Video Optimization Practices

We have spoken lot about Search Engine Optimization in the past, and even a little bit about Social Media Optimization, optimizing your social media presence. My list of popular social media websites include sites like YouTube and MetaCafe. When submitting your video to these online video sites, did you know that you can optimize those videos so that they are bound to get more views? We all want our videos to get more views, right? Well, let’s talk a bit about video optimization and optimizing your videos for the online video sites.

Well here is a bunch of great tips that are still relevant today, including:

  • Your video clips are relevant and informative.
  • Cacthy Title for your Video.
  • Apply Video as a Portal to other Content on Your Site.
  • Optimize your video with significant Key Phrases.
  • Add Transcripts of your Videos.
  • Extend your Video by allowing embedding for others.

You might also want to check out the Video Optimization Tips that include more tips about optimizing your video and even how to publicize your video.

Recently, we have noticed that http://www.break.com is a great place to add your video, if you put your keywords in the title of your video there’s a good chance that it will rank well in Google. Whenever uploading a video, try to pay attention to tagging the video properly with the appropriate anchor text, title the video with anchor text and make sure you add your website’s URL to your profile page.

Well check The Ultimate Online Video List

Please feel free to add any sites in the comments. You can bookmark {CTRL+D} this page and come back at any point of time to view more sites.

Best Practices and Tips for SEO Video Optimization

Best Practices and Tips for SEO Video Optimization

Video optimization as part of your search engine optimization efforts can be a great way for you to expose your brand to users who may have otherwise not been familar with your brand, your product(s) or your service(s). With the launch of Universal Search from Google, you can expect to see more and more video results occupying the search engine results that are served up by Google.

Marketers and site owners are continuing to experiment with video as a means of intercepting their target markets. As a result, we are seeing more video driven content surface on the Web. Just how popular is video content on the Web? Well depending on the study or data you review, the results vary.

Video Optimization Best Practices and Tips

  1. Make sure that your video clips are relevant and informative – For starters, ensure that your video provides useful and informative information. Videos that demonstrate step by step procedures are great, videos that express an opinion about a specific topic can be useful too. Videos that have nothing to do with your brand or service offering or are general or vague in nature will just confuse your audience. Save the viewer the trouble and don’t just upload a video for the sake of uploading a video.
  2. SEO Video Optimization Fundamental Tip #1: Give your video a Catchy Title – Video can be used to bring visitors to your site. One way to get users to view your video is to give it a catchy title that contains a related key phrase that is relevant to your product, service or brand.
  3. Use Video as a Portal to other Content on Your Site - Upload a couple of videos to portals like YouTube and provide links back to related content and other videos on your site.
  4. SEO Video Optimization Fundamental Tip #2: Optimize your video for Important Key Phrases – You might want to optimize your video for terms users are likely to be searching for. Tag your video with these terms, consider naming the file name of the video with these terms in mind.
  5. Provide Transcripts of your Videos – Good old HTML content is still a favorite with the search engines. If you want your video to rank well, you need to give the search engines something to index and rank. Surround your videos with onpage copy that can be indexed by the search engines.
  6. Keep Your Videos to five minutes or less – there is nothing worse than a boring video that goes on an on. If you have video content that is of long duration, consider breaking it up into smaller pieces and tag each accordingly. Not only does this make for better viewing pleasure, it also keeps the user looking for more.
  7. Make use of a Video Sitemap – For video that is native to your own website, make sure that users and search engine spiders can find your video content. The easiest way to do this is through the use of a video sitemap on your site. Use important keywords in the anchor text links to your videos featured on your video sitemap.
  8. SEO Video Optimization Fundamental Tip #3: Tag Your Videos – tag your videos with key phrases that are reflective of the content.
  9. Brand your Video with your Logo – Video is a great tool to generate brand awareness with your prospects. Take advantage of this by incorporating your brand in your videos.
  10. SEO Video Optimization Fundamental Tip #4: Remember Inbound Linking Factors – Link to videos using important keywords in anchor text.
  11. Offer the Option to Embed Your Video – allow other users access to the coding that will allow them to embed your video on their website or their blog. Think viral marketing
  12. SEO Video Optimization Fundamental Tip #5: Add Descriptive Meta Data – optimize your video for relevant keywords and include a keyword rich description of your video content.
  13. Allow Users to Rate your Video – videos that receive higher ratings from users are the ones that users tend to favorite and save. You can bet that the search engines will pay attention to this when ranking these videos.
  14. Syndicate Your Video – Submit your video to RSS Really Simple Syndication.

