If you’re trying to boost your overall site SEO, then a great tactic is to produce and optimise video content. Ranking for a video on YouTube can be easier than ranking for a blog post, and a high video ranking can often mean an equally good spot in the Google search results. Yes, it can seem expensive, but not when you consider the amount of time and money you spend on written word content generation.
Obviously, there are other video sites out there, but this posts focuses purely on YouTube.
Why use YouTube
Hosting your own videos can be expensive; YouTube is a great free way to host and share your videos with customers and has a direct impact on your ranking in Google.
How YouTube ranks your video
The YouTube algorithm bases its ranking on three factors:
1. The words in your title and description.
2. The number of views your video has received and recent trending.
3. The ratings.
Optimising YouTube copy
When creating the copy to accompany your video, consider the following:
Title text: You have up to around 30 characters (inc. spaces) to play with, so consider your target keywords, but also make sure you include your business name and some descriptive text.
Sample: How to write great SEO copy OR SEO copywriting made simple
Description: You have around 250 words to use, so now is your chance to write as much as possible about your video.
- Remember, only the first 20 words (or approx. 120 characters) will show until the description is expanded.
- I recommend you include your website URL in the first 20 words, as it’s the only place where you can. Remember, it must include the http://
- Just like your other content, video descriptions should have a sign-off with a reference to the your or a ‘what next’.
- Encourage users to rank your video as well as asking them to share or embed your video on their blogs, etc.
Tags: Tag your video with the same keywords you used in your title as well as your brand name. You can use the YouTube keyword tool for ideas.
- Opinions vary, but I recommend between 5 and 7 tags on each video.
Setting up your broadcasting and sharing options
Comments: It’s up to you whether you enable comments. Many brands don’t for fear of negativity, but I’d advise keeping communications open and answering any criticism head on.
Privacy: Many companies forget to set their videos to be viewable by the public!
Ratings: Set to ‘yes’ as these will have a direct impact on your ranking.
Embedding: Again ensure this is enabled so that your video can be shared on blogs and social media.
Syndication: Enable this, as it may help boost your views and, in turn, your ranking.
Ensuring your YouTube video is seen
So, you’ve created your video and optimised it perfectly, how do you get it seen? YouTube considers a video ‘viewed’ after 8 seconds of playing, so make those first 8 seconds count!
Here are a few other things you can do to boost views:
- Add your video to your website or blog.
- Post a link to your video on LinkedIn and Twitter.
- Add videos to your Facebook page.
- Distribute your video links in any press releases.
- Create playlists of your videos.
- Advertise your video via Google Adwords or Facebook advertising.
- Ask your friends, family and random strangers to watch your video.
Ensuring your YouTube video is ranked
Of course, you can rank your own video (everyone does it) and ask your friends and family to do the same.
Another option is to include an incentive in the video, for example: run a promotion that requires your users to watch and rank your video before they can take part.
Share your thoughts
Have you struggled to write your title tags? Or rewritten them and noticed a boost in traffic? Why not share your thoughts below?
15 Responses
Hugs and tight squeezes for letting me share my thoughts on YouTube with your readers B! I’m interested to know if you have any additional thoughts on how you’d optimise them? Always keen to expand my knowledge!
Thanks again,
Kate
Thank YOU Kate!
I’m only just starting to dabble in video marketing so I’m interested in learning additional ways as well. I’m not sure I got all my broadcast and sharing options right so I am going to go and check now!
I’m also being a shy-bear and not actually promoting my videos until I have what I think is a decent number. It’s nothing more than my vanity, I know!
Great post Kate. I’d also probably suggest linking to a post or page in the comments section of the video, not just to the home page, so if the video is on a specific topic which is supported by an article on your blog, point to the page with the article.
I’d also suggest making videos short. Watch time is important, because YouTube will rank videos higher if they can see the majority of people watch the full video. Plus, making short videos means you can make more of them, giving you even more avenues for people to find your content.
I know this is a an SEO optimising post, but I’ll also add a suggestion for optimising time. I like to make several videos in one go, edit them all at the same time and upload at the same time (set to private), then I will make a blog post for each video and embed each video on the blog post, but I schedule the video to go public and the blog post to be released at specific times, eg 1 per day at 10am for 5 days in a row. This works well for me (saves time), for my readers (consistency) and for Google (regular updating).
Fantastic additions John! I let Kate comment properly but I love the idea of linking to a relevant page in the comments.
Excellent points John. thanks so much for sharing them. I think creating a bunch of videos in one go is a great idea. Can I ask what software you use to record/convert them? Also if you could share your Youtube channel that would be fab.
Thanks for reading.
Kate
Hey Kate, my YT channel is http://youtube.com/youngdigitalgroup, i use screencast-o-matic to record and edit screencasts and videos where i speak directly to the camera. When i record with my phone i use corel videostudio pro for editing.
I have started using Camtasia and it sounds like John’s tool. You can record screen flow with audio and edit it with other video, graphics etc
Mine is http://youtube.com/user/CopywriteMattersTV *hids under covers*
I will give one tip, go and comment another videos on youtube (DON’T SPAM). You will get link back and some link juice to your account on youtube.
Great addition Ramunas. I guest it’s just like the comment you love you when you leave your thoughts on blogs like this! I think I just had one of those *forehead slap of course* moments…. Thanks for commenting!
Belinda, If I know something I like share and help for someone Like you guys, doing good job of writing and sharing your tips.
And I’m glad for making slap 😉
Great point Ranunas, thanks for commenting about commenting!
Video Optimization is essential for seo. Add captions to your video, it will boost better ranking position in search engines.
Using video to boost SEO is one of the most popular and informative ways nowadays. You can also hire a transcription company and have them include transcriptions in your video for better results. Services like DirectCaption.com charge only $1 per minute and you can just copy and paste the link to the video to have it transcribed.
Though most people give importance to Title and Description of the video, it is equally important for the uploaded to add all possible tags related to the video. This makes it easier for people to search and identify the right video which they want to watch.
Good tip! Thanks for stopping in to remind us Jonathan.