1. “Reel” Video SEO
Strategies & Best Practices
Presenters:
Mark Robertson, ReelSEO
Peter Kocks, Truveo
Sean Knapp, Ooyala
Alex Holub, Ooyala
Audio Portion:
US: 1-866-853-0972
International: 1-857-350-1619
Passcode: 93062172#
2. Agenda
• What is Video SEO?
• Overview of Video Search
• Guidelines/Best Practices
• Examples
• Video Search vs. Web Search
• Special Tips
• Ooyala Video SEO SDK
• Q/A
Audio Portion:
US: 1-866-853-0972
International: 1-857-350-1619
Passcode: 93062172#
5. What is Video SEO
The application of SEO best practices with video content to ensure
maximum discoverability across search engines & ultimately, visibility
amongst the target audience
• Video SEO is NOT
– Smoke & mirrors
– About “fooling” search engines
• Video SEO IS
– Helping search engines “understand” video content
– An extension of SEO
– A method to drive valuable traffic to your video content
– Something that plays an important role in an overall video strategy
6. Why Video SEO? - People Search for Video
Searches for Video
– 38% of all US online users report using search engine results to discover video 1
– vs. from portal (19%) vs. other video destination sites (11%)
YouTube Searching
– 54% of online consumers reported using the site to discover video 1
– Dec 2008 – 2nd largest search engine in US2
– Dec 2009 – 3.9B queries = 28% of all Google queries2
Search Engine Referral Traffic
– Share of video referral traffic from search engines 4
• 11.81% - general & video search engines (YouTube excluded)
– 23% of traffic to YouTube originates from Google 3
Sources: 1JupiterResearch/NPD Group Individual User Survey (6/08) | 2 Comscore Search Rankings (6/09) | 3Compete.com |
4Tubemogul (2/09)
7. Why So Much Focus on Google?
Videos Dominate Universal Search
• 38% of users who searched Google were
served video in Universal search engine
results pages (‘08)
Google Video = 21.5M Unique/Month
Source – “Google Universal Search Results Searcher Penetration by Result Type” – ComScore – Jan 2008
10. Video Search – The Players
Video Search Engines / Aggregators
– Truveo, Blinkx, Videosurf, Veoh, etc…
General Search Engines
– Google, Yahoo, Bing
– Universal search, federated, blended, etc…
Video Destination Sites
– YouTube, Metacafe, blip TV, and many many
more…
*** Commonality
1. All searches begin with keywords
2. Dependent on textual metadata &
community factors
11. Hosted Video SEO vs. Distributed
“Hosted” or Website Video SEO
• Good for monetization and traffic to website
Benefits:
– Control: analytics & monetization, UI and branding
– Exposure to related videos
“Posted” or Distributed Video SEO
• Good for branding purposes & generating views
• YouTube optimization is key = 85% traffic
Benefits:
– Leverage authority
– Leverage community/audience
– Works without website video
Commonality
– General principles for on-page & off-page SEO apply
13. Create Optimized Video Landing Pages
Create Unique Landing Pages
– Unique URL for each video Video Landing Page Anatomy
Use Embedded Players
– No pop-ups or JavaScript (lightbox,tabs – OK)
Optimize the Landing Page
– SEO principles for titles, URLs, metadata, H1, etc…
– Inbound linking (PR) matters
• Keyword anchor text – include keywords
– “watch video” vs. “watch Climbing Everest part 1”
Provide Context to Surround Video
– Contextually related links (products, videos, articles)
– Related on-page text (tags, transcripts, comments)
– Leverage dynamically generated textual content
• On-page and/or
• Alternative text
14. Don’t Forget the User Experience
Create Positive User Experience
– Help users find videos
• Prominently link to video section
• Incorporate video results in site search
– Page load times are important
Create Compelling Thumbnails
– High quality & eye-catching
– Relevant & appropriate
*** Video search = browsing
Enable Interaction & Sharing
– Let visitors share your videos
– Enable commenting – provides additional text
*** Sharing increases inbound links
15. Hardest Part - Getting Video into Search Engines
Don’t Make them Look for You (crawls)
MRSS feeds and XML Sitemaps
– AOL Video/Truveo, blinkx & most others = MRSS
– Google = both MRSS & XML video sitemaps
• XML sitemaps (better)
– Specify player & thumbnail
Tips for MRSS/Sitemaps
– Indicate landing page URLs for each video
– Publish both video sitemap and regular xml sitemap
– Titles are given disproportionate weighting for
rankings
– The more data, the better
17. Success = Quality, Value & Community
YouTube Ranking Factors
• Title
• Description
• Tags
• Views
• Ratings
• Playlist additions
• Flagging
• Shares
• Comments
• Age of video
• Channel views
• Subscribers
• Embeds & inbound links
18. Tips for Uploading to YouTube
Titles are important
– Include keywords/phrases in titles
– Trade-off = Search keywords vs. enticing titles
Maximize descriptive text
– Leverage descriptions “more info” field liberally
(5000 characters)
– Leverage tags – optimize & de-optimize
*** Put most important keywords first in titles,
descriptions and tags
Enable interaction
– Embedding and sharing
– Commenting and rating
Consider manually uploading or API
– More characters available for titles, descriptions,
tags vs. uploading tools
– Must be active community member
19. Engage the Audience & Drive Interaction
Add URLs to descriptions
– Track with tiny URLs
Consider paid placement
– Allows off-site overlay ads
Leverage annotations
– Drive viewers to other videos
Leverage closed captions
– Indexing & placement
– Accessibility
– Global reach
Engage the community
– Subscribe to relevant users
– Add video responses when appropriate
– Encourage linking and embedding
21. The New York Post - Video Pages
The Good
• Prominent link to section
• Available in site search
• Sharing enabled
The Bad
• Video quality
• No commenting/rating
• Clunky UI
The Ugly
• Slow page load
• No text (all flash)
• Duplicate meta-tags
• No sitemap
23. Fox Sports – Video Pages
The Good
• Loads fast
• Prominent links to section
• Available in site search
• Sharing enabled
• Full text transcripts
• Proper H1, titles,
descriptions, etc…
• Related videos, topics, etc…
The Bad
• No commenting
• ?
25. “Reel” Example – Universal Search Rankings
Sony HDR-XR500V
Good:
• Traffic directly to ReelSEO
• Beats Amazon.com
Bad:
• What was I thinking with this
thumbnail?
26. Bookmark ReelSEO = Video Marketing News, Trends, Tips…
Thank You
Mark R. Robertson, Founder
www.reelseo.com
@reelseo
Facebook.com/reelseo
