According to Cisco’s (News – Alert) Visual Networking Index, video content, which already makes up a majority of Internet content, will continue to dominate into the future. With so much video available, one of the best ways you can make your site stand out is to offer the best user experience possible.

The term ‘user experience’ is used so frequently that it is often used incorrectly, but it can be hard to define. In a nutshell, users should enjoy their latest visit to your site so much that they can’t wait for the next update.

One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is to take advantage of HTML5’s native support for video. In the past, video content was not directly supported by HTML, so that meant using browser plugins, which can be unstable resource hogs. With support for video a part of the language, HTML5 makes plugins, and the problems that come with them, obsolete.

The HTMLGoodies.com article, “How to Provide a Good HTML5 Video Experience,” offers more ways that publishers can make website visitors return visitors.

Several tips deal with minimizing the annoyance factor. Using a tripod to stabilize the camera and an external microphone instead of a built-in one to capture audio are among the most obvious ways to deliver good video. Producers should also test content to see how it appears on a smaller screen, since many people stream video through smartphones and tablets.

Some not-so-obvious factors deal with clothing. Certain patterns like hounds-tooth and stripes, which may look okay to the naked eye, can produce a rainbow-like effect through a camera. While solid colors are preferable, they should not be too bright or too dark. Any color with a red component should be avoided since this can create a vibration effect. 

According to Cisco, it would take one person five million years to watch one month’s worth of video content that will travel over global IP networks in 2018. Two-thirds of consumer Internet traffic was video in 2013; that number will increase to 79 percent in 2018.

These numbers underscore how important it is to provide quality video content to site visitors with sharp video and crisp audio quality. You can make the content as interesting and informative as you want, but if the user gets a headache watching it, being informative won’t matter.