Video Optimization is becoming more important as mainstream aspect to search engine optimization. The best way to optimize your video content is to think about the user and who you want to engage with your video. Be smart about it, don’t just post a video for the sake of posting a video. Consider your audience, their language and their needs.

Source: http://bit.ly/OqLf

Video Optimization Tips

Promoting your site, blog or product with online video is free, it’s mobile and social, so getting your vid to the most eyeballs should be easy, right?

Well, not really. YouTube is the biggest of the video sites and the average video posted there only gets about 100 views per year, so it’s not as easy as it looks. There is a bit of optimization that can help you on your way.

  • Use rich meta data – Video optimization, like web page optimization, is still driven by this. As with your content-rich web pages, make sure your title and meta description are keyword rich and helpful to the visitors (and spiders).
  • Build a unique page – Create a content-rich page just for the video you are promoting. Along with appropriate meta data, include some descriptive text and keyword rich links to help get you crawled by the crawler based search engines.
  • Share - The easier the video is to share, the better. For instance, YouTube’s strength is that it is a sharing site. Only a part of the video traffic comes from search itself, so be sure to build in a sharing strategy for your video.
  • Optimize for Related Videos - People watch a ton of these in YouTube and the higher your view volume, the more likely your video will show up above the fold (bottom of the screen). Study the top videos and see what they are doing that you might be able to use to your advantage.
  • Embed your video – To keep some traffic going after the initial rush of viewers, embed your video in a widget that you can not only show on your page, but share with others to post on their own sites.
  • Push out updates – This one’s pretty much a no-brainer. Be sure you push out your updates in a video RSS feed.
  • Make it viral – Quirky, offbeat, unusual and unique videos tend to have the most success lighting a fire under themselves.
  • Export videos as SWF – Please, no Active X controls. For higher quality and mobile, try .mov.
  • Build a Google video sitemap – You want to be sure Google finds your videos, so this definitely can’t hurt.
  • Be constant – Use the same title and description on all of the video sites that you post your video to like YouTube, MetaCafe, etc.
  • Customize your thumbnail – YouTube gives you a selection of three images from your video to use as your thumbnail. These are pulled from the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks in time in your video, so try to work it so that a scene in your video shows up in one of those points that would be appropriate for the thumbnail. Consider having your URL or telephone number show up at one of those points.
  • Localize – Having a video in your local listings can improve your traffic.
  • Submit to Blinkx – This will get you into sites like Ask and MSN, too.
  • Be descriptive – Be sure the actual name of the file and URL are clear and descriptive (www.website.com/funny-bunny-video.mov, not http://www.website.com/fbunvid.mov).
  • Use TubeMogul.com – Use this site to upload your video to several video sites at once. Your video could actually show up several times for a single search. See my previous post Importance of Diversity in S E O for an example. TubeMogul.com also includes YouTube stats for you and your competition.
  • Take the hint – YouTube tells you popular related phrases in the search drop down as you type. In a way, they are doing your keyword research for you. Pay attention!
  • URL first - Include your full URL as the lead to your description for your video in YouTube. This puts your link at the beginning where it will show best. You can even include tracking code if you like.
  • Don’t over tag – Tags are great, but don’t over do it. These can be just as spammy as circa 1998 keyword meta tags. Be concise and true to the content.
  • Call to action - Include one in your video with your URL. Watermarking is a good way to do this.
  • Press video – Include a video in your PRWeb press release. Yes, this will cost you money, but it is money well spent if you have something good to share with the world. If you don’t have something good to share, why are you bothering to submit a press release in the first place?
  • Respond – Look for a video that is popular and related to yours. Letter a title and description identically and submit a video response.

