Video SEO, also known as VSEO or Video Search Engine Optimization, is a strategy to help get video found on popular video search engines such as Google Video, You Tube, AOL Video and Yahoo! Video.
BurstMedia released a study, Online Video Advertising (PDF), that looked at how users consume video content and how they preceive advertising placement with in the video.
- 69.5% of respondents actively view video content on the web
- Men are significantly more likely than women to view online content
- The age segment 35-44 and 45-54 years were as likely to view online content as the 18-24 years segment
- Half can recall advertising in online video, but it can lead to site abandonment
- One-quarter say video advertisement is more effective than standard creative units
According to an eMarketer study, Internet Video Audience, they found that:
- 123 million Americans will view online video at least once a month in 2007
- 66% of video viewers have watched online video ads and 44% have taken action on what they had seen
- 76% of users tell a friend about a video they have seen
Video SEO Tips & Tricks
1. Undertsand that there are currently two types of video search engines:
First Generation Video Search Engines
- Depend entirely on metadata
- Looks at the web page text taht lies near a video
Second Generation Video Search Engines
- Use the metadata
- Use speech recognition
- Use visual analysis and recognition
- Use video optical character recognition to allow software to listen to, watch and read text appearing on the video content
2. Video search engines encounter the same problem that regular search engines have when trying to index Flash. Flash players are difficult to spider and extract information from.
3. If you have multiple videos on your site, create a site map for videos (not an XML site map).
4. Videos should be branded with a watermark and an URL or 800 number. When using an URL or 800 number, ensure that it is only used in your videos and in no other marketing materials. This way you will be able to track the number of leads generated from the video.
5. Refrain from the use of po-up players. They run the risk of being blocked.
6. Look to optimize the script of the video to use more keywords. This will help those video search engines who use speech recognition.
7. Do not forget about the second tier video search engines, like Revver, VideoEgg, or MetCafe. They too can provide highly qualified traffic.
Tags: video seo, vseo, video search engine optimization