Simple Steps for YouTube SEO

Online marketing has taken off to such an extent that it is always surprising to hear of really valuable techniques that are being underused, even by the large multinationals. But that seems to be what has happened with YouTube, the world’s most popular online video platform. While most businesses are quick to grasp the importance of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, they tend to dismiss YouTube as insignificant for SEO or inappropriate for their brand.  SEO experts are adamant that this is a big mistake.

Companies should consider integrating YouTube into their online marketing strategies because it is the second-largest search engine, bigger than Yahoo and Bing. However, this doesn’t mean that an audience of millions is instantly guaranteed. Like any search engine, the content must be of a really high quality, relevant, creative and engaging. It needs to be something that people will want to share if you’re to create that all important organic word-of-mouth buzz that Google loves so much!

Get it right and your page will be ranked highly not only on YouTube’s search results page but on other search engines too. Here are some simple steps to follow once your video is ready to be posted:

• Add links from your profile page to your website or social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter. Likewise, include a description of your video on your website with a link to your YouTube page.
• Write an appropriate title (with the word ‘video’ in it) and a description including keywords for each video that you post. You should also make sure your video is tagged with keywords.
• The description should start with your URL. This ensures your website address will still be visible when shorter versions of your description are exposed and increases the likelihood of external links when your video is shared.
• Write transcripts to be posted alongside the video on YouTube. Search engines are unable to read videos and will rely exclusively on titles, descriptions and tags to guess the content. Transcriptions help search engines to place the video on the relevant results page.
• Make sure your video is open to comments and embedding.
• Use YouTube analytics tool Insight to monitor who has posted links to your video or embedded it. This information can be used to increase links to your website or improve your next submission.

These tips will only help if you have created a video that people want to watch and share. Don’t be surprised if there is a poor response to a posting that is dull or unoriginal. Think about videos that have impressed you for inspiration or who you are targeting and why. In our tech-savvy ‘age of the stream’, attention spans may be short, but the rewards for capturing them even momentarily can be huge!