _ online free (109)
- _ course online (99)
- _ online course (99)
Online Gaming Subscriptions
Topic Explorer easily allows us to dissect the video game subscriptions industry. Here is the summary data for the topics included in this vertical:
Online Gaming Subscriptions: The Competition
Xbox leads the competitor list with more than 1,000 keywords. Here's a look at who else makes the list:
(Top SERP competitors for the gaming industry.)
Online Gaming Subscriptions: Search Patterns
To understand how exactly people search for this industry, we take a look at the keyword patterns. Here are the results:
- xbox live _ (2,040)
- _ live gold _ (866)
- ps plus _ (140)
- _ microsoft points (86)
- _ ps plus (82)
- _ redeem code (79)
- _ gift card _ (67)
- microsoft points _ (62)
- playstation plus _ (56)
- _ microsoft points _ (54)
Strategies to Handle Scale for Streaming Services
Online streaming sites are made of thousands of pages — if not more. While this supplies your users with plenty of content, it creates a problem with scale.
This challenge is two-fold: there is a scale problem for your keyword set, and a scale problem for your technical SEO.
To solve the first part of this problem, seoClarity makes it simple to conduct statistical keyword sampling: a way to keep your managed keywords fresh, and “track keywords without actually tracking them.”
Then, to solve for technical SEO challenges, we have our built-in crawler with no artificial limits. It’s fully customizable, so you can define the crawl speed, depth, frequency, and more. It’s even been battle tested on a 48-million page website.
Strategies to Tackle Universal Search
As the data showed us, the SERP is busy. And not just with your expected competitors — Google properties often appear as part of the search results, too, making the SERP more crowded than ever.
If the SERP is changing, the way you monitor and track your rankings must change, too. That is exactly why we created Visibility Share. It allows you to measure actual pixel depth on the SERP to see it and understand it just like real searchers do. As a true replacement for rank position, it’s the future of rank tracking.
Conclusion
The data speaks for itself: streaming services face an enormous amount of competition, but they also are looking at an incredible amount of potential.
You can capitalize on that potential if you can solve the complex marketing challenges of the changing SERP and enormous amounts of data, and that’s what seoClarity is here to help you do.
Book a demo today to see first-hard how our platform can transform your online streaming strategy for SEO.
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