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Do You Need Videos for E-E-A-T? From an SEO Expert

ByNina Clapperton Updated on

E-E-A-T is all about showing personal experience and expertise. So how do you do that – and do you need videos for it to work?

The #1 tip I see on Twitter with the impending AI apocalypse is to build a brand, not a website.

What the heck does that mean?

Essentially it comes down to building a site that actually helps people and isn’t just reworded nonsense from a forum or the top 10 on Google. 

Gone are the days of running a site about blenders when you’ve never used a blender (true story!).

But there is more to it than that, like establishing yourself on multiple platforms, setting up an email list, and creating helpful content with personal experience.

That’s where video comes in.

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Mike of Stupid Simple SEO on Twitter. This is part of a longer thread. It reads: "Aerating your lawn is a complicated task. It involves multiple steps, preparation, and machinery. The best type of content for this keyword would be a comprehensive, step-by-step guide—ideally, with a video!—of you actually aerating your lawn. First-hand experience. First-hand photos. You writing about what you're actually doing in real life. To me, an AI cannot provide a good answer for these types of keywords. And this is the type of content Google wants to see going forward. If you're reliant on SEO traffic for your site, it's time to start paying attention."

The Twitter Debate over E-E-A-T and Video

There was a debate on Twitter sparked by Mike of Stupid Simple SEO suggesting that video is going to be king in this new EEAT world to help show experience.

He didn’t say it as though he was advocating for it, to be clear. He was hypothesizing that based on Google’s current trends and the way they’re loving video, this might be the one way to show honest personal experience in the age of AI writers.

Jaime I.F. and Fat Stacks responding to Mike's thread on Twitter. It reads: Jaime = "It's a worry that we'll get double sandwiched here The easy-to-answer ones get answered by AI The harder, more complex ones you'd want to trust a person for get answered by videos What's left for the writing SEOs :(" Fat Stacks: "For what it’s worth Jamie, I always prefer text content over videos regardless the query. I can’t be the only person."

As a few big names like Jamie IF and Fat Stacks pointed out, many people (myself included) aren’t big fans of video. 

I read crazy fast so I can skim a whole blog post in the time it takes someone to start the introduction of a Youtube video. 

While Google is trending towards posts with videos embedded in them (especially if they’re from Youtube, since Google owns Youtube), it’s not a requirement – so far.

Could it be in the future? Let’s discuss it:

Black woman with a pink tripod set up holding her iPhone horizontally to record video for her blog post

Which begs the question, will videos be vital in the age of SEO vs. AI? 

This is a complex issue and it’s going to have a complex answer.

Videos are a great way of showing you’ve actually done something.

They’re hard to doctor (I mean, you can always photoshop a picture, I guess, but most of the time it’s spottable). They clearly show you doing the thing and engaging with it (which covers the experience in EEAT). And they help users get a better sense of products or locations.

However, Google has not been great about differentiating slideshow videos from actual videos.

I’ve done trials of including my own videos, other people’s videos, and slideshow videos made by AI on my sites.

From the results, Google didn’t seem to notice a difference.

They also don’t seem to care about the length of the video or it’s relevancy yet.

I’ve seen so many blogs ranking #1 because they have a video (otherwise they’re basically the same as their competitor in #2) and it isn’t even relevant to the topic.

For example, if someone has a post on tractors but the video is of baby cows on a farm. Sure, they’re both on a farm but it’s not actually supporting the content. Yet, Google seems chill with it.

I do see the tide turning on this, so I’d suggest going legit with your own videos that are actually relevant to your post.

White Blue Yeti microphone in front of a mac desktop with a wireless keyboard. Colourful post it notes sit in an organizer behind it. Desk set up of a blogger ready to record a video for EEAT.

But Google Does Love a Video

That being said, Google did notice there was a video in the post and seemed very happy with the media.

Google has always enjoyed video content – I mean, they own Youtube so it makes sense. And the posts I have with videos tend to outperform the ones without – even if it’s someone else’s Youtube video that I’ve embedded.

I find videos especially helpful for my affiliate posts.

One of the tests I’ve been doing on hotel round up posts (and more recently on tour affiliates) is to embed a video from the hotel’s Youtube channel for the top 3 hotels rather than pictures (and engaging in the whole “should I use Booking.com photos even though that’s technically not allowed” debate).

My top 3 hotel posts saw a combined 8% increase in affiliate conversions within the first month, and it’s continued growing (some of the last month’s growth is because of the summer season though). 

Since I regularly refer to Youtube (although typically to the transcripts) to learn more about things I’m featuring in posts, even if I’ve experienced them, this is a super easy addition to make to my content.

Although I’ve mostly done it for hotels so far, I’m starting to branch into other areas now and am already seeing good results – however, these are new posts so there’s nothing but similarly structured old posts to compare the numbers to.

