Video SEO : Easier & More Powerful than You Think
When I talk SEO with clients or businesses, sometimes I notice a pullback or negative reaction when discussing video seo, or viral video marketing, as a way to enhance search presence in the Google, Yahoo and Microsoft search results.
A lot of businesses have a 1990′s mindset that video production is an expensive and time consuming process. Recent changes in the costs of equipment, production and online video sharing sites such as YouTube or Facebook however, have changed the landscape extensively.
When speaking with smaller businesses about Video SEO, I tell them to take the film school approach of starting cheap and efficient. A video camera today can cost as low as $139 (the price of my pocket Insignia HD camera I picked up at BestBuy last week) and the video quality is very good. Then, just conduct some employee interviews or ask for customer testimonials from your friendly and happy customers. You’ll be surprised how some people totally open up in front of a camera, and the honest and raw reactions will transform well to the 2.0 video format as used by Youtube and other video channels.
My good friend Dev Basu posted something on SEJ today about Small Businesses using Rich Media in SEO, and wrote this about video :
Videos – Videos are a no-brainer when it comes to capturing the low hanging fruit of search. Where can you get videos? Chances are your client already has something shot from their Yellowpage publisher’s video production team. If not, shooting a video is a trivial task with any bargain digital camera. For those that are truly strapped for time, a video can be created from a slideshow of images.
* Youtube is your friend when it comes to getting great rankings. Create a channel for your business, add keyword rich descriptions, titles, and tags for maximum SEO benefit.
* Adding sub-titles to your videos boosts viewing times and increases conversion rates. Adding sub-titles is easy to do with close to any basic video editing program.
So once you’ve shot some video, how do you make the most of it to catch that low hanging Google fruit? First, be sure to build branded company profiles across Youtube, flickr, DailyMotion, MetaCafe, Truveo, Viddler and other video search engines and sharing platforms.
If you have the time, look into some smaller video sharing sites which also have a lot of value. Annie put together a great list of 12 “dofollow” video sharing sites which you should bookmark.
Now, be sure to optimize your videos when uploading to these channels.
Basic Video SEO
First, when optimizing a video for keyterms, make sure relevant keyterms are used in the video titles, descriptions, tags, keyterms and even the video file name (something I like to throw in there).
Video Title : The video tile, like with web pages, is the most important aspect of search engine optimization because it defines the entire media and the page it is housed on. Links to the video page throughout YouTube will include thetitle text and inbound links, if they are built, should also represent the title.
Video Description : Think of the video description as an effective compliment to the title tags in video seo. Make sure that the description actually describes the video and also uses specific terms you want to rank for.
Video Tags : Think of the ability to tag videos when uploading to YouTube or other video sharing sites as a powerful version of the meta keyword tag in traditional SEO. However, like Flickr and Delicious, these tags serve as navigational and categorizing tools which define not only the video, but the groups it is related to.
Tags also help the videos appear under the related videos sections of other works on YouTube, so this even makes them more valuable as YouTube will suggest the video after and during the viewing of other related works.
If you’re uploading a lot of videos to a lot of different channels, you may want to use TubeMogul, an online video distribution service.
Recommended Reading :
How to Track YouTube Videos
Guide to Video Marketing on YouTube
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17 Responses to “Video SEO : Easier & More Powerful than You Think”
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good basic video SEO http://dailyseotip.com/video-seo/235/
“Videos” are Easier & More Powerful SEO tactics – http://bit.ly/FizgY
Good tips on video SEO here: http://dailyseotip.com/video-seo/235/
RT @cleomorgause: Otimize seus v?deos na web! Algumas dicas: [en] http://dailyseotip.com/video-seo/235/ #good
Otimize seus v?deos na web! Algumas dicas: [en] http://dailyseotip.com/video-seo/235/
Hi,
Dea
great post, my husband and I are incorporating videos into marketing our business and there is so much valuable and free information online this is all very helpful so thank you
A most useful post, Loren, and it is easy. However one needs to make sure that the quality, particularly of the sound, is excellent. Also have a transcript since it is difficult to get search engine visibility otherwise.
Barry Welford’s last incredible blog post..Google FriendConnect Trails Twitter
Great post
Just getting to optimizing our picture – video next. Are going to make new TV-ads next month and add these as video on the site.
Comment on picture optimization, we had a cms problem. All our pictures were uploaded without file extension. Google only indexed a few pictures. When we got the file extensions back, a lot of pictures were indexed. So remember file extensions.
Steen Öhman’s last incredible blog post..Verden ifølge Google
Great post, Loren.
I’ve found that people are reluctant to really utilize YouTube because it’s not directly sending people to their site, but using such a powerful site to brand exposure in very difficult keyword markets is kind of a no brainer. I’ve seen this work for a number of clients because their was nearly no keyword competition in video search.
If you have firmly established rankings, it can’t hurt to throw Youtube into the mix because it’ll help you take a larger share of your keyword market, especially with Universal Search. SEO isn’t just about getting your site to rank. It’s also about making sure your competitors don’t.
Thanks for spreading the gospel.
Josh Millrod’s last incredible blog post..3 Simple Steps for Creating Irresistible Content
DejavuSexShop.Com
Agree. Depending on which search term and search engine, our videos often rank (well) higher than our website. And since we are a small video production company – that’s just fine! But the principle (and your advice) would hold for any business.
Great article & Good tips
Thanks for share
i want to say some thing “good job”
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Some really useful information in this post and video is definitely the next step. We have started to incorporate video tiles into our sites which are presenters talking about the company.
I talked with a lady this morning that was telling me about her failed efforts at marketing her website. She even spent some money on a keyword program with no results. The problem wasn’t the keywords it was her on and off page SEO. She could definitely benefit from your videos. This is my first time here but you can bet I’m coming back for more!
Great article Video SEO : Easier & More Powerful than You Think& Good tips
Thanks for share
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