VIDEO SEO: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR VIDEOS
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Did you know?
- YouTube.com is the second largest search engine in the world
- 83% of US internet users watch video online
- Over 100 Million videos are watched online each day
- When video is present, website conversion rates have increased from 19%-138%
Videos have exploded onto the website world and for good reason: it is the powerful medium of influence on a website today. With over 26 billion web pages in existence today, reading website content can become tedious and videos are a viable and growing alternative. With videos, we can now better humanize a website by providing a “listen instead of read” experience for website visitors on your site. Moreover, you can now better connect with the users by allowing them to review you and your services in a more personal manner. But the benefits don’t stop there…
Increased Website Conversions
One of the challenges many businesses face online is trying to convert web visitors into customers. This process of tracking user conversion online is commonly calculated by take the number of people who have contacted your business from your website by the total number of visits. Numbers vary by industry but a good website will commonly have a conversion ratio in excess of 1% with higher numbers for better sites. Again, the exact number is relative to the industry and competition. Recent studies of websites with video present have shown a dramatic change in conversion rate increases ranging from 19% to as high as 138% so the impacts of video on user conversion is undeniable.
Displays on Search Engine Results Pages
In 2007, Google introduced Universal Search which seeded images and videos into search results pages. Ever since then, all of the major search engines have followed suit. Videos displayed prominently in search results provide users with another valuable extension to your website much like many blogs and social media properties like Facebook and twitter do. It is not uncommon to find videos displayed in the search engines from multiple sources including website players, YouTube, Viddler, MetaCafe, etc.
What You Can Do To Search Engine Optimize Your Videos
Much like websites with good optimized structure, content, and links, videos are also displayed based on key SEO factors that impact both the breath of reach of their online footprint. These include:
- Title Tagging: You have 99 characters to properly title your videos for the search engines. Much like a website home page title tag, these titles are critical for success and should include your desired keywords and phrases to help you reach the desired search audience.
- Descriptions: You have up to 5,000 characters to write a solid description for your video. Not only should it contain your keywords and phrases, but it should also include a call to action to encourage user reviews and asking people to embed your videos on their sites. It is also important to note that the first 145 characters are displayed in YouTube search results displays so make sure that this includes a link to your website, your phone number, and a good call to action to view the video.
- Add Video To Your XML Sitemap: Every optimized website should contain an XML sitemap for indexing through the search engines. These sitemaps should also include sections for adding your videos to the sitemap as well – as defined here by Google.
- Ratings & Comments: Each video on YouTube allows users to rate (Likes & Dislikes) the video and provide comments on it. These are important since YouTube typically rates videos higher based on ratings and users will commonly respond positively or negatively based on the review of others.
- User Views: Each video on YouTube has a “view” counter based on the number of times a video has been viewed and how these views are trending over time. The more views you have and the way you are trending in those views will commonly help determine your ratings in the YouTube search engine relative to your competition. This is why you want to stream your YouTube videos through all of your websites and blogs and encourage other users to do the same so you can help encourage as many user views as possible from ALL possible resources.
- Link Building: Much like web pages, the search engines still look at inbound links to ALL web properties to help determine relevance and authority – videos are no exception. A good strategic textual inbound linking program is a must for getting the maximum visibility and results from videos in competitive search markets.
- Submit your video to all of the major video search engines: Since search engines will index and display videos from many different sources, it is important to make sure you syndicate your videos to many different prominent video search engines. The easiest place to do this in one shot is through: http://www.tubemogul.com/