Video and Video Optimization Should be Part of Your SEO Strategy
Video and video optimization are an excellent way to increase the visibility of a brand to customers and potential customers so that they become aware of the products, services, or content that a site has to offer.
WAtching videos online has become one of the most popular web activities and draws. A 2013 study showed that, the number of video viewers in the U.S alone was 195 million. This presents a fantastic opportunity for all markets. People are not only searching for video, it now appears organically (naturally) in Google search results for many queries.
In addition to the organic search results, it is now possible for users to search specifically for video content. Of course, Google is not the only one who is doing this. Bing has also implemented video search well.
Currently, YouTube is the most popular way for people to discover video on the web. Estimates suggest that there are between three and four billion searches of YouTube every month. This means more people search YouTube than Bing. Proper video marketing can put you ahead of your competition so the time to act is now.
Another way to take advantage of video marketing is through the use of social media. Twitter and Facebook give you the opportunity to push content to all of your subscribers or “Friends”. They in turn can share content with their friends. Since the video is being recommended by a friend, users are often more willing to pay attention to it.
More on the how this all ties in with Social Media later.
Onsite and Offsite Optimization
In order for users to find the video easily, you will need to implement proper video optimization which includes onsite and offsite techniques. Onsite being the video section of your website and offsite being YouTube, a Social Media sites or wherever else your video resides.
When optimizing both onsite and offsite elements, some important factors include:
1) Keyword rich file name and sub-directories ( if applicable)
2) Video name and title should be keyword phrase targeted
3) Page content that describes what the video is about. Again, keyword phrase rich copy.
4) Keyword phrases and descriptions in meta tags
5) Be sure to include your video in your sitemap and XML sitemap
Google is working on an algorithm that will actually interpret your videos. Until then, Google can’t analyze the content of a video without the proper optimization.
Google Support States: “Googlebot cannot crawl the content of video files, so it’s important that you provide information about videos you include. Consider creating a transcript of the video you want to include, or provide a detailed description of the video inside your HTML. If you have video content, you can host it on Google Video, YouTube, or a number of other video hosting providers. Searchers can view Google Video or YouTube videos directly from the Google search results page.”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/72746?hl=en
Establishing a YouTube Channel
The first step is establishing a YouTube channel for your business vs. a personal account. After all YouTube is another important social media channel so establishing your own business YouTube site is essential. Like any other social media site, you will need to create an account and enter your business description, URL and keyword phrases that will help Google Search, YouTube search, subscribers and customers find you.
Submitting Your Videos
Upload and Optimize your Videos
