Video is one of the most engaging and popular forms of content on the web. In fact, it makes up roughly 82.5% of all global internet traffic.

But when it comes to search engines and video SEO, there's a catch: Google can't "watch" your video in the same way people do. They rely on text to understand what your video is about and decide where it should appear in search results. And as AI tools like ChatGPT enter the search landscape, the same principle applies. Without text, your video is almost invisible.

That's where video transcripts come in.

By turning your spoken content into written words, transcripts give search engines the text they need to index, rank, and serve your videos to the right audience. Let's look at the main ways transcripts can boost your video SEO.

Jump to:

• Increase search engine indexing opportunities
• Make your content discoverable with keyword-rich text
• Improve user experience and accessibility
• Create opportunities for content repurposing
• Improve internal linking and content strategy
• Build topical authority over time
• Provide context for rich snippets and featured results
• Help you prepare for AI and LLM-driven search
• Get fast, accurate video transcripts with Transcribe
• What to do with your video transcript to boost SEO

Search engines can't "watch" videos, but they can read transcripts. Without a transcript, search engines only have your video title, description, and tags to work with. But with one, they can crawl, understand, and index the full depth of your video's content, increasing its chances of appearing in search results.

That means a single video can rank for dozens, even hundreds, of different keyword combinations, bringing in more organic traffic.

When you transcribe your video, you create a written version of everything that's said. This text is packed with natural keywords and phrases that your audience is likely to search for. By including transcripts alongside your video, you give search engines more context, helping your video show up for those exact terms.

SEO isn't just about keywords - it's also about user experience. A transcript makes your content more accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, in sound-off environments, or simply prefer reading to watching.

It also helps users quickly find a specific section of your video. When people have a smoother, more enjoyable experience, they're more likely to engage and stay on the page for longer, which sends positive signals to Google about the quality of your content.

One of the biggest hidden SEO benefits of transcripts is how easily they can be repurposed. You can turn a video transcript into:

• Blog posts

• Social media snippets

• Email content

• Long-form articles

This not only multiplies your SEO opportunities and creates more ways for people to find your content, but also strengthens your wider content strategy by giving you a steady pipeline of new formats and touchpoints.

Check out our guide to content repurposing for more information.

With a written transcript, it's easy to identify related themes and link to other resources on your site using relevant anchor text - whether that's blog posts, service pages, or product pages. Strong internal linking not only improves SEO but also creates clear pathways for visitors to explore your site and move closer to conversion.

When your videos consistently include transcripts, you build a library of keyword-rich, authoritative content around your subject area. Over time, this helps you establish authority in your niche, which makes it easier to rank for competitive keywords.

Search engines often extract concise answers, definitions, or step-by-step lists from web pages to display as rich snippets or in the "featured result" box at the top of Google. Without text, your video has little chance of being included. A transcript, however, highlights all the detailed information inside your video, boosting your chances of appearing at the very top of search results.

While rich snippets still matter, the future of search is shifting toward AI overviews and the use of tools like ChatGPT, which rely on large language models (LLMs) to generate answers.

These models need clear, structured text to draw from. By adding transcripts, you make it easier for AI systems to understand and surface your content, keeping your video content visible as search evolves.

Transcribe makes it easy to create video transcripts that boost your video SEO. Our AI-powered service delivers fast, accurate results that give your videos the keyword-rich text they need to perform better in search.

With support for over 120 languages and all major video file formats, you can upload straight from your device or import from cloud platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox. However you work, Transcribe fits seamlessly into your workflow - so you can spend less time on admin and more time creating that all-important video content.

Learn how to transcribe video with our helpful step-by-step guide.

Once you've created a transcript, simply publish it on the same page as your video - ideally directly underneath - for maximum SEO benefit. To keep the page tidy, you can use an expandable "read more" dropdown. Google can still crawl hidden content as long as it's accessible in the HTML.

You could also create a dedicated transcript page and link to it, which may be preferable if the transcript is particularly long. Best practice is to still include a summary or excerpt on the video page itself (our transcript summary tool can help with that), so search engines don't miss the connection between the video and its text.

If your video is hosted on YouTube or Vimeo, you should embed the player on your own website and publish the transcript there so that your website gets the SEO benefits. Including the transcript (or at least a detailed summary) in the video description can also help with in-platform discovery and may boost the ranking of your YouTube/Vimeo page, but it won't give your own site the same SEO benefit.

Download the Transcribe app or launch the online editor to get started.