Video SEO
Part-1: Video SEO

Optimizing you video for search engines and video portals

It seems that Google as well other search engines is giving a priority to videos in their SERPs (search engine results pages) now. It is quite logical because producing a video is much more time-consuming and costly than just writing content. That\’s why it is given a heavier weight.

As a marketing tool, it is again more effective than any well-written content because:

    – Watching videos is easier than reading copy;

    – Video mediums are richer and stronger, because they include moving images, sounds, titles, editing, real people, sometimes even scripts and acting – not just text.

No doubt, video is hot now. It started long before the \”Youtube boom\”, but then most Internet users didn\’t have broadband connection to enjoy online video experience. Today it\’s easy to afford fast Internet speed from the comfort of your home or even a mobile phone. This tendency will only continue. Internet and Television will eventually unite, and online video channels are the future. Since more and more companies are realizing this, there is a strong necessity to understand how to win the competition in this hot field as well.

We will not talk about what video should be like. It obviously should be of high quality, interesting to watch, and relevant to the viewers. We will talk about how to optimize the video, how to promote it, and how to rank high in search results with the video.

Let\’s start with the video optimization.

Remember 3 things here:

    – Title;
    – Description;
    – Keywords.

The video title should be short but descriptive. Tell what the video is about in one line and make sure to use words that fit what people would naturally search to find that content. You want you title outstand all others in the results to make people clicks on yours.

The video description should explain what it is about and how the viewer can benefit from it. It should include a couple of major keywords that will make it easy for your video to be found in searches.

The video keywords (most video sites call them \”tags\”) should include up to 30 of the most targeted words/phrases related to your video. This is important for not just being found via search engines and video portals but also for being a \”related video\” for the videos from your competition. That\’s your additional traffic right here.

Each search engine has a separate section to search for videos, but how many people use those? Don\’t you use the main search like most others do? So, here is a hint: you might want to add the word \”video\” to your title, description, and to the keywords list. Many people include this particular word into their search queries when searching for videos.

For example, your digital camera or a webcam often automatically gives videos the file-names like video001, video002, etc. Why don\’t you rename your video file to something that also includes your major keyword before submitting it anywhere? If you video is about selling flowers call the file: howtosellflowers.mp4 (mp4 is just a video format, there are plenty of them and most are compatible with video sites which simply convert them into Flash or their own formats after you upload the file.) This little technique will help you outrank your competitors when you are neck and neck.

There is one more thing to consider in \”optimizing\” your video: a video screenshot. The screenshot (also called a thumbnail) must be attractive as well. Select a shot that best conveys the content of your video and is compelling enough to get people to click on the link.

As far as video blogging or vlogging – your own videos on your own site – goes, I suggest doing all the SEO stuff to your videos as you do for your regular pages. Add it to your RSS and Sitemap; have a separate folder/section for them on your site; get SEO-friendly URLs; and get inbound links to your video pages.

Finally, keep it short! Videos under 5 minutes are always most popular because they don\’t take much time to download or watch.

Next time we will talk about video marketing! Until then,

Shavkat Karimov
Director, Online Marketing
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