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I've just spent hours filled with frustration trying to find appropriate videos (YouTube, Vimeo and others) to feature in some upcoming blog postings. Sigh...
Oh, it's not that they're not out there. I'm sure they are. It's just that I can't find them.
And when I do find them? I can't use them.
Why? Because most of them are not optimized and do not use keywords or key phrases. They have horrible video titles. They are missing crucial video description information that would otherwise help people find them, share them on Facebook and Twitter, blog about them, embed them and thereby exponentially increase the video's possible reach.
Are your videos not getting the attention you think they deserve?
Perhaps it's because you haven't done any video optimization! Here's some of my tips for how to prepare your videos and video descriptions so that they can be found -- and shared! While I'm using YouTube terminology, these tips work no matter what video-based social network you're using.
Of course, it all begins with the quality of your videos -- content, visual and audio. The better quality videos on your channel, the better "stickiness" your channel will have and the more likely it will be that people will share them. But after that...
FIRST AND FOREMOST
Imagine that you are the ideal viewer for your video and try to imagine what that person would type into a search engine. Who will view the video? Who is the video targeting? What type of people are going to find your video and how are they going to find it? Putting yourself in your viewer's shoes is the best way to start figuring out how to optimize your video. Remember that YouTube is owned by Google and their searches work in exactly the same way.
OPTIMIZE YOUR VIDEO TITLE AND THUMBNAIL
Your video title may be the most important part of your video (outside the video itself). Don't ever let your video sharing site use the default file name or include a file extension like .mov or .avi in the video title! Consider what your potential viewers will be seeking. The title is basically the headline that draws them into viewing. Give your video a descriptive, punchy, pleasant and brief title. Use the title to sell your video. Make it count. Here's some examples
- A Student's Day in Brisbane - English (short version)
- Study abroad for Engineering
- Nursing students practicum in Chennai, India
- The Rolling Stones - (I can't get no) Satisfaction
Avoid putting your organization or office name in the video title. That should already be on your office or organization's channel / account and is, therefore, not needed in the video title.
Be creative. Differentiate your videos from the others. For example, do you have any idea how many videos are simply titled "study abroad" -- including a music video from a South Korean boy band?? It has more hits than just about any "real" study abroad video...
The thumbnail is the small image from your video that will show up in search results. YouTube gives you three choices automatically picked by their upload software. Choose the one that is the most interesting. It's the first impression of your video. Choose the one you think will make people click on your choice and view your video.
OPTIMIZE YOUR VIDEO DESCRIPTION
First: If you have a website for your office or organization, put the URL of your website in the TOP line of the description so that people can easily find you. When you do that, don't forget the seven most important characters that will make that URL work properly!
Descriptions are very important because they give the user information about your video. Google and YouTube use the description to help them categorize the video.
You need to write an accurate description about your video to maximize views. Be efficient! Don't try to recreate the wheel if you don't have to. If you or someone else will write or has written a blog post about the video, consider using that text. Don't go overboard or make it lengthy, but consider including at least a paragraph or two containing sentences with keywords and alternative forms of the keywords. It also helps to keep the five W’s of communication in mind when creating your description: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
Don't fill the description with unnecessary and irrelevant information, Just describe what your video is about and helpful background information.
OPTIMIZE YOUR VIDEO TAGS
Tagging is an easy thing to do and it can be tricky to learn to do it well.
When choosing keywords and key phrases, don't get complicated. Stay simple. Be sure to use key phrases in addition to keywords (e.g., "study in Australia" and "study abroad"). Don't throw in extra keywords or key phrases for the sake of more traffic. Target them. Pick them carefully and stick with them. Optimize in and around them. An easy way to find the best keywords and key phrases is to use the YouTube and/or Google search box. Type in a main keyword or key phrase and see what else pops up.
Use keywords and key phrases to re-emphasize important terms and throw in some extra ones to help scoop relevant traffic. You do not need to re-emphasize your entire title. YouTube will pick up on your keywords and phrases from the title first, so you don't need to repeat them.
A major tip: Use keywords that are misspellings! You'll capture significant traffic from those who don't spell the best keywords correctly!
If your organization's name -- or a familiar version or abbreviation -- is not in your YouTube channel username, then by all means use it as a keyword or phrase. For example, Institute of International Education (IIE) has a YouTube channel called "IIEGlobal". They would be well served to put their name as a keyword (IIE) and keyphrase ("Institute of International Education") in the keyword section of all their videos.
I like Jonathan Mendez' 7 Ways to Optimize Your YouTube Tags
- Make sure your tags are relevant to your content.
- The more tags the merrier. I see no penalty for using all your available tag space.
- Spread your tags out among your clips. Adding more tags can help snag some tail.
- Use adjectives. Remember lots of folks are browsing and they’ll use adjectives to find what they are in the mood to view.
- Have some category descriptor tags. It’s important to remember YouTube’s default search settings are Videos, Relevance and All Categories.
- Match your title and description with your most important tags. Basic SEM and SEO practice applies here as well.
- Don’t use natural language phrases or waste tag space on words like “and” or “to.”
SOME HINTS RE SUBSCRIPTIONS, SUBSCRIBERS AND FRIENDS
- Subscribe to channels that appeal to you and those with whom you have a relationship (such program partners, institutions).
- If you subscribe to others, they will be more likely to subscribe to you.
- "Friending" another user/channel on YouTube makes it easier for you to share videos with each other. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's not. I suggest that organizational or office channels friend only other channels that are clearly professional channels of organizations or offices.
- Be sure to include a link to or an indication of your YouTube channel on all Internet sites and in you marketing materials. You may also want to place the URL of your channel in your email signature and on printed marketing materials. You can also include the URL of your channel an annotated (and linked) text in your video to increase subscriptions!
Now...go forth and help me find your videos! What other tips can you add?
Related Articles:
- YouTube Prescription of Video Descriptions (seopositive.co.uk)
- Mining YouTube for Keyword Research (seochat.com)
- How to rank highly in YouTube searches (econsultancy.com)
- YouTube Video Optimization from A to Z (searchenginejournal.com)
- YouTube Gets Way More Social With Facebook, Google+ Integration (hubspot.com)
- YouTube Redesign Calls for Video Search Engine Optimization Services (searchenginejournal.com)
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