Wednesday, January 29, 2014

What The Heck Is Video SEO And Why Do I Need It?

My friend Rickey Wright, owner of Cabrera Wright Company, asked me today about video SEO.   He had made a discovery recently on his personal website that when he posted a video he’d made on the main page of his website, his traffic increased.  The video itself doesn’t have a lot of hits, but when you do a search for specific terms, his site and video are at the top of the rankings. 



 

THE POWER OF VIDEO

You probably glazed over that title because you’ve heard it so much, but it’s never been more true than today.  We are in an internet golden age where more people than ever are connected on so many platforms.  Businesses rely on the internet to reach out to their clients and customers and have a much more intimate ability to do so with smartphones and tablets, social media outlets, and video.

For obvious reasons I’ve touted the power of video - it is my living after all - but there are deeper benefits in the online world - drawing traffic to your business.
 

If you have a business presence these days you likely have a Facebook Page, a Linked In profile, a blog, and Twitter account - all to generate traffic to your company website.  And you may have even heard your webmaster suggest you get a video. 

That’s because it really can have a major positive effect on your business.  Forget the power of video on it’s own, when you have a video and promote it, it will definitely drive traffic to your site.

And sometimes, like Rickey, it will happen because you are targeting a specific demographic.  In his case fans of Americana music.

GETTING THROUGH THE MUCK


What if you are in the insurance business?  Dentistry?  Maybe you’re an attorney.  You have a LOT of competition and producing a video should be something you strongly consider.  First off, most of your competition won’t have a video online, or if they do, they produced it with a $300 camcorder, no microphone or lighting, and effectively devalued their business’ appearance.  
© Robert Thigpen

Let’s say you do produce a video, or you’ve had one produced for you.  Great!  But wait, you look at the stats on Youtube or Vimeo and you have a total of 47 hits.  Then you glance over at the sidebar and see thirty other videos who’s subject matter is close to yours. (Plus a handful of completely random videos that have nothing to do with yours.)

So what do you do to get your video noticed? 

OPTIMIZE THAT VIDEO


You get it optimized!  And if dieting were as easy as optimizing, I’d be looking great right now.

There are a lot of ways to optimize your web video and here are a few tips that can get you started:

1.)  Make a clear and descriptive title for your video. 
If you have a pet grooming business and you want to attract local customers, be sure to include your location.  For example, “Sue’s Pet Groomarama” is a nice title but doesn’t help get you noticed in Denver if that’s where you live.  But if you simply add “Denver Pet Grooming - Sue’s Pet Groomerama” you’ve just added something for search engines to track.

2.) Fill the description box.  
If you think leaving that space blank is going to work well, you are mistaken.  Use this space as a platform to describe your business, the content of the video, and your business contact information.  The more description you can provide, the more searchable the video will be.

3.) Add closed captioning. 
If you have a video with dialogue, you should take a little bit of time to write out everything that can be heard in the video.  Youtube has a closed captioning feature and it is pretty easy to use.  I don’t suggest you let Youtube do it’s own transcribing - unless you want customers to get confused about why you sell Dragon frying pans instead of Teflon frying pans.  The built in speech recognition is still less than perfect.
The point of having closed captioning is that search engines cannot see images or videos, but they can read text and you've opened your video to a larger audience.

4.) Use keywords. 
Again, you have an opportunity to get search engines to find you.  Don’t use just single words either.  If you want people in Tulsa to find you, be sure to make the keyword read: Tulsa Family Dental Practice.  Now, when someone types that exact phrase (or something close) your video will likely show up.

5.)  Share. 
You have a Youtube video!  Shout it from the rooftops!  Tell everyone you know that you want them to see your video.  And keep doing that.  You will generate more organic traffic.  You can embed the video on your website (that was the idea to begin with) and share the link on Facebook, Linkedin, and any place you are allowed to do so.

BUT I WANT TO BE A YOUTUBE MILLIONAIRE


Sometimes all of your efforts yield a low return.  Youtube receives thousands of submissions per hour and the sea is widening.  How do you really stand out?

Well, there are a few ways to do this.  The first is to try to go viral organically.  This is a very hard thing to accomplish, unless you have a cat and a banjo.  Of course a cat and a banjo doesn't help your credibility if you run a dentistry.

The second method involves exchanging views.  What I mean is, there are several outlets wherein you submit your video to a service where other submitters agree to watch each other’s videos.  You watch ten videos - ten people watch yours.  The more you watch, the more hits you get.  It can be a slow process, and most people have little patience to do this, but it does actually work.

The final method is to call someone who can handle the task and take the work out of your hands. (Hint hint)

WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?


So what is the benefit of a video with increased views?  It pulls you out of the muck.  The more hits your video has (and subscribers, likes, etc.) the easier it is for people to find it.  And if it’s easier for people to find it, it’s easier for search engines to find it.   That’s what we want, right?

CONCLUSION


Hopefully this post has given you some insight into the world of video SEO.  The landscape is constantly evolving and we spend a lot of time researching the most beneficial ways of getting our clients’ videos noticed.  If you have any questions about optimizing your own video, please reach out!  You can see our own million view video here.

If you have a video related question, send me a message and I may create a blog post about it.

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