Video on a Service Page

What video does that text cannot

Three things, and they are worth being precise about.

It shows the work happening, which is more convincing than any description of it and is difficult to fake.

It shows the person, which resolves the question of who a visitor would be dealing with faster than an about page.

And it shows scale, condition, or process, which are the things customers struggle to picture from words.

Anything outside those three is usually better as text, because text is faster to consume and does not require a decision to start.

Most people will not press play

The constraint that determines how to use it.

A play button is a request for commitment: it might be two minutes, it might have sound, and the visitor cannot tell.

So the majority of visitors to a page with a video do not watch it, which is normal and not a failure.

Which means the video cannot carry information the page needs everybody to have.

The price, the coverage, and the process still need to be in text, and the video adds to that rather than replacing it.

A page where the answer is only in the video has hidden its answer behind a decision.

What makes one watched

• A stated length, visible before pressing play.
• A frame showing something specific.
• A caption saying what it shows.
• Under ninety seconds.
• Captions, since most watch without sound.

The first does most of the work. Somebody who can see it is forty seconds will start it, and somebody facing an unmarked play button assumes several minutes and does not.

Keep it short and specific

Since a general video about the business is the version nobody finishes.

One video per service page, about that service, showing that work.

Forty to ninety seconds, which is enough to show a process and not enough to lose people.

Start with the thing itself rather than with a title card, a logo animation, or somebody introducing themselves, since the first three seconds decide whether it continues.

And record it on a phone, in the ordinary conditions of the work, since a polished production frequently converts worse than an honest one for a small business.

The polish signals a budget rather than competence, and the site around it is not polished either.

A worked example

A business added a two minute video to their main service page, produced professionally, opening with a logo animation and a welcome.

Almost nobody watched past twenty seconds and enquiries did not move.

They replaced it with a fifty second clip recorded on a phone: the actual work, filmed close, with a spoken explanation of what was happening and why it matters.

The thumbnail showed the work rather than the logo, and the length was written beside it.

Completion rose substantially and enquiries improved modestly, and several people mentioned the video specifically.

The professional version had cost considerably more and performed worse.

The cost to the page

Which is the reason not to add one casually.

An embedded player from a video platform loads a substantial amount of code, which slows the page for everybody including the majority who never press play.

Use whatever lightweight embedding option the platform offers, which loads an image first and the player only when somebody clicks.

Never set it to play automatically, which costs mobile data, startles people, and is penalised in every way that matters.

And check the page speed before and after, since a video is one of the largest single additions a page can take.

Where the page is already slow, fix that before adding a video to it.

Where it earns its place

Some pages benefit considerably more than others.

Anything where the customer cannot picture the outcome: a finish, a transformation, a process happening in their house.

Anything where the disruption is the worry, since showing what a day of the work actually looks like resolves it.

Anything where the person matters, such as work in somebody's home, where seeing who would turn up answers a real question.

And anywhere a demonstration is more convincing than a claim, which is most trades.

A video on a page about your company history is not earning anything.

Captions are not optional

Briefly, since it is the most commonly skipped step.

A large share of video is watched without sound, on phones, in places where sound is not possible.

Without captions, those viewers get pictures and no explanation, which is half the content.

Captions also make the spoken content readable by search engines and by anybody who prefers to read.

Most platforms generate them automatically now, and the automatic version needs correcting rather than accepting, particularly for trade terms and place names.

Where the video should be hosted

A decision worth making deliberately rather than by default.

Uploading to a video platform and embedding is easiest, handles every device, and puts the platform's suggestions and branding on your page.

Hosting the file yourself avoids that and costs bandwidth, and on a shared hosting plan a popular video can be a problem.

For most small businesses the platform is the right answer, with the related-video and branding options turned down as far as the settings allow.

Check what appears at the end of your video on somebody else's device, since a clip finishing with suggestions for your competitors is a real outcome of the default settings.

The counter-case

Video is frequently added because it is expected rather than because it helps.

A page with a clear explanation, real photographs, and a price does not need one, and the effort might do more elsewhere.

Photographs are also considerably cheaper, load faster, and are consumed by everybody without a decision to start.

And a bad video, poorly lit or awkwardly delivered, actively harms, where a bad photograph is merely ignored.

Add one where it shows something text cannot, keep it under ninety seconds, caption it, and keep the answers in text.

What to do

1. Ask what text does badly on this page.
2. Record it on a phone, showing the work.
3. Keep it under ninety seconds.
4. Start with the thing, not a title card.
5. Write the length beside the play button.
6. Add captions and correct them.
7. Keep the answers in text as well.

Step seven is the one that prevents a video from costing you anything, since most visitors will never press play and the page still has to work for them.

Getting the recording made at all is covered in short video for a business that hates cameras.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.