Video SEO-Search Engine Optimization Using Video

Video SEO-Search Engine Optimization Using Video
Video SEO; Using video production to maximize your Internet Marketing
The latest trend in Internet marketing is video search engine optimization. In the following post, I will explain how you can use video production as an SEO tool.
Google’s universal search using blended media and content has changed the rules of the SEO game.
Titles are important for video SEO because good titles help you to position your video content in front of people who are actively searching for your subject matter. Search criteria should be studied and video content titles created based on your search criteria research. What you may think is a good video title may not be what others are searching for.
If your video content is good and you want your video to be seen by people who are looking for the information you can provide, do your homework and title your videos accordingly.
The goal is to get your video thumbnail on page one.
With the right title and description, search engines will find and catalogue your video content.
Video SEO: Jupiter research reported that 38% of all US Internet users used search engines to discover online video. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world! Most people will search for video either on a search engine or on YouTube. When you properly title and describe your video clips on your website and YouTube you have a great potential of improved search results.
Plus, Google reports that 25% of all traffic to YouTube originates from Google.
38% of all search results on Google include a video in their search results.
With your properly indexed video in a search result, you stand out better on the page than a simple plain search result. So, number one is not as important as it use to be because the person who is doing the search will more than likely look at the video thumb nail first before the other search results making video SEO more important for your business today than ever.
Videos that have good titles and descriptions are properly indexed on your website and can drive more traffic to your web pages.
All search queries start with a key word or phrase. Your goal is to title and describe your videos to fit those pre-determined search queries.
How to Optimize Videos for your Website
Create a unique URL for every video on your website. Each video should have its own landing page.
Use embedded players, not java script or pop up players. Search engines do not like java script. YouTube allows you to embed video into your web pages that are hosted on YouTube, as does Vimeo.
Include meta tags in your page that point to your descriptions as well as include good overall page content. Wordpress has description sections where you can add text and tags so search engines can find your video content. Other web development tools also have ways of adding your own content management that you can revise periodically until you optimize your video landing pages.
Get as many inbound links as possible to your video pages from other websites, including your social media websites and other websites you own or have access to. Association websites, customer websites and social media websites are the quickest and easiest way to build inbound links. The amount of links as well as the quality of links does make a huge difference with search engine results for your video.
When you are linking to your web video, think long and hard about the words or titles you use. Do not use the words “watch video,” rather title the inbound link “watch resiliency video”.
Provide context on your video landing page with content that supports your video. Informational text and pictures to support your video will yield you better search engine results.
You can use alternate text about your video subject or you can post a transcript of what is being said in your video on your video landing page. Your goal is for search engines to see text around your video on that landing page.
Create a great user experience. The worse thing in the world is to have great video content on your website and make the videos hard to find and use. Create a fun easy to follow user experience for the best video SEO results. Link from your home page to your video page explaining what the link to video is about on your home page description.
Make sure your videos load quickly. This is primarily based on how your videos are hosted. Video hosting is very reasonable if not free lately. Many of you may still be paying outdated video hosting prices on outdated video servers which take too long to play your video once the play option is selected.
Create a compelling thumb nail image for your video. YouTube gives you three choices for thumb nails which are the static image for your video. You can also use a picture or other composed object for your thumb nail. The better your thumb nail image, the more people will notice your image in search results. The bottom line is to make your thumb nail is compelling so it stands out.
Initiate video sharing for your videos. By making your videos sharable, you increase the number of people who can see your video. The more traffic you have for your video the better your video will do with search engines. Often people will share your video and then link back to your video page without you knowing it because you made your video easy to share.
Enable commenting on your video page. Often users of your video will post comments using words you never thought of to describe your video. Commenting will help provide additional text on your video pages. Yes, the text from comments also contributes to your video SEO.
Include your video in website sitemaps. Since a sitemap is created to help spiders crawl your web pages, it makes sense to include your video pages in your sitemap so the spiders can easily locate your blended content.
How to Optimize your Video for YouTube
Titles, descriptions, number of views, ratings, play list addition, sharing, flagging, age of video, comments, channel views, number of subscribers and number of embeds and shared links into your YouTube video all contribute to video SEO on YouTube.
YouTube allows up to 5000 characters in your video description; use as many of those characters as possible.
Include your name and branding in the key word tags. Don’t try to include spam tags that do not pertain to your topic; for example, using ‘Michael Jackson’ or ‘The Beatles’ in conjunction with your video title. YouTube is smart and will discover this spam.
Enable sharing, commenting, embedding and rating because these numbers actually help your video SEO on YouTube.
There are more characters available in the field; up to 100 characters in the YouTube title VS Tube Mogul which only allows you to use 60 characters in the title.
To get the most out of YouTube, you should be an active member and actively be involved in your account. Sign in often and spend time in the YouTube community just like you would any other social media community. I recommend at least 15 minutes a day to find friends and associates’ videos and post comments, rate and share their videos. Ask them to do the same for you. This small effort will help jump start your video success.
Add your website URL in your YouTube description that will actually be a hot link back to your website and allow users to click on it. Use the http:// as well as URL shorteners like Bitly so you can track your click through success.
Leverage YouTube annotations. If you go to our Primeau Productions channel on YouTube, Ben and I have created some screen capture tutorials explaining how to use annotations.
Use closed captions when relevant. Include key words because Google has said that they also index closed captions in YouTube videos for search results. Every little bit helps.
Don’t duplicate titles. Duplicate titles will not help your video SEO at all, even if others have the same title. Be unique and original. Remember, you can revise your video titles and descriptions from time to time until you reach your optimum success.
Where do you begin? Try searching Google for your main search criteria and I bet you will not find a video thumbnail on your page one result. If you do not see any thumb nail, optimize your first professionally produced video and in a few weeks, following the tips and techniques above, your thumb nail will appear on page one.
Lastly, take a long hard look at your website. Is it easy to navigate and understand what you have to offer? Even though you may have paid five figures for your “Flash” website two years ago, it’s time to convert to full HTML and simplify your content to include video. It is not the economy that may be hurting your business, it is probably your lack of understanding how to stay on top of the game and maximize your Internet marketing efforts