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SEO your video
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Video Search Engine Optimization- Website Video SEO –
What is Video SEO?
“Simply put, Video SEO is the art and science of ensuring that your video content attracts as
much traffic as possible.” – blinkx
Options for Online Video SEO• Hosted - Website Video SEO – Optimization of video content that is
on your website
• Posted – Video Sharing SEO - Optimization of video content uploaded to video sharing sites, social media, etc…
Benefits of Posted Video SEO
Strategy: When your goal is to generate video views
Benefits:• Take advantage of a large audience and viral social nature of video
sharing sites
• Video sharing sites have simplified search algorithms and are easier to “game”
• Take advantage of pre-established authority and PR – easy way to get into Organic/Universal Search w/thumbnails. Youtube, Revver, metacafe, etc…
• Can use this strategy with or without a website presence
Benefits of Website Video SEO (hosted)
Strategy: When your goal is to generate traffic to your website & your video content
Benefits:• Control over on-page text, encoded metadata, user-experience, etc...
• Control over monetization/advertising
• Generate traffic to your website
• While you can currently dominate the SERPs with “carpet bombing,” posted strategies, this may go away with duplicate content filtering in the future
Benefits of Website Video SEO (hosted)
Links back to siteDirect traffic to site
But, Do People Even Search For Videos?
Where do viewers discover video online?
44% - discover randomly43% - via sharing43% - via video websites39% - via search engines27% - via marketing email4% - via RSS & MRSS feeds
Video Search Engine Traffic Trends
Video discovery via search is on the rise
• 29% of video discovered on social video sharing sites in 2008
– vs. 36% in 2007
• 29% of videos discovered via search engines in 2008
– vs. 22% in 2007
1. People are used to using search engines to locate online content and often append the word “video” or “videos” to their search queries.
2. And of course, Universal/Blended/Federated Search proliferation
Why the Shift to Search?
Google Universal Search
May 2007 – Google Launches Universal Search initiative to integrate listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines into Google SERPS
Videos Dominate Universal Search
Videos Dominate Universal Search
38% of users who searched Google were served video in Universal search engine results pages
Source – “Google Universal Search Results Searcher Penetration by Result Type” – ComScore – Jan 2008
Video Search Engines - Types
1st Generation• Depend primarily on metadata and on-page text• Most are moving to second generation
2nd Generation• Use metadata, on-page text, UGC (user generated content –
comments, annotations, etc..), and advanced recognition technologies (speech, visual, facial, OCR, etc..)
Website Video SEO Strategy & Tips
+ On the positive side…• Videos generate interest, buzz, inbound links, and
website traffic = Better rankings
- On the negative side…• Search engines are not YET able to “read” actual video
content• Video search engines need to be told what a video is
about using on-page text and metadata
How Does Video Affect Website SEO?
• There are important differences to keep in mind when optimizing video vs. text content
• However, SEO should be approached as a holistic strategy
• Focus on optimizing your entire website, while at the same time more deeply integrating your video content
Website Video SEO Strategy
Before You Start – Measure Current State
• Check Video Referrals - Analytics– Where do visitors to your video pages arrive from?– What % of video traffic originates from search
engines?
• Test Searches – Does your video content appear in the search
engines currently?
• Monitor Behavior – What % of visitors are linking to your videos or
sharing?
Website Video SEO Benchmarking
Video Files• Offer multiple video formats – flv, mov, mpeg, mp4,
etc..• Include important keywords in the filename• Perhaps include the word “video” in the filename
In-File Metadata• Encode your video files with good metadata that
includes your keywords. - Metadata title, author, date, description
• Search engines are not great at indexing in-file metadata but this is improving
Basic SEO Tips for Website Video SEO
Site Structure• 1 video per URL – Use unique URLS• Place your videos in a central root folder/directory• Use embedded players – not pop-ups• Create navigation links to your video content
On-Page Text• Follow general SEO principles for titles, URLs, meta tags, H1, etc…• Include contextually related links to articles & videos• Provide related on-page text with your keywords
– Consider using transcripts/captions as additional relevant on-page text.– Use SWFObject to embed on-page text
More Tips for Website Video SEO
Inbound linking – Enable Interaction & Sharing
• Let visitors grab your embed code• Include social bookmarking tools• Enable comments • Allow users to subscribe to your videos via
RSS/MRSS• Create easy link for users to grab• Don’t forget about internal linking – consider a site-
wide link in your page’s footer
More Tips for Website Video SEO
Search engines currently do their best to crawl the web and index video content. BUT, don’t wait for them to find you. Help them by telling them about your video content.
MRSS Feed Syndication• Most video search engines accept RSS / MRSS feeds (+ iTunes)• MRSS is an RSS feed with media enclosures• TIP - If you have a problem, contact the video search engines, they
are helpful and want your content– http://www.blinkx.com/rssupload– http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit– http://www.reelseo.com/submit-videos-rss-mrss/
How Do You Get Into Search Engines?
What about GOOGLE??
• In December 2007 Google launched XML sitemaps for Video (not = MRSS)
• File Types accepted: – mpg, mpeg, mp4, mov, wmv, asf, avi,
ra, ram, rm, flv – no streaming protocols supported
• Others will likely follow as with regular xml sitemaps
Google Video Sitemaps - XML
eMarketer projects that 87% of the total
U.S. Internet audience will watch videos
online by 2011. Guess who dominates in the video search market? One word, Google.
Google Video XML Sitemaps Requirements:
• Only use URLs that refer to video content• <50,000 videos per sitemap• Sitemap file size <10MB• Video files and thumbnail images <30MB• Title <100 characters• Description <2048 characters• Set Robots.txt for UserAgent “Googlebot” = Allow
Google Video Sitemaps - XML
Google Video XML Sitemaps Tips• Include thumbnail URL
– “we strongly recommended that you provide a thumbnail URL to increase the likelihood of your video being included in the video index.” – Google
• If you want users to be able to watch your videos on Google Video, make sure to set <video:player_loc allow_embed="yes">
• Set player to autoplay so that users will be shown the video after they click on the result
Google Video Sitemaps - XML
Where Do Videos Submitted Via XML Sitemaps Appear?
• "...when you submit a Video Sitemap to Google, we will make the included video URLs searchable on Google Video."
• BUT …they continue on "...in addition, your video may also appear in other Google search products.“
• Why is this important?
Google Video Sitemaps - XML
YouTube Dominates SERP Thumbnails
Other sites showing thumbnails successfully: Videojug, Ted.com, 5min.com, Vodpod
However, since the launch of video XML sitemaps, many others have been successful at getting video thumbnails into Google SERPS
Regular SERPS Universal SERPS
Universal Search = Thumbnail Power
Will Google Show Your Thumbnails?
You Bet!We have done some testing to show that it is possible.
• Consider submitting videos, especially those of a viral appeal to video sharing sites
• Easy way to get into universal search leveraging the authority of existing sites
Tips• Use a service like Tubemogul or TrafficGeyser to
upload your videos to multiple sites. • Put your URL in the start of the description• Leverage tags – use tags liberally – Optimize & De-
Optimize• YouTube Tip – Consider using annotations to drive
viewers to your related videos.
We Also Love Video Sharing
ReelSEO.com is a website dedicated to providing unique insight and informative articles on the
ever-growing use of online video marketing and video search engine optimization (video SEO)
Visit www.ReelSEO.com for tons of news and tips about Video SEO Please subscribe to our feed and check out our ReelSEO podcasts on iTunes
Other Resources• http://seowiki.blinkx.com• http://search.yahoo.com/mrss• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=10079
– or just search “Google video sitemaps” in Google