Video Search Engine Optimisation (VSEO)
With the growth in cheap digital video cameras and the low cost of bandwidth, it cannot have escaped the average searcher that video has become a much more popular medium on the internet. The advent of YouTube and many other video sharing websites have made this a viable method to drive traffic for many website owners.
Google is showing video results as part of their Universal Search and these results usually appear high in the rankings. With the thumbnail image there is also evidence to suggest that these results are more prominent to the searcher[1].
It is not easy, but sometimes a video can capture people’s imagination and they send it to their friends and their friends send it to their friends building massive linking potential. Known in the jargon as going ‘viral‘. To achieve such results requires tremendous creativity and lateral thinking but everyone has to start somewhere. So how can you increase the chance of ranking your video in the listings in the first place?
i) Videos are not text and so are not easily indexed. Therefore, it is important to provide descriptive information about the video using every method at your disposal. Especially in the filename. If you have a new widget then rather than
'24924b.mov'
call the file:
'demonstration-of-widget-video.mov
Hosting Video on Your Web Site
ii) Hosting video in a website, using Flash use swfobject which is a standards compatible way to allow you to embed the video player or include descriptive text and an image should the flash fail to appear.
iii) Make the video your own. Video is easy to copy and so be sure to embed your company logo and website details in the frame so that it is obvious where the video originated even if it is used on other web sites.
iv) Include a written transcript. Not only is this useful for people that cannot listen to the video, it will provide a text content and another means of indexing the content. Alternatively, you can host the video on a video sharing network and link back to the video from your own website.
Popular Video Sharing Websites
This is good if you don’t want to spend money on bandwidth but it does take the video out of your control and can lead to reputation management issues as people can comment on the video and it only takes one or two bad comments to discredit your product. When adding video to these website use every opportunity to add information about the video and your website.
| Description | Demographics | Upload | |
| YouTube | No intro needed here | Evenly female/male audience, even age distribution, U.S. East and West coasts. | Fast review process, mainly automated |
| Yahoo! Video | An original video destination, but late to the game | Slight more male viewers, slightly older, even US geographic distribution | Relatively slow and unpredictable review process |
| MySpace | Primarily a social networking site, but video is still huge | High percentage of female and under 18 viewers | No review process. Videos go live immediately |
| Metacafe | Popular worlwide, prides itself on community votes driving featured content | Skews towards older, more educated, male viewers | Fast human review process |
| Google Video | Increasingly becoming more of a video search engine | Slightly more male viewers, disproportionately more Hispanic audience | Limited review process. Unlimited content length and size |
| Revver | One of the first video sites to offer ad revenue sharing | Slightly older, white male crowd | Discriminating human review process |
| DailyMotion | The YouTube of Europe | Overwhelmingly white male. Higher age and income than most | Fast and easy |
| Blip.tv | Publisher-friendly video sharing and distribution site | Slightly more male, slightly higher income level than most video sites, even ethnic distribution | Easy |
| Crackle | Focused on making people stars | Largely male, disproportionately African-American audience | Slick Flash upload tool allows many videos in one shot |
| Veoh | Focused on full-screen video programming for anyone with a broadband connection | Slightly more male viewers, predominantly Asian, distributed across all age categories | Easy |
The tip with all shared video sites is to describe the video using as many relevant and related tags and categories as possible. This will enable your video to be found for as many searches as possible.
References
[1] Comscore: http://www.search-engine-war.co.uk/2008/05/why-is-video-th.html
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Tags: Universal Search, Video, Video marketing, Video Search Engine Optimisation, VSEO
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