Archive for the 'Video' Category

This is an area of SEO that got hot once Google started showing “Universal Results”. Universal results is just a term that means Google includes in the Search results everything now. Along with the organic text listings are News, Images, Shopping, and Video. Google pulls these search results from all types of different websites.

The big question is “How can I get my video there?” Now it behooves advertisers & publishers to conduct a Video Optimization for specific keywords related to the video. In many cases it’s worth the time & money invested to get your video to the top of the search results page.

Without showing any of my client work, I’ll show a personal video that is ranking. Search for the term, AFX race cars.

10 Tactics for Video Optimization:
1. Use the Keyword in the Title. Make the Title sound interesting.
2. Write approx 2 paragraphs of text for the Description.
3. Tag each video with keywords.
4. Choose proper category for each video.
5. It’s best to put a hyperlink to the target page within the Description, but before the user needs to click (more info) to see the hyperlink.
6. Upload all videos to multiple video sites (Youtube, Viddler, etc)
7. Comments help by showing interest, and by additional user-generated content (more words on the page).
8. Video responses show interest/activity.
9. Rating. Try to get as many 5 star ratings as you can
10. Views, views, and more views.

Treat the video as you would any other webpage, and begin a Link building optimization to increase the amount of Inbound links. Ideally, your objective is to increase Link popularity and Link relevancy. While building links for your off-site optimization, try to mix up textlinks and the number of Embeds. All these are Video Ranking Factors.

A great productivity tool to upload videos to multiple video sharing sites is TubeMogul .

I’ve been wanting to get into making my own videos for quick some time. However, I’m not so sure that video is my forte’. I’ll need to make a few more short videos before coming to any kind of conclusion. So as a start, here’s my intro video.

Some things I’m pondering are:

1) How frequently to publish a video?
2) Schtick? Should there be a regular agenda, comedy routine, and/or props?
3) Does an SEO Blog need to feature videos? Is this a way an S­EO Con­s­ulta­n­t can h­elp? Is it really necessary?
4) How much editing will be needed? Software? Lighting? Equipment?

If you’re using video for a marketing campaign, here is some information that can help you get the most bang for your buck, and/or help with your targeting and video optimization.

I recently got a Sony Handycam and have slowly “gotten into” taking videos and uploading to Youtube.

Forrester (subscription required) evaluated YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Metacafe, Dailymotion, And Veoh, and came to the conclusion that uploading to video portals isn’t easy.

They analyzed how effectively the sites support a typical user trying to upload a video to share with his friends. Only YouTube received a passing overall score. (see chart below). For each of the 10 criteria used, firms received a grade ranging from -2 (severe failure) to +2 (best practice). Total scores could therefore range from -20 to +20, and passing all tests would result in a grade of +10 or higher.
Results From Web Site Reviews Of Five Major Video Portal Sites:

Here’s a link to a TechCrunch post in which they did an amazing job of comparing the top video sharing sites.

Here is the Youtube Demographic information of their users:

Some unmentioned, and hiddengems of Video sites are:
Blinkx
Imeem
PutFile
Eyespot - also offers video editing.
MotionBox - also offers video editing.
JumpCut - also offers video editing.

Besides the thrill of a Video Optimization, below are 10 Reasons to be interested in Youtube.

1) Videos will now appear in the regular Google search results (Google Universal Search).
2) Youtube can be a huge traffic driver.
3) Youtube is a huge part of the Web & Social media.
4) Youtube can be a branding machine.
5) Youtube can be used to drive traffic to an ecommerce site (Direct Response).
6) Free video storage space.
7) Convienent way to share videos with friends & family (Just send link).
Youtube is the #1 Social Media application used.
9) Youtube is the largest video site (See industry research chart below).
10) Youtube is the 11th most popular website in the US.

I just bought a camcorder. Now, I can finally upload videos to Youtube. So, naturally I want to do a optimize my videos so they appear high in the search rankings for my specific keywords. So, last night I scrutinized several search results on Youtube, and here are my findings.

When searching on Youtube, there are 4 ways to sort the Video results on the SERP. That means there is 4 different ways you can optimize to rank highest.
1) Relevance
2) Date Added
3) View Count
4) Rating

To rank high by “Date”, “View Count”, and “Rating” is pretty straightforward. Just be the most recent or have the most VIews/Ratings.

But, ranking high by relevance is another story. That’s because the ranking factors are unknown. Well, they’re not exactly unknown. They’re just unpublished by the Search Engines. So, here’s my opinion to ranking high when sorted by “Relevence”. The best way to optimizing video for relevancy is using multiple variables like: title, description, Views, Link popularity, favorites, comments, and rating.

Basics Techniques:
1) Include your keyword in the Title (This is crucial…IMO more important than placing the KW in the description). The Video title will appear in the Title tag of the webpage on Youtube.
2) Include your keyword in the description.
3) Include your keyword in the Tags.
4) Choose the right category. Categorizing your videos correctly will make it easier for the “relevancy engine” and also for searchers.

Advanced Techniques:
The objective is to show your video is the most authoritative and a good resource.

1) Write a long description.

• Mention your keyword.
• Insert a URL in the description.
• Add quotes around specific phrases in description (if it makes sense to do so).

4) Get comments on your video.
5) Get your Video rated.
6) Increase Link Popularity by conducting a strategic Link Campaign.
7) Get your Video “favorited”.
8 ) Conduct a Social Media campaign to promote your video.
9) Conduct a Myspace Optimization.

NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNNITY?
It seems to me that this could open up an opportunity for a new type of business model. Where an ad network could charge X dollars for X amount of favorites/ratings/comments.

SIDE BENEFIT of Video Optimization:
An optimized video can appear in the web search results pages by Google. By optimizing your Video, you are also increasing your chances that your video can appear in the Organic Web Results. That’s because Google now incorporates Video into the Web results on Google.com. Recently called, Google Universal Search.

Here’s one of my first videos. It’s of a Green Terror Attack.