Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

VIDEO + SEO Not Smoke and Mirrors, Just Best Practices for E-Commerce Video Publishing

Who is this Guy and Why is he Here? Mark Robertson - ME • ReelSEO.com Founder, Webmaster, Customer Service Author, etc… • Expertise – Search engine optimization – Online video publishing – Search, search, & more search – SMBs & media companies – Musician/drummer • Not so much – Video production - dabbling – Ecommerce – Conference speaking ;-) Internet Retailer Survey – January 2009

What is ReelSEO.com? Focused on Video Visibility News, tips, reviews, and observations about online video • Video marketing • Video advertising • Video search & sharing • Video optimization (Video SEO) • Online video technology • Online video publishing • Online video market research • Video industry news

Video Discovery – BACKGROUND Does search matter for video?

How do Consumers Discover Video Content? Where do viewers discover video online? 44% - discover randomly 43% - via sharing 43% - via video websites 39% - via search engines 27% - via marketing email 4% - via RSS & MRSS feeds

Video Search 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

Why the Shift to Search? 1. People are used to using search engines to locate online content 2. Consumers append the word “video” to their search queries. 3. Universal/Blended/Federated Search proliferation

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

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

Why is this important – Thumbnail Power! Regular SERPS Universal SERPS

YOUTUBE – Video Sharing + Video Search YouTube is more than just a place to upload & share videos Did you know? • December 2008 - YouTube became the 2nd largest search engine & 4th largest web property overall • How much video is uploaded to YouTube every minute? • 15 hours worth of video - equivalent to 86,000 new full length movies/week • More content is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major U.S. networks generated in the last 60 years

Video + SEO – Overview & Strategy

What is Video SEO? Simply put, video SEO is the application of SEO best practices to ensure that your video content achieves maximum visibility among your target audience Video SEO IS •About best practices for online video publishing •To be used in conjunction with overall best practices for general SEO •Something that plays an important role in an overall video strategy Video SEO IS NOT •Only about syndicating your videos to multiple sites •Smoke and mirrors •An end in-and-of itself

Types of Video SEO 2 Main Strategies for Video Search Optimization 1) Hosted - Website video + SEO – Optimization of video content that is on your website 2) Posted - Video syndication + SEO – Optimization of video content uploaded or syndicated to video sharing sites, social media websites, etc… My Recommendation – Take advantage of both

Benefits of Website Video SEO (hosted) When your goal is to generate traffic to your website & your video content Benefits: • Control: – on-page text – user-experience, etc... – action/conversions – brand experience • Better measurement capabilities • Generate traffic directly • Exposure to related content • Can strengthen overall website SEO

Benefits of Posted Video SEO When your goal is to generate video views, brand recognition, and social interaction/buzz Benefits: • Take advantage of a large audience and viral social nature • Take advantage of pre-established authority and rankings • Easy way to get into organic & universal search - thumbnails • Show up multiple times in SERPS • Works with or w/o a strong website presence

SEO TIPS & RECOMMENDATIONS Hosted – Website Video + SEO

How Does Video Affect Overall Site SEO? + On the positive side… • Videos generate interest, buzz, inbound links, and website traffic • Videos can help a site achieve better rankings overall • Universal search – extra opportunity to drive traffic - On the negative side… • Search engines are not YET able to “read” actual video content • Search engines need to be told what a video is about • Optimization is crucial to discovery = extra work for videophiles

Benchmarking - Before you Begin Benchmarking - Measure Current State Check Video Referrals - Analytics • Where do visitors to your video pages arrive from? • What % of video traffic comes from search engines? Test Searches • Do your products appear in the search engines? • How about your videos? Monitor Behavior • What % of visitors are linking to your videos or sharing?