2025 Update: For She Knows SEO, my affiliate posts with a dedicated Youtube video rank so much better and have started to rank on Youtube now that I do Youtube SEO. I’ve noticed it especially for my round ups and reviews of individual products/tools. My Keysearch affiliate commissions each month are more than 50% from my 1 video on YT, and I promote them legit everywhere!

Blonde woman recording a video on her iPhone for her blog. She will upload it to her social media and her Youtube channel. She is standing in her living room gesturing with her hands towards the camera.

Should You Be Creating Your Own Videos for E-E-A-T?

Yes!

Stop fussing with production quality and perfect scripts. Just record the damn thing – even a talking head or a not-so-great-quality screen recording and post it!

Here’s my exact Youtube strategy to get you going:

How to Add Videos to a Blog Posts for SEO

Adding videos to your site the wrong way WILL hurt your SEO.

To add a video properly:

  1. Upload the video to Youtube. This helps in a multiple ways, but mainly it reduces database weight (and might allow you to double monetize if you have a big enough Youtube channel).
  2. Copy the URL from the Youtube video (you can do this by hitting “share” if you’re unsure of the URL in the navigation bar having a time code).
  3. Paste the URL as is into WordPress. As long as you have a block editor running, it will auto embed. You’ll notice it immediately transforms the link into a video on your site’s backend.
  4. Ensure the video is not in the first load of the page. This will slow down the load time and could result in Google penalizing you. Put it below some content so the text can load first, and load quickly.
  5. Add the Youtube Lyte plugin. This free plugin stops videos from pre-loading. Instead it only generates the thumbnail (but Google still sees it as a video). This speeds up the page load. Then when someone clicks it, the video starts to load/buffer.
  6. Don’t add too many videos to the same post. This will cause speed issues.

The wrong way to add videos? I’m glad you asked:

  • Uploading them to your WordPress Media Library where they will take up a ton of database space and require you to upgrade your hosting sooner.
  • Uploading it to your ad network. This technically isn’t wrong, but it’s not as beneficial. I uploaded some to Mediavine to test/monetize and made $0.08 from 3 videos over the course of 6 months. I’d make more from Youtube, and be able to share them more easily. However, if this works for you, go for it.
  • Embedding Instagram Reels. These break sooo easily and won’t result in a broken image/video/link alert. Tiktok seems to do better, but even then I’d be wary. Prioritize Youtube.
  • Adding completely irrelevant things for the sake of having any video. That’s not helpful content and I’m sure Google will catch up to it eventually.
  • Adding your competitor’s videos. Self explanatory – don’t hype your competition and potentially send your readers to them.
  • Just putting a URL. A URL or permalink isn’t a video, it’s a URL. There’s no schema to help Google figure out it’s a video.

Is Video Essential to Rank on Google?

So far, no.

Everyone is hyping the rise of video. I’m sure Tiktok is a big part of that with short form video dominating socials now.

But blogs are still blogs.

Some people, myself included, really want to read the thing.

I don’t currently see any requirement (either stated or unstated) to have videos in order to do well. 

I do have lots of posts without videos (9/10 of my top 10 on my biggest site) that have 0 videos. 

As long as you show EEAT in other ways, like adding your personal experience throughout a post, having original images, and answering the age old question “why should I listen to you?”

I think video is kind of like the cherry on top of a sundae. You don’t necessarily miss it if it isn’t there, but when it is, you think “oh nice, a cherry!”

But I’m Panicking about E-E-A-T, Nina!

The best advice I can give as everyone panics and tells you to do all the things: don’t. 

Take a deep breath, pick one thing, and do it well.

You can’t diversify until you’ve got one thing running smoothly.

Believe me, I tried. And that’s why it took me 5 years to figure out SEO and get anywhere with traffic or affiliate income. 

If you need help with the affiliate side of things, I just added an incredibly comprehensive affiliate module to the Profitable Part-Time Blogger. I run through everything I do with affiliates – including more on the video tip I mentioned above – to hit consistent $20-30k months. 

#1 Blog Course
Profitable Part Time Blogger

Profitable Part-Time Blogger

Ready to grow a blogging business that fits your life?

The Profitable Part-Time Blogger Program helps you attract your ideal audience, master SEO, and make $5K/month—all in just 20 hours a week.

Whether it’s a side hustle or your dream job, it’s time to work smarter, not harder. Let’s make your blog work for you!

Grow Your Blog Today!

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Nina Clapperton is the founder of She Knows SEO.

She started blogging in 2018 and spent years doing everything “right” while earning $0. Then she stopped guessing and learned how search actually works. She rebuilt her travel site around audience intent and structure and grew to 50,000 sessions in 6 months. Within a year, the blog was bringing in $30,000 months and later crossed 243,000 pageviews.

She took the same audience first SEO approach and built her education business into multiple $100,000 months.

Now Nina teaches bloggers and online business owners how to build search powered businesses grounded in strong positioning, clear structure, and monetisation that actually supports their audience. She covers traditional SEO and AI driven search without the tech bro noise, and she’s known for explaining complex strategy with analogies you won’t forget.

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