10 Video SEO Tips – Marketing Your Videos to the Search Engines

People usually love video, millions of Americans consume videos online and same is the case world over. A consumer is most likely to keep in mind and refer to a video in comparison to a print advertisement. These days video making is very economical as compared to the cost of a traditional commercial. Broadband is getting enormous popularity worldwide. Now people can watch videos without long download times or quality issues. Present generation considers video to be a reliable source of news and information. Online video for them is second to nature. Here are a few tips/hints for optimizing your video:

1) It is recommended that you create and submit a transcript for users and the search engines, add a transcript to each video file you’ve uploaded via your Video Status page. Create a Keyword Rich Title for your Transcript; include a brief introductory paragraph/synopsis that describes the subject matter of your transcript (and video) and be sure to publish your transcript.

2) Keep in mind that when users search for videos on search engines, often time they use the word “video” in their search. For example, “car racing video.” Therefore, in addition to the keywords that you are targeting, also be sure to include the word “video” or “videos” in your description, text, title, meta data, etc…

3) Search engine crawlers rely a lot on the link texts to figure out what the video is all about as they are not capable to figure out the contents of the video otherwise. Therefore it is advisable to get as many back links as possible for your video.

4) It is advisable to create a separate sitemap just for your videos in your site and try to keep your video files in one directory this would help the web crawlers to locate your video files speedily and effortlessly.

5) When hosting video content on your own, keep in mind that flash is next to impossible for search engines to read and understand. Try to work with a format that is not flash. However, the simplest way to enable video on your site is via the popular flash players. That being said, do your best to take advantage of the other tips for SEO so that search engines can easily understand what it is your video is about.

6) It is advisable to optimize the URLs of your video pages for the search engines with the help of mod_rewrite function so that the pages are freely assessable by the search engines.

7) More than anything, I have learned that the thumbnail that you choose for your video is one of the most important factors in terms of the number of people that choose to view your video. With that in mind, try to experiment with various thumbnails until you have a good idea which images attract the most views from the audience that you are targeting.
If you are hosting videos on your own site, use the sitemap that we mentioned earlier and keep your videos all in the same directory folder so that search engines can more easily locate all the videos you are publishing.

Beside the above mentioned points there are few more points relevant for the optimization:

9) Keyword research, as with search engine optimization for other online content, is crucial for targeting the audience you desire most effectively. Use keyword research tools available in order to identify those words that most often are searched for when searching for related content online.

10) Allow users to submit comments and feedback on your videos. Studies show that viewers who offer feedback are those most likely to convert and take the desired action that you are trying to solicit, whether it be an email, website visit, or purchase.

If you’re interested in learning more about online video marketing and SEO, we suggest that you visit ReelSEO. They are is focused on offering expert tips, tutorials, and advice onOptimizing Videos for Search Engines. For a list of articles and resources about VSEO, visit ReelSEO.com

Web Video Marketing Techniques and Advice

So you want to use video for marketing purposes on the web. Where to begin and what to know? Here are some quick tips on getting up and running. Now of course this is only the tip of a very large industry and you’re best served to do further research on the subject.

First and foremost you need to be clear on what the message is that you want to get across. Do you simply want to raise brand awareness? Then you might benefit from a viral video with some interesting or comedic content that will spread across the internet on its own. Perhaps you’re trying to get people to buy your product a situation where you might want to do a totally informational video or perhaps a hand-on review of the product to let people see how it works, what it does or why they should get it.

After you’ve got a grip on what you want to say you can start looking at some more technical points. The think you must do is include a way for the viewer to interact or get more information. That means dropping a link, contact information or other way for them to move forward. If you’ve got a product to sell then you need a call-to-action in the video. After all, if they are watching the video, they probably searched for the info and might be ready to buy. Give them the opportunity to do so.

Speaking of finding the video, another tip is to make sure you optimize your video for search engines. That means including the best possible metadata like title, description and keywords. On top of that you can also include text-based subtitles and closed captions. This not only gives more text for the search engines to find but it also includes information for those who can’t hear or don’t have sound capabilities on their PC (common in some work environments).

Viral videos are called so because they spread themselves meaning you don’t have to do all the work. You do have to give viewers ways to share those videos so they can go viral. Linking the video to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook is essential. Myspace is another outlet. By giving tools to the viewers you are enabling them to help you by spreading the word on their own. In the end it’s what’s needed to get the word out in a big way.

These are just a few online video marketing tips and there are hundreds more that will help you get up and running with an online video marketing campaign. Information is key to your strategy and you should be sure you have all the pertinent information prior to beginning. Sure, you could go to an agency and have them do it all for you. Or you could equip yourself with the proper tools and go do it yourself. It is a question of time versus money.

If you would rather trust your company’s video marketing efforts to the internet’s #1 authority on online video marketing, consider ReelSEO.com. ReelSEO has an army of video marketing specialists that can provide your company with premium internet video marketing services.