You Tube SEO Video Tips For Website Traffic
The online reach of You Tube in October 2008 was over 100 million You Tube video viewers with a total of 2.5 billion searches. You Tube is more that just a video site, it should be viewed as a major search engine.
You Tube has a search algorithm that includes the optimization of title, description, tags, views, and ratings. All of these items can be manipulated by the video owner, as well as the viewing/sharing audience, to determine placement in both YouTube search listings, and carried over to Google’s own universal/blended search listings.
As far as content, we have seen “How To”, “Tutorials”, and “Research” items do well on You Tube and don’t recommend using the wide screen format. The standard format is 4:3 and the thumbnails are optimized for this format.
Using a keyword rich title and add a click able URL in the first line of the description tag. In the video, be sure to include a call to action that lists your website and possibly a phone number.
To increase popularity, add comments on popular videos to encourage viewers to check out your video. You can also try to create video spin-offs in hopes of showing up as a related video.
As far as link building, YouTube adds “no follow” to all video titles, except those viewed under recent activity. YouTube Insight features a very robust analytics package that shows video views over time including demographics (age, gender) as well as geographic (states, countries) and an ‘engagement’ metric called Hot Spots which measures viewership at various stages of the video.
Embedding YouTube on your website saves you the cost of streaming media, gives you strong analytics, and can increase your popularity in the You Tube and Google algorithms. Be sure to create a unique page for each video and surround it with the same descriptive text that you use at the video sites.
In summary, here are the steps we would take to improve your ranking for a particular video file on YouTube:
- Video file name should contain keywords
- Include keywords in video titles & description
- Build your library, your channel will be come more relevant with 25+ videos
- Commenting, favorites, add friends, you should be active through your channel
- Link to your website within the description
Related posts:
Social Media | seowhitehats | January 7, 2009
Search Engine Optimization, seo video tips, youtube, youtube video tips
good discussion
One question I had was how can you find out the youtube search results. Does the google keyword tool incorporate the searches ?
Very nice summary for the uninitiated (me).
I’ve seen reference to the suggestion:
“Include links to other social media profiles like Facebook or Twitter. This will not only extend the social media experience, but can also drive traffic to a customized landing page that is part of your larger campaign.”
I see the icons for these social media sites below the opening screen, but is this referencing something else?
Thanks.
Alan
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