Vol. 1 No. 3 Fall 2006
Trends
Optimizing Videos for Maximum Reach
By Bryan Wiener, President
Adapted from OMMA Magazine
The emergence of online video as a viable marketing practice has led marketers and agencies to creatively conjure new distribution strategies for it, yet ultimately most of marketers' video content, especially any of it available for free, will be found through the main search engines. By optimizing video for the main search engines rather than video portals, marketers will achieve the widest potential reach while keeping their audience, rather than giving up the traffic to third-party distribution partners.
With so many new video portals emerging, it's hard to predict which sites will still matter months or years from now. Far more constant, however, are the main engines, with the top three having anchored themselves as commanding over 80 or 90 percent of search traffic. Even as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN launch more vertical properties covering local information, shopping, financial services, travel, and other categories, the main way consumers find the content on those vertical sites is through the main engines. This is holding true for video as well.
In light of that, while videos that marketers produce can benefit from the popularity of sites such as YouTube and MySpace, those should be supplemental channels. Marketers should first optimize videos for the main search engines. Video portals are an invaluable resource for searchers specifically seeking video content, but by appearing in the main search engines, a marketer's target audience will find videos when looking for any type of content.
Additionally, when searchers find videos through the main engines, they will come to the marketer's site first, where the marketer can take advantage of the traffic. When a visitor finds a marketer's video on YouTube, YouTube reaps all the benefits. If the visitor goes to the marketer's site, not only might he refer others there, but he could watch other content, be exposed to advertising, sign up for e-mail lists, complete a purchase, or convert in some other way for that marketer.
For any full-fledged video search engine optimization campaign, here are five stages marketers need to address:
1. Web page optimization: Adhere to best practices for formatting HTML, Flash, and other elements on the page the video is hosted on. Keep each video on a separate page with a unique URL for best results. A client's video URL should contain source code that includes keywords associated to video, maximizing rankings. For a site with a Flash player that hosts multiple videos, there are other optimization methods that can be employed.
2. Video file formatting and encoding: Tag and encode video files themselves so they are readily accessible for search engines. Include elements such as a description of the content, the creation date, the video's length, and meta keyword information.
3. Syndication: Use RSS and Media RSS (MRSS) to broadly distribute multimedia content descriptions and links. Syndication can help attract new users, especially if the RSS feeds are submitted to search engines. It can also help you build stronger relationships with existing users who want to know as soon as new content gets created and published.
4. Submissions: Upload video content directly to search engine video catalogs, and then consider additional submissions to iTunes, YouTube, Blinkx, and AOL's SingingFish and Truveo.
5. Tracking: Monitor the campaign success and pay attention to which engines (and other channels) are the most effective sources for referring traffic.
With these pieces in place, marketers can best position their video content where it needs to be most: front and center in search engines' natural search listings
