10 Video SEO Tips - Marketing Your Videos to the Search Engines
We all have seen the research that has been pouring out all over the internet with regard to the growing popularity of online video content. Internet users are consuming online video content at a rate greater than previously predicted. And, consumers all over are learning to produce and share online video content. Video can often be a more effective means for a producer to get a message across than typical offline or online content. In order to take advantage of the opportunity that exists today with regard to online video, one must learn the tips and techniques that can be used to allow for greater discoverability of online content - this is called Video SEO or video search engine optimization.
1) In order to have your video more easily discovered, one very popular technique is to submit a text transcript along with your video for users and for the search engines to understand and index your video more easily. Use a keyword rich title for the transcript and be sure to include an introduction or summary that describes the video content in text form.
2) Don't forget to encode the keywords you are targeting into your video. Try to use the word "video" as much as possible, make sure the word "video" is used in your title, description, meta data etc.
3) Off-page SEO, or, the techniques that one uses outside of the actual coding of the site itself (links, etc...), is just as effective for online video content as it is with any other webpage. Therefore, do your best to develop inbound links to your videos with the keywords that you are targeting in the anchor text of those links.
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) It is very difficult for the web crawlers of any search engine to crawl into the video contents inside flash players so they usually prefer to stay away from such files. It is therefore advisable not to use such kind of file formats which discourages the web crawlers.
6) Create search engine friendly keyword URLs for your video pages. To do this, you can use mod-rewrite function or htaccess file so that the URLs are freely assessable and readable by the search engines.
7) The first thing that users see when browsing for or searching for videos is the video thumbnail. Research shows that the thumbnail you choose for your video can really effect the number of viewers that watch the video itself. Try to experiment with the thumbnails that you choose to see which ones create more interest and get seen more often by viewers.
8) Try to keep one video per page and put all video pages into the same directory or folder.
Besides the tips mentioned above for Video SEO, there are a few other guidelines to keep in mind:
9) Always make sure viewers are searching for your targeted keywords regularly. If not, try to find the closest related keywords being searched.
10) Viewers who offer feedback are most likely to take the desired action on your video. This could be a good opportunity for you to submit fresh content, if the most popular videos were included months ago, it really helps.
1) In order to have your video more easily discovered, one very popular technique is to submit a text transcript along with your video for users and for the search engines to understand and index your video more easily. Use a keyword rich title for the transcript and be sure to include an introduction or summary that describes the video content in text form.
2) Don't forget to encode the keywords you are targeting into your video. Try to use the word "video" as much as possible, make sure the word "video" is used in your title, description, meta data etc.
3) Off-page SEO, or, the techniques that one uses outside of the actual coding of the site itself (links, etc...), is just as effective for online video content as it is with any other webpage. Therefore, do your best to develop inbound links to your videos with the keywords that you are targeting in the anchor text of those links.
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) It is very difficult for the web crawlers of any search engine to crawl into the video contents inside flash players so they usually prefer to stay away from such files. It is therefore advisable not to use such kind of file formats which discourages the web crawlers.
6) Create search engine friendly keyword URLs for your video pages. To do this, you can use mod-rewrite function or htaccess file so that the URLs are freely assessable and readable by the search engines.
7) The first thing that users see when browsing for or searching for videos is the video thumbnail. Research shows that the thumbnail you choose for your video can really effect the number of viewers that watch the video itself. Try to experiment with the thumbnails that you choose to see which ones create more interest and get seen more often by viewers.
8) Try to keep one video per page and put all video pages into the same directory or folder.
Besides the tips mentioned above for Video SEO, there are a few other guidelines to keep in mind:
9) Always make sure viewers are searching for your targeted keywords regularly. If not, try to find the closest related keywords being searched.
10) Viewers who offer feedback are most likely to take the desired action on your video. This could be a good opportunity for you to submit fresh content, if the most popular videos were included months ago, it really helps.
About the Author:
If your interested in learning more about online video marketing and SEO, we suggest that you visit ReelSEO.com. ReelSEO is focused on offering expert tips, tutorials, and advice onVideo Marketing & SEO. For a list of articles and resources about Website Video Optimization, visit ReelSEO.com
