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Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO –
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Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Sep 01, 2014

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Self Improvement

Mark Robertson

Http://www.reelseo.com - Presented by Mark Robertson - Founder of ReelSEO.com at the 2008 PubCon conference in Las Vegas Nevada. Mark was invited to speak on video search engine optimization tips and techniques and this presentation is geared towards video SEO tactics and strategies for website video content.
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Page 1: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Video Search Engine Optimization- Website Video SEO –

Page 2: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

What is Video SEO?

“Simply put, Video SEO is the art and science of ensuring that your video content attracts as

much traffic as possible.” – blinkx

Options for Online Video SEO• Hosted - Website Video SEO – Optimization of video content that is

on your website

• Posted – Video Sharing SEO - Optimization of video content uploaded to video sharing sites, social media, etc…

Page 3: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Benefits of Posted Video SEO

Strategy: When your goal is to generate video views

Benefits:• Take advantage of a large audience and viral social nature of video

sharing sites

• Video sharing sites have simplified search algorithms and are easier to “game”

• Take advantage of pre-established authority and PR – easy way to get into Organic/Universal Search w/thumbnails. Youtube, Revver, metacafe, etc…

• Can use this strategy with or without a website presence

Page 4: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Benefits of Website Video SEO (hosted)

Strategy: When your goal is to generate traffic to your website & your video content

Benefits:• Control over on-page text, encoded metadata, user-experience, etc...

• Control over monetization/advertising

• Generate traffic to your website

• While you can currently dominate the SERPs with “carpet bombing,” posted strategies, this may go away with duplicate content filtering in the future

Page 5: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Benefits of Website Video SEO (hosted)

Links back to siteDirect traffic to site

Page 6: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

But, Do People Even Search For Videos?

Where do viewers discover video online?

44% - discover randomly43% - via sharing43% - via video websites39% - via search engines27% - via marketing email4% - via RSS & MRSS feeds

Page 7: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Video Search Engine Traffic Trends

Video discovery via search is on the rise

• 29% of video discovered on social video sharing sites in 2008

– vs. 36% in 2007

• 29% of videos discovered via search engines in 2008

– vs. 22% in 2007

Page 8: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

1. People are used to using search engines to locate online content and often append the word “video” or “videos” to their search queries.

2. And of course, Universal/Blended/Federated Search proliferation

Why the Shift to Search?

Page 9: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Google Universal Search

May 2007 – Google Launches Universal Search initiative to integrate listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines into Google SERPS

Page 10: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Videos Dominate Universal Search

Videos Dominate Universal Search

38% of users who searched Google were served video in Universal search engine results pages

Source – “Google Universal Search Results Searcher Penetration by Result Type” – ComScore – Jan 2008

Page 11: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Video Search Engines - Types

1st Generation• Depend primarily on metadata and on-page text• Most are moving to second generation

2nd Generation• Use metadata, on-page text, UGC (user generated content –

comments, annotations, etc..), and advanced recognition technologies (speech, visual, facial, OCR, etc..)

Page 12: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Website Video SEO Strategy & Tips

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+ On the positive side…• Videos generate interest, buzz, inbound links, and

website traffic = Better rankings

- On the negative side…• Search engines are not YET able to “read” actual video

content• Video search engines need to be told what a video is

about using on-page text and metadata

How Does Video Affect Website SEO?

Page 14: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

• There are important differences to keep in mind when optimizing video vs. text content

• However, SEO should be approached as a holistic strategy

• Focus on optimizing your entire website, while at the same time more deeply integrating your video content

Website Video SEO Strategy

Page 15: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Before You Start – Measure Current State

• Check Video Referrals - Analytics– Where do visitors to your video pages arrive from?– What % of video traffic originates from search

engines?

• Test Searches – Does your video content appear in the search

engines currently?

• Monitor Behavior – What % of visitors are linking to your videos or

sharing?

