Ranking on Google takes months or years depending on your keyword, but taking the expertise you’ve built and ranking on social media can take an afternoon.
If you’ve built authority through traditional SEO, you already have everything you need to show up in social search. Your blog library contains the questions people are searching for, you just need to answer them in video format.
The simplest approach: identify your best-performing blog posts, extract the core question or pain point each one addresses, record a 30-second answer, and post it across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. One piece of content becomes three platform-specific assets.
The social engagement signals and diversification of expertise into video format feeds back into Google’s AI Mode perception of your authority, creating compound visibility across both search landscapes.
Content Overview
Your Existing Foundation
If you’ve invested in SEO, you’ve already done the hardest work: building expertise, researching what your audience searches for, and creating comprehensive answers.
Your blog library represents hundreds of hours of keyword research, content creation, and search intent mapping. That’s valuable and what a lot of businesses don’t have.
Right now, your content shows up when someone Googles a question. But increasingly, people are typing those same questions into TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. If you’re only visible via your website, you’re missing everyone who searches on those platforms.
Even if there isn’t active search on social media, building your authority through more channels will increase your overall rankings and give you new mediums to display your information.
Not everyone likes to read, or has the attention span to finish your blog posts.
How we’ve utilised this:
This screenshot is from one of our best performing blogs this year when we announced Instagram becoming indexable and how brands can optimise existing and future posts.
Making a video script is simple as the content and narrative has already been fleshed out, then we increase our reach and expertise by posting on all channels and embedding the video in our blog post.
This framework allows us to make simple, fast and authoritative content.
Why This Amplifies Your SEO
Google’s AI Mode now indexes your entire digital presence, not just your website.
That includes:
– Social media profiles and how often you post.
– Video content across platforms.
– Engagement signals (saves, shares, comments).
– How consistently you demonstrate expertise.
Social engagement reinforces your authority in Google’s perception. When your video gets saved on Instagram, that tells Google people find your content valuable. If you provide YouTube videos explaining a topic, you’re further proving your knowledge in that area.
Video content ranks in both platform search AND Google results. YouTube, Instagram and TikTok videos appear directly in Google search results. Google cares about the right information for the right people, if that’s video, then video will show. More than likely a combination of video and written sources will rank to give users the option of how they want to get their answers.
This creates a feedback loop:
– Your website SEO gives you credibility → People trust your social content.
– Your social content gets engagement → Google sees authority signals → Your rankings improve.
– People discover you on social → They search your brand on Google → Website traffic increases.
Each channel amplifies the other and you multiply your impact.
A Simple Approach: Blog to Video in 4 Steps
Here’s a straightforward approach to get started without overwhelming yourself.
Step 1: Identify Your Top 10 Blog Posts
Pull your analytics. Find your top 10 blog posts by traffic over the last 12 months. These are the topics people have already found valuable.
Focus on posts, or sections of posts, that are:
– How-to guides: Step-by-step explanations
– Explainers: “What is X and why does it matter?”
– Problem–solvers: “How to fix X”
– Comparisons: “X vs Y: which is right for you?”
– Common mistakes: “Avoid these X mistakes”
These formats translate naturally to short video because they answer a clear, searchable question.
Step 2: Extract a Core Question or Pain Point
Every blog post answers questions or solves problem. Find a core insight.
Don’t try to summarise the entire post. Find one core question that makes someone go, “Huh, I didn’t know that.”
If you can note 3 of those, brilliant, there’s 3 videos.
Here’s a simple example from a real estate client of ours:
Blog post: “First Home Buyer’s Guide to Getting Finance Approved in WA”
What it covers: Pre-approval vs approval, deposit requirements, lending criteria, credit scores, debt-to-income ratios, choosing between banks, mortgage broker benefits, common rejection reasons, timeline expectations
Core question: “What’s the difference between pre-approval and final approval?”
Hook: “Most first home buyers think pre-approval means they’re done, then they miss out on their dream home because final approval falls through. Here’s what banks check at settlement that they don’t check at pre-approval.”
That’s your 30-second video. One clear insight that provides immediate value and you then explain further in the rest of the reel.
Step 3: Script and Record Your 30-Second Answer
You don’t need fancy equipment. Phone camera is fine. Natural lighting. Quiet room.
Simple script structure:
– Hook (3-5 seconds): The question or mistake.
– Explanation (20 seconds): The answer or why it’s a mistake.
– Next step (5-7 seconds): Where to learn more.
Record it conversationally. Imagine you’re explaining this to a client sitting across from you. Plan to be there for 15 minutes as you’ll need a few takes.
Step 4: Post Across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts
One video. Three platforms. Three opportunities to be discovered.
You’re not creating three different videos, you’re distributing the same video to three search engines. Each platform indexes differently and reaches different audience segments.
But crucially, they all talk to search engines and display your authority in that area.
How to Extract the Core Question
This is the skill that makes the process work. You can’t tell a whole narrative like with a written guide, you need to identify the most searchable, valuable insight from each blog post.
Ask yourself:
1. What question does this blog post answer?
2. What’s the most surprising or counterintuitive point?
3. What mistake does this help people avoid?
4. What do people usually get wrong about this topic?
Here’s an example:
Blog post: “SEO Basics for Small Business Websites”
Full post covers: Keywords, technical SEO, content strategy, link building, local SEO, analytics.
Core hook/mistake to extract: “Small businesses focus on ranking for competitive keywords when they should own their location + service combinations”
30-second video: Shows the difference between “real estate agent” (impossible to rank for) and “real estate agent Applecross” (achievable)
You cannot get the whole concept in, that’s not the point.
Engagement on social media relies on you generating the interest immediately with your hook, and then holding it throughout the video.
The Compounding Effect
Start with one video per week. We’ve been running this at Distl for a few months now and the blogs we’ve made videos for have been performing better on average, not to mention the extra visibility we gain on social media as well.
Imagine the reach you’d build if you could make 36 platform-specific assets building your social search presence in the next 3 months.
Each video creates a discovery opportunity. Each platform amplifies your authority. The social engagement feeds back into your Google rankings. Your website credibility makes people trust your social content.
This isn’t about becoming a content creator. It’s about extending your existing expertise to where people actually search. You’ve already done the research. You’ve already written the comprehensive answers. Now you’re making them discoverable in a different format.
One afternoon of filming can produce a month of social search assets.
If your business has strong SEO but limited social presence, this is the bridge.
Want help identifying which of your blog posts will perform best as social search content? Or need support with a social media strategy that integrates with your [SEO strategy]?
Jack Headford
Account Manager & Operations Lead
