“Reel” Video SEO Strategies & Best Practices

Presenters:Mark Robertson, ReelSEOPeter Kocks, TruveoSean Knapp, OoyalaAlex Holub, Ooyala

Audio Portion:US: 1-866-853-0972International: 1-857-350-1619Passcode: 93062172#

Agenda

• What is Video SEO?• Overview of Video Search• Guidelines/Best Practices• Examples• Video Search vs. Web Search• Special Tips • Ooyala Video SEO SDK• Q/A

Audio Portion:US: 1-866-853-0972

International: 1-857-350-1619Passcode: 93062172#

Mark Robertson,Founder, ReelSEO.com

Audio Portion:US: 1-866-853-0972

International: 1-857-350-1619Passcode: 93062172#

What is Video SEO & Who Cares?

The application of SEO best practices with video content to ensure maximum discoverability across search engines & ultimately, visibility

amongst the target audience

• Video SEO is NOT– Smoke & mirrors– About “fooling” search engines

• Video SEO IS– Helping search engines “understand” video content– An extension of SEO– A method to drive valuable traffic to your video content– Something that plays an important role in an overall video strategy

What is Video SEO

Searches for Video– 38% of all US online users report using search engine results to discover video 1

– vs. from portal (19%) vs. other video destination sites (11%)

YouTube Searching– 54% of online consumers reported using the site to discover video 1

– Dec 2008 – 2nd largest search engine in US2

– Dec 2009 – 3.9B queries = 28% of all Google queries2

Search Engine Referral Traffic– Share of video referral traffic from search engines 4

• 11.81% - general & video search engines (YouTube excluded)– 23% of traffic to YouTube originates from Google 3

Sources: 1JupiterResearch/NPD Group Individual User Survey (6/08) | 2 Comscore Search Rankings (6/09) | 3Compete.com | 4Tubemogul (2/09)

Why Video SEO? - People Search for Video

Why So Much Focus on Google?

Source – “Google Universal Search Results Searcher Penetration by Result Type” – ComScore – Jan 2008

Videos Dominate Universal Search• 38% of users who searched Google were

served video in Universal search engine results pages (‘08)

Google Video = 21.5M Unique/Month

Universal Search = Opportunity to Stand Out

Best Practices for Video SEO

Video Search Engines / Aggregators– Truveo, Blinkx, Videosurf, Veoh, etc…

General Search Engines– Google, Yahoo, Bing– Universal search, federated, blended, etc…

Video Destination Sites– YouTube, Metacafe, blip TV, and many many

more…

*** Commonality1. All searches begin with keywords2. Dependent on textual metadata &

community factors

Video Search – The Players

“Hosted” or Website Video SEO• Good for monetization and traffic to website

Benefits: – Control: analytics & monetization, UI and branding– Exposure to related videos

“Posted” or Distributed Video SEO• Good for branding purposes & generating views • YouTube optimization is key = 85% traffic

Benefits: – Leverage authority– Leverage community/audience– Works without website video

Commonality– General principles for on-page & off-page SEO apply

Hosted Video SEO vs. Distributed

“Hosted” Website Video SEO

Create Unique Landing Pages– Unique URL for each video

Use Embedded Players– No pop-ups or JavaScript (lightbox,tabs – OK)

Optimize the Landing Page– SEO principles for titles, URLs, metadata, H1, etc…– Inbound linking (PR) matters

• Keyword anchor text – include keywords– “watch video” vs. “watch Climbing Everest part 1”

Provide Context to Surround Video– Contextually related links (products, videos, articles)– Related on-page text (tags, transcripts, comments)– Leverage dynamically generated textual content

• On-page and/or• Alternative text

Create Optimized Video Landing Pages

Video Landing Page Anatomy

Create Positive User Experience– Help users find videos

• Prominently link to video section• Incorporate video results in site search

– Page load times are important

Create Compelling Thumbnails– High quality & eye-catching – Relevant & appropriate*** Video search = browsing

Enable Interaction & Sharing– Let visitors share your videos– Enable commenting – provides additional text*** Sharing increases inbound links

Don’t Forget the User Experience

Don’t Make them Look for You (crawls)

MRSS feeds and XML Sitemaps– AOL Video/Truveo, blinkx & most others = MRSS– Google = both MRSS & XML video sitemaps

• XML sitemaps (better)– Specify player & thumbnail

Tips for MRSS/Sitemaps– Indicate landing page URLs for each video– Publish both video sitemap and regular xml sitemap– Titles are given disproportionate weighting for

rankings– The more data, the better

Hardest Part - Getting Video into Search Engines

YouTube SEO Strategy & Tips

Success = Quality, Value & Community

YouTube Ranking Factors• Title • Description• Tags• Views• Ratings• Playlist additions• Flagging• Shares• Comments• Age of video• Channel views• Subscribers• Embeds & inbound links

Tips for Uploading to YouTubeTitles are important

– Include keywords/phrases in titles– Trade-off = Search keywords vs. enticing titles

Maximize descriptive text– Leverage descriptions “more info” field liberally

(5000 characters)– Leverage tags – optimize & de-optimize*** Put most important keywords first in titles,

descriptions and tags

Enable interaction– Embedding and sharing– Commenting and rating

Consider manually uploading or API– More characters available for titles, descriptions,

tags vs. uploading tools– Must be active community member

Add URLs to descriptions– Track with tiny URLs

Consider paid placement– Allows off-site overlay ads

Leverage annotations – Drive viewers to other videos

Leverage closed captions– Indexing & placement– Accessibility– Global reach

Engage the community– Subscribe to relevant users– Add video responses when appropriate– Encourage linking and embedding

Engage the Audience & Drive Interaction

Website Video SEO Examples

The Good• Prominent link to section• Available in site search• Sharing enabled

The Bad• Video quality• No commenting/rating• Clunky UI

The Ugly• Slow page load• No text (all flash)• Duplicate meta-tags• No sitemap

The New York Post - Video Pages

The New York Post – Search Engine Results

The Good• Loads fast• Prominent links to section• Available in site search• Sharing enabled• Full text transcripts• Proper H1, titles,

descriptions, etc…• Related videos, topics, etc…

The Bad• No commenting• ?

Fox Sports – Video Pages

Fox Sports - Search Engine Results

Sony HDR-XR500V

Good:• Traffic directly to ReelSEO• Beats Amazon.com

Bad:• What was I thinking with this thumbnail?

“Reel” Example – Universal Search Rankings

Bookmark ReelSEO = Video Marketing News, Trends, Tips…

Thank YouMark R. Robertson, Founderwww.reelseo.com

@reelseo

Facebook.com/reelseo