Although a nascent element in most SEO strategies, Video SEO is rapidly gaining momentum. This is, in no small part, attributable to the explosive growth in the use of hand-held devices such as smartphones. Multi-media SEO is thus coming of age and presents an opportunity of quite staggering proportions for firms with the foresight to embrace it.
Once the preserve or large organisations with substantial budgets, today’s video providers operate across the economic spectrum with affordable entry-level solutions now in abundant supply.
Search engine visibility
In sharp contrast with text-based SEO, search engines cannot determine the content of a video. As a result, they must rely upon the surrounding information; this ranges from mainstream on-page optimisation such as links and meta tags through to video transcripts.
Some of the more advanced search engines have the ability to categorise video content to some degree. As an example, flesh tone detection can be used to determine that a video may have adult content (although it may equally be promoting swimwear!). Some can also detect faces and even on-screen text presented as part of the video but the technologies are still immature.
Multi-formats
Although from a pure SEO perspective, there is no specific requirement to provide your videos in multiple formats; users will appreciate the ease of access this offers. Popular formats include .avi, .wmv and .mov. Offering multiple formats may increase the click / viewing ratio.
SEO Perspective can work with you to ensure that you maximise your investment in each and every video. In most cases, this will follow a multi-channel strategy:-
Hosting on-site
Properly optimised video content will be indexed and ranked by all of the major search engines, together with a number of specialist video search engines such as Truveo. We can work with you to ensure that all of the required optimisation factors are correctly addressed. These include the on-page factors and transcripts mentioned above; the video file name itself; a useful summary, description and internal linking factors. It is also important to store videos in an easily accessible folder or directory and to correctly include them in your site map.
RSS and MRSS video site hosting
There are a number of specialists sites that are able to accept information provided via RSS or MRSS. These include Blinkx and even Yahoo’s own video site. Once again, we can work with you to leverage this technology, providing appropriate keywords, thumbnails, descriptions and a full transcript.
Mainstream video sharing sites
Clearly the best known example is, of course, YouTube but AOL and Yahoo also host videos. Search traffic volumes on these sites is significant and, correctly leveraged, may serve to drive substantial traffic to you.
As with the RSS and MRSS feed sites, upload sites will require appropriate optimisation. They also allow you to include a link back to relevant content on your own site, further assisting in driving relevant traffic.
Content is still king
Just as with text content, your videos must be engaging, relevant, unique, insightful and interesting. We can work with you to drive focus and to ensure that your viewers view them in their entirety, bookmark them, “like” them and share them. All essential factors in video SEO. The SEO Perspective team has years of experience in branding and can ensure that your videos reflect your brand values, underpinning rather than undermining them.
Properly managed, video SEO arguably represents one of the most significant opportunities for exposure and targeted traffic in today’s search landscape.