How to Use YouTube for SEO

Do you know that YouTube is second most popular search engine in the world? It’s true – Google is the first and Bing is number 3.

You should use YouTube for two reasons

1. For getting  higher ranking in the search engines
2. Because many people would rather watch a video than reading a boring paper

Most business owners think of search engines like Google and maybe Yahoo or Bing. But most of the businesses on the Internet forget the 2. Largest one – YouTube.

Put some coffee in your cup now – and let me give you a little statistic about YouTube.

 

Why use YouTube
There are a lot of sites that are hosting videos – so why use YouTube.

1. First of all YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine. When you are uploading your video to the YouTube servers – you are tapping into a very very large audience.
2. Its very easy to embed the video into your blog or website or maybe your Facebook. And the great thing is that you will include the numbers of views from theses websites into the total number of views in a video. And YouTube gives top priority to the videos with the most views.
3. It’s easy for others to embed your video into their website or blog – and besides adding up the number of views it will also create link to your website.
4. Videos are included in Google’s search algorithm – and therefore it will most likely show up in the results from Google.

 

YouTube in numbers

• 9 months of video is uploaded every two hours
• A decade’s worth of video is uploaded every day
• Every 10 days, a century of video is uploaded
• YouTube sees four billion video views globally every day
• 1 trillion – The number of video playbacks on YouTube
• 140 – The number of YouTube video playbacks per person on Earth
• 48 hours – The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute
• 1 – The most viewed video on YouTube during 2011 was Rebecka Black’s “Friday.” (I personally hate that song lol)
• 82.5% – Percentage of the U.S. Internet audience that viewed video online.
• 76.4% – YouTube’s share of the U.S. video website market (December 2011)
• 201.4 billion – Number of videos viewed online per month (October 2011)
• 88.3 billion – Videos viewed per month on Google sites, incl. YouTube (October 2011)
• 43% – Share of all worldwide video views delivered by Google sites, incl. YouTube

YouTube receives around 3 billion searches every month. And some of the people searching could be potential customers for you.

But with all that content on YouTube – how will you ensure that your video will reach your target audience?

Well – you have to do some optimization.

 

Why you should optimize your videos

People around the world are getting faster and faster Internet. So more and more people have the ability to watch video online.

And theses days people are getting their news from the internet and not the newspapers. So instead of reading a book or a newspaper – people will take their laptop, tablet or iPhone t and get their news. But reading articles online is just not enough anymore – people want entertainment.

People will rather get information from a visual video than more old fashion text. Why sit there and read boring text when you can watch a cool, exciting video?

Why spend money on a boring repair manual when you can see a mechanic fix for your car on a video for free.

To optimize your video might be a totally new concept for most businesses. YouTube allows you to create one followable link from your channel pages, and the video description will also allow a few non-followable links.

The social networks can create a great boost for your YouTube channel. So when you are going online with a video, it could become – maybe – your most powerful marketing tool.

And yes – its free.

So are you ready for some optimization? You better take some more coffee and put the music on.

 

Optimization of your content on YouTube

There are 3 things to consider about your content on YouTube.

1. Your keywords must be placed within the script. YouTube will convert the video file into Java. Google’s spiders can’t read the Java content – so you will have to tag the video with your keywords to make it more search friendly. By mentioning your keywords in your script, Google (and YouTube) can show their audience a more accurate result.
2. YouTube uses Hotspot as its analytical tools. This tool will measure the attention from the viewers. Where are the viewers dropping off, where do they stop the video, skip something of the video or maybe click on another video. The result is that most people are dropping of in the middle part. So put some really essential sales elements at times. Then you will keep the attention from your audience. And don’t make the video to long.
3. Make some visually great videos. Without making the video visual great your audience will not stay watching the video and your message can’t be delivered. So use a high definition video – never a pixilated video. Focus on visual aids for your product. You can add some special effects, great transitions, maybe 3D. Use humor and action. In short make your video great 🙂

 

Optimize your YouTube Channel

Your optimization of your YouTube Channel will depend on 3 things

1. Tagging – tagging and the use of keywords are the most important ranking factor in the organic search. Your channel title and your username should be the same as your name of your business. Use no more than 3 or 4 target keywords. The keywords you are using – you must use in your regular website too. The search engine spiders will check out your keywords mention in your channel description and in “about me” section.
2. Calls-to-action. This could enable engaging to your viewers and drive traffic to your social network. The goal for most of the social network for a business is to make engagement for your visitors and consumers. Visible call-to-action above the fold – will tell the visitors to engage in your website or other social media after finishing watching the video.
3. An eye-catching theme. You will use the YouTube as the landing page in a lot of cases. So make sure it appeals. Show the best videos at the top of the channel. Design your channel theme so it reflex your regular websites use of color and style.

Call-to-action can be done in several ways.

• Write the full URL for your regular website in your channel description.
• Write your link to your Facebook and/or Twitter and other social networks in your “about me” section.
• Enable commenting, friending and subscriptions. This has a deep impact for the ranking.

Wow this article is longer than I thought it would be… Hmm… I need some more coffee here. Well you are almost done. Promise.

 

Optimization of your YouTube video

Be sure to write the word “video” in your title. A lot of people will use the word “video” in the search together with the product name or your keywords.

You will only have 100 characters for your title – and that’s only a dozen words or so. Again use only 3 or 4 keywords  in your video tags. Make sure that your keywords is separated by quotation marks and spaces.

Write the address of your website in the beginning of the description. YouTube features a rollover-style description viewer – so everything that is not seen in the first line of the video description will be covered up unless the visitor clicks to read more.

And of course be sure to write your Facebook, Twitter and other addresses to your social networks in the description too.

Remember to authorizing commenting, voting, responses and ratings – so you can engage people. This will increase the organic search ranking for the video. And permit other websites to embed your video. This traffic counts as views too.

 

Check out more about YouTube ranking factors here.

 

Marketing Giveaway…

Well… I still have made no videos for SeoCustomer.com.. But I might as well get started soon.

In the meanwhile grab the free Complete SeoCustomer Guide 2011 – with all the articles with tips and tricks from 2011.

As always – have a great day out there…

Henrik