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Video Search Engine Optimization 
By Randy Zlobec (c) 2008

Most of us know that a site that's well configured for
search engine access is a major part of getting high
traffic levels. However, you might not have thought about
optimizing your video as well as the rest of your site.
Since multimedia content is becoming a much more popular
way of distributing information, correct video search
engine optimization is important.

For instance, on YouTube alone (which accounts for more
than ninety-eight percent of the videos viewed via Google),
more than eighty-two million people watched over four
billion videos last year. That makes YouTube both the top
video sharing site and the top video search engine.

YouTube receives as much as thirteen hours of new
user-submitted video every minute, and more than fifty
percent of the people watching videos online share links
with other people. So, getting a good YouTube ranking could
be an important way to bring people to your site.

For owners of video content, video search engine
optimization is a good way to get exposure, ad income, and
free traffic. Being discovered by the viewers has to happen
before you can get lots of views. That means making sure
that your data is rich in meta information, and that you
use quality RSS or MRSS feeds that you update on a regular
basis.

Make sure that your meta data is well placed and relevant
to the topic. A cleaner can help you remove distracting or
irrelevant meta information from the file.

Only after you produce well optimized content should you
contact the search engines and submit your video. This
places you in the queue of web crawlers, and means you'll
be indexed more quickly and more often than if you hadn't
bothered to submit. The more regularly your content is
crawled, the better your chance of rating well on search
results.

Index your site on other engines than Google or YouTube.
They can spread your video to other search engines you may
not have thought of. For instance, indexing your site on
Blinkx will cause it to show up on Ask and MSN, among
others.

One important part of your strategy should be a series of
related videos. When a viewer sees a video online that he
or she likes, there's a good likelihood that this viewer
will look for others like them. While a single great video
will be popular and welcomed, you'll do even better if it's
part of a series.

Use an embedded video player, too. Many viewers will be
more inclined to view your submission if it's part of your
site or blog than if they had to go to your video hosting
service to see it. However, you should avoid players that
use only Flash. Don't use pop-up players, which annoy more
people than they amuse, and will actually cause you to lose
views.

The more views you get, the more likely you are to be
picked up by other sites, linked to, and rank well on video
searches. You can even customize embedded video players to
display playlists related to your company, and adjust the
layout, and other information.

Create traffic by placing a video search box on your site.
This adds unique content and boosts ad revenue. Make sure
that you create a video of the appropriate length for your
audience, and that you're looking for the right response.

You can use analytics to find out how long a customer stays
on your video page, which will tell you if your video is
too long. You can also use analytics to tell you which of
your videos get the best response. Once you know this,
you'll be able to decide which content should be linked
first on your home page.

Remember that no webcrawler has ever bought a product or a
service. If you're a local business using video to
advertise, clicks are a lot less important than calls.
Include a call to action with your contact information as
part of your video - thumbnails are an excellent way to do
this. You can use YouTube to create thumbnails at the
quarter, half, and three-quarter marks. Making sure that
you have both a local listing and a video listing on
Google's Search Engine Results Page also increases your
likelihood of getting visits.

You may also wish to make sure that your videos are high
enough quality for and in the right format for television.
Google TV is very affordable, and lets you create closely
targeted video.

Don't use Active X controls and export all files as swf
format. Use Google Video sitemaps to help with navigation,
and build a separate page for each video, rather than
hosting many videos on the same page. Use a simple text
title and description, and optimize that page as you would
any other. Then, link to it from the index page.

Descriptions and titles need to be consistent across all
your sites, and file names should descriptive and make
sense to the viewer. Remember that Different communities
require different approaches. Prominent keywords can help
on many sites. However, while keyword rich content will
help videos hosted on your site be noticed by Blinkx or
Truveo, it won't help on YouTube.

You'll need to get the attention of the community in
general. Video responses to popular, related videos can
help get others to visit your contribution. Your content
will appear in close proximity to videos that are already
popular. Make sure you include an active URL in the
description of your video, and end the video with a mention
of the link. Annotations can help you link to other YouTube
videos. Be sure to allow comments!

Never tag with irrelevant search terms, no matter how
popular they might be. Remember that you need to appeal to
real people, rather than just optimizing blindly. While you
might turn up early in a search with good optimization, an
unappealing video will cause people to pass you by. If you
know what kind of content your audience prefers, you'll be
able to create the right video marketing plan for your
business or organization.

Video search engine optimization is an important part of
any video marketing strategy. If you're planning to market
your business or organization using multimedia content,
creating it correctly and surrounding it with the right
keywords and other information can help it be noticed.
Before you submit a video, make sure it's optimized.
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Randy Zlobec, president of RZ Concepts, Inc. an Internet
Marketing and Search Engine Optimization company
specializing in top placement throughout the Major Search
Engines. RZ Concepts has been in business since 1996. Visit
the corporate website at http://www.rzconcepts.com
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