    Naturally, all of the tips in the world won’t guarantee success. There are a lot of factors involved with making a video popular, including the video itself, but hopefully these suggestions will give you a starting point for your video optimization campaigns.//

    Video Blogging The Next Generation

    Video Blogging The Next Generation

    Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet. Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

    A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it. Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators. Videoblogging works with people on the internet expressing their selves. Now if you put this on a business prospective, you are up to a lot of benefits. Think of it as a powerful tool in making showing your prospective customers your line of products or your services. It’s just like showing a commercial all for free. And if you videoblog through RSS, then most probably you are getting your target market.

    People like to see what they are going to buy. Some would like to see proof and be sure that they are getting their money’s worth before shelving their dimes on it. All of us know the influence of a thirty second commercial. The effect of videoblogging is similar to that. You show your product, people watch it. If they like it, they buy it. If you present it good enough, they’ll buy the product even if they don’t need it.

    Now on the web, things are pretty much static, unlike in television in which all are moving. If you post something that is mobile, it would most likely catch attention. Now imaging your product parading in all it’s royalty through videoblog. You’ll get phone call orders in no time. If your business is just starting up, you can create a videoblog right at your own home. All you need is your web camera, microphone, video software, and lights. For as long as you know how to use your camera, then you can create a videoblog. Invest in a good web camera. The higher its resolution is the better the output. And you like to present your goods in the optimum way so get the best one possible. Make a short story, or just capture your goods in one go. Just make sure you are getting the best profile for each. Get those creativity juices flowing.

    Lights are important in a production. Make sure you illuminate entirely the area you are going to use to create videoblog. The brighter the area, the crispier the images will be. You can also use lighting effects for added appeal to the presentation.Should you require sounds for your videoblog, you need a microphone. Record you voice as a voice over for promoting the product and its benefit to consumers. Sounds are as important as videos on a videoblog. It is advisable to make your sound effects as enticing as the video.

    Your video editing software can be any program. You need this to finalize your work. You can add sounds, delete some bad angles, or insert some still pictures in there too. Some programs are user-friendly and can be used even with zero knowledge on video editing. Even simple video editing programs should do the trick. Select your background carefully too. The light affects the presentation so make sure that the background and the light complements each other. Nowadays, the more creative you are in presenting your product to the market, they more you are likely to succeed. Videoblogging offers an interactive way of selling. You involve the customers. You instill in them the advantage of your goods. And at times, those are enough to make a sale.

    Video Optimization

    High Quality Live & On-Demand Entertainment Experiences over the Internet

    People love watching video. Professional online video for business stands out. Video is a brand differentiator in crowded markets. Google bought YouTube years back. Then there is MSN Soapbox, Yahoo video, Blinkz and Daily Motion. The tidal wave is coming into shore. It is plain to see that Video is a key component in search.

    There is more to video than meets the eye. To produce good video is a skill. Skill comes with practice, learning, good equipment and most importantly a good story.

    The most important part of video is the story. You need to be clear in your objectives and you need to plan the video for the user, the medium and for business purposes, you need to decide what the call to action will be.

    Video creation can be thought of as a war against unnecessary noise in your content. The more noise in your original, the less it can be compressed, and the larger the final result. Use a high quality digital video camera. Minimize pans, zooms, and subject motion and make sure your subject is well lit. Use a simple background and a solid tripod. Avoid hand-held shots, but if a tripod is not an option use a gyroscopic stabilizer (ken-labs.com) or an image stabilized lens. The lower the noise, movement, and fine detail in the background the smaller the video.

    • Minimize camera motion with a tripod
    • Minimize subject motion
    • Use a lot of light
    • Use a simple background
    • Avoid camera pans and zooms
    • Use professional equipment
    • Use a digital format