Tips for Hosted / Website Video SEO Site Structure • 1 video per URL & use unique URLS • Place your videos in a central root folder/directory – www.site.com/videos/ • What about domains/micro-sites? • Create navigation links to your video content Page Structure • Use embedded players – not pop-ups • Follow general SEO principles for titles, URLs, meta tags, H1, etc… • Include contextually related links to product pages & videos • Provide related on-page text (tags, captions, comments)

Tips for Hosted / Website Video SEO Enable Interaction & Sharing 1. Helps to generate inbound links & buzz 2. In turn - helps search engines more easily discover & rank your content • Allow visitors to grab & share your videos • Create easy links for users - Permalinks • Enable commenting and rating – Creates relevant text & promotes buzz • Allow users to subscribe to your videos via RSS/MRSS • Include social bookmarking tools

Optimized Video Landing Page Anatomy

How Do You Get Into Search Engines? 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 MRSS = RSS feed w/media enclosures 1.Submit RSS/MRSS feeds directly 2.Create active MRSS or link to MRSS 3.Submit MRSS or XML to Google Sitemaps And/or – Leverage Posted Video SEO

SEO TIPS & RECOMMENDATIONS Posted - Video syndication + SEO

Posted Video SEO - Syndication Consider submitting videos, especially those of a viral appeal to video sharing sites Tips •Use services like Tubemogul to upload your videos to multiple sites. •Titles are extremely important •Try slight variations in titles across sites •Descriptive text around video (e.g. more info section in YouTube) •Leverage tags – use tags liberally – optimize & de- optimize •Put your URL at the start of the description

Some YouTube Specific Tips Drive Interaction & Conversion • Add URLs to your descriptions • Create a branded channels • Leverage annotations to drive viewers to your other videos • Use watermarks, include website URL • Include measurable calls to action (coupons, promo codes) • Allow commenting & rating • Find related videos & comment with your video, only if relevant & useful

SEO TIPS & RECOMMENDATIONS More Thoughts & Tips

Measuring SEO – Is it Working? Measuring Success • Check Analytics Referrers • Check SERP rankings • Check YouTube Rankings Remember • Be patient • Have reasonable expectations • SEO is a balance • SEO is a continuous effort

Future of Video Search – Production Quality Keep in Mind the Future of Video Search 1. Speech recognition – Blinkx, Google Audio, Goog411 2. Image recognition – Google, DigitalSmiths 3. Facial recognition – VideoSurf, Google Why is this important? • Video Production quality • Audio quality • Scripts – keywords • Perhaps dup content is not an issue now, but… • Etc…

Focus on Quality and Engagement Lean Back vs. Lean Forward • quot;It's got to be 30 secquot; • My answer is always, quot;Let's tell the story first.“ • You don’t have to shout at the audience, their already watching Telling a story: • Engage customers • Educate customers (sit & fit experience) • Prominent branding • Point of differentiation • Entertain customers Sales increased 5X the company's old record

Other Tips for E-Commerce SEO

Keywords Research is Crucial to Success Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.quot; (Google Guidelines) Do your research •Not everyone searches the same way •Tools – Google Search Insight – SEOBook.com – “Related Searches” •Good keywords to append for products – Review – Demonstration – Test – Buy

Keyword Research – Google Search Insight

Long Tail Keyword Searches Longer search queries are becoming more popular YOY Facts: • The majority of searches are 1-3 keywords • But, queries with 4-8 keywords grew YOY - 3% to 20%. • Long tail keywords are: – Easier to rank for in organic search – Cheaper to buy for PPC – Typically result in higher conversion %

Other – SEO tips for E-Commerce Avoid Manufacturer Product Descriptions: • Resist the urge. Re-write descriptions - make unique. Allow your customers to comment and tag products with their own keywords. • Start ranking for slang keywords that you would have never thought of.. Don’t Use “View” or “Watch” • On your product category pages, link to the individual product videos with good anchor text – No - “View” or “watch video” – Yes – “Canon HF-10 Review Video” Links in Product Descriptions: • Create keyword rich links in product descriptions of one product to another

Questions? Mark R. Robertson mark@reelseo.com www.reelseo.com Twitter: reelseo

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Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

by Mark Robertson on Jun 12, 2009

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Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce — Presentation Transcript