Website Video SEO Benchmarking

Page 16: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Video Files• Offer multiple video formats – flv, mov, mpeg, mp4,

etc..• Include important keywords in the filename• Perhaps include the word “video” in the filename

In-File Metadata• Encode your video files with good metadata that

includes your keywords. - Metadata title, author, date, description

• Search engines are not great at indexing in-file metadata but this is improving

Basic SEO Tips for Website Video SEO

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Site Structure• 1 video per URL – Use unique URLS• Place your videos in a central root folder/directory• Use embedded players – not pop-ups• Create navigation links to your video content

On-Page Text• Follow general SEO principles for titles, URLs, meta tags, H1, etc…• Include contextually related links to articles & videos• Provide related on-page text with your keywords

– Consider using transcripts/captions as additional relevant on-page text.– Use SWFObject to embed on-page text

More Tips for Website Video SEO

Page 18: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Inbound linking – Enable Interaction & Sharing

• Let visitors grab your embed code• Include social bookmarking tools• Enable comments • Allow users to subscribe to your videos via

RSS/MRSS• Create easy link for users to grab• Don’t forget about internal linking – consider a site-

wide link in your page’s footer

More Tips for Website Video SEO

Page 19: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Search engines currently do their best to crawl the web and index video content. BUT, don’t wait for them to find you. Help them by telling them about your video content.

MRSS Feed Syndication• Most video search engines accept RSS / MRSS feeds (+ iTunes)• MRSS is an RSS feed with media enclosures• TIP - If you have a problem, contact the video search engines, they

are helpful and want your content– http://www.blinkx.com/rssupload– http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit– http://www.reelseo.com/submit-videos-rss-mrss/

How Do You Get Into Search Engines?

What about GOOGLE??

Page 20: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

• In December 2007 Google launched XML sitemaps for Video (not = MRSS)

• File Types accepted: – mpg, mpeg, mp4, mov, wmv, asf, avi,

ra, ram, rm, flv – no streaming protocols supported

• Others will likely follow as with regular xml sitemaps

Google Video Sitemaps - XML

eMarketer projects that 87% of the total

U.S. Internet audience will watch videos

online by 2011. Guess who dominates in the video search market? One word, Google.

Page 21: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Google Video XML Sitemaps Requirements:

• Only use URLs that refer to video content• <50,000 videos per sitemap• Sitemap file size <10MB• Video files and thumbnail images <30MB• Title <100 characters• Description <2048 characters• Set Robots.txt for UserAgent “Googlebot” = Allow

Google Video Sitemaps - XML

Page 22: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Google Video XML Sitemaps Tips• Include thumbnail URL

– “we strongly recommended that you provide a thumbnail URL to increase the likelihood of your video being included in the video index.” – Google

• If you want users to be able to watch your videos on Google Video, make sure to set <video:player_loc allow_embed="yes">

• Set player to autoplay so that users will be shown the video after they click on the result

Google Video Sitemaps - XML

Page 23: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Where Do Videos Submitted Via XML Sitemaps Appear?

• "...when you submit a Video Sitemap to Google, we will make the included video URLs searchable on Google Video."

• BUT …they continue on "...in addition, your video may also appear in other Google search products.“

• Why is this important?

Google Video Sitemaps - XML

Page 24: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

YouTube Dominates SERP Thumbnails

Other sites showing thumbnails successfully: Videojug, Ted.com, 5min.com, Vodpod

However, since the launch of video XML sitemaps, many others have been successful at getting video thumbnails into Google SERPS

Page 25: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Regular SERPS Universal SERPS

Universal Search = Thumbnail Power

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Will Google Show Your Thumbnails?

You Bet!We have done some testing to show that it is possible.

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• Consider submitting videos, especially those of a viral appeal to video sharing sites

• Easy way to get into universal search leveraging the authority of existing sites

Tips• Use a service like Tubemogul or TrafficGeyser to

upload your videos to multiple sites. • Put your URL in the start of the description• Leverage tags – use tags liberally – Optimize & De-

Optimize• YouTube Tip – Consider using annotations to drive

viewers to your related videos.

We Also Love Video Sharing

Page 28: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

ReelSEO.com is a website dedicated to providing unique insight and informative articles on the

ever-growing use of online video marketing and video search engine optimization (video SEO)

Visit www.ReelSEO.com for tons of news and tips about Video SEO Please subscribe to our feed and check out our ReelSEO podcasts on iTunes

Other Resources• http://seowiki.blinkx.com• http://search.yahoo.com/mrss• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=10079

– or just search “Google video sitemaps” in Google

Page 29: Video Search Engine Optimization - Website Video SEO

Questions?Mark R. Robertson

Founder & Publisher – [email protected]

Twitter: reelseoSkype: reelse