video + seo - best practices for online video publishing & e-commerce

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VIDEO + SEO Not Smoke and Mirrors, Just Best Practices for E-Commerce Video Publishing

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http://www.reelseo.com/ This is my presentation from the LiveClicker Video Commerce Summit. I was asked to present my view of video search engine optimization (video SEO), as well as to help educate the audience on some best practices for publishing online video in a search-friendly manner. More - http://www.reelseo.com/seo-e-commerceseo-e-commerce/10165/

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Page 1: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

VIDEO + SEO

Not Smoke and Mirrors, Just Best Practices for E-Commerce Video

Publishing

Page 2: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Mark Robertson - ME• ReelSEO.com Founder, Webmaster, Customer Service

Author, etc…

• Expertise– Search engine optimization

– Online video publishing

– Search, search, & more search

– SMBs & media companies

– Musician/drummer

• Not so much– Video production - dabbling

– Ecommerce

– Conference speaking ;-)

Who is this Guy and Why is he Here?

Internet Retailer Survey – January 2009

Page 3: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Focused on Video VisibilityNews, tips, reviews, and observations about online video

• Video marketing

• Video advertising

• Video search & sharing

• Video optimization (Video SEO)

• Online video technology

• Online video publishing

• Online video market research

• Video industry news

What is ReelSEO.com?

Page 4: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Video Discovery – BACKGROUNDDoes search matter for video?

Page 5: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

How do Consumers Discover Video Content?

Where do viewers discover video online?

44% - discover randomly

43% - via sharing

43% - via video websites

39% - via search engines

27% - via marketing email

4% - via RSS & MRSS feeds

Page 6: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Video Search Traffic Trends

Video discovery via search is on the rise

• 29% of video discovered on social video sharing sites in 2008

– vs. 36% in 2007

• 29% of videos discovered via search engines in 2008

– vs. 22% in 2007

Page 7: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

1. People are used to using search engines to locate online content

2. Consumers append the word “video” to their search queries.

3. Universal/Blended/Federated Search proliferation

Why the Shift to Search?

Page 8: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Google Universal Search

May 2007 – Google Launches Universal Search initiative to integrate listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines into Google SERPS

Page 9: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Videos Dominate Universal Search

Videos Dominate Universal Search

38% of users who searched Google were served video in Universal search engine results pages

Source – “Google Universal Search Results Searcher Penetration by Result Type” – ComScore – Jan 2008

Page 10: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Regular SERPS Universal SERPS

Why is this important – Thumbnail Power!

Page 11: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

YouTube is more than just a place to upload & share videos

Did you know?• December 2008 - YouTube became the 2nd largest search engine & 4th

largest web property overall

• How much video is uploaded to YouTube every minute?

• 15 hours worth of video - equivalent to 86,000 new full length movies/week

• More content is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major U.S. networks generated in the last 60 years

YOUTUBE – Video Sharing + Video Search

Page 12: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Video + SEO – Overview & Strategy

Page 13: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Simply put, video SEO is the application of SEO best practices to ensure that your video content achieves maximum visibility

among your target audience

Video SEO IS•About best practices for online video publishing•To be used in conjunction with overall best practices for general SEO •Something that plays an important role in an overall video strategy

Video SEO IS NOT•Only about syndicating your videos to multiple sites•Smoke and mirrors•An end in-and-of itself

What is Video SEO?

Page 14: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Types of Video SEO

2 Main Strategies for Video Search Optimization

1) Hosted - Website video + SEO– Optimization of video content that is on your website

2) Posted - Video syndication + SEO– Optimization of video content uploaded or syndicated to video sharing

sites, social media websites, etc…

My Recommendation– Take advantage of both

Page 15: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Benefits of Website Video SEO (hosted)

Benefits:• Control:

– on-page text

– user-experience, etc...

– action/conversions

– brand experience

• Better measurement capabilities

• Generate traffic directly

• Exposure to related content

• Can strengthen overall website SEO

When your goal is to generate traffic to your website & your video content

Page 16: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Benefits of Posted Video SEO

Benefits:• Take advantage of a large audience

and viral social nature

• Take advantage of pre-established authority and rankings

• Easy way to get into organic & universal search - thumbnails

• Show up multiple times in SERPS

• Works with or w/o a strong website presence

When your goal is to generate video views, brand recognition, and social interaction/buzz

Page 17: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

SEO TIPS & RECOMMENDATIONS Hosted – Website Video + SEO

Page 18: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

+ On the positive side…• Videos generate interest, buzz, inbound links, and website traffic

• Videos can help a site achieve better rankings overall

• Universal search – extra opportunity to drive traffic

- On the negative side…• Search engines are not YET able to “read” actual video content

• Search engines need to be told what a video is about

• Optimization is crucial to discovery = extra work for videophiles

How Does Video Affect Overall Site SEO?

Page 19: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Benchmarking - Measure Current State

Check Video Referrals - Analytics• Where do visitors to your video pages arrive from?

• What % of video traffic comes from search engines?

Test Searches • Do your products appear in the search engines?

• How about your videos?

Monitor Behavior • What % of visitors are linking to your videos or sharing?

Benchmarking - Before you Begin

Page 20: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Site Structure• 1 video per URL & use unique URLS

• Place your videos in a central root folder/directory – www.site.com/videos/

• What about domains/micro-sites?

• Create navigation links to your video content

Page Structure• Use embedded players – not pop-ups

• Follow general SEO principles for titles, URLs, meta tags, H1, etc…

• Include contextually related links to product pages & videos

• Provide related on-page text (tags, captions, comments)

Tips for Hosted / Website Video SEO

Page 21: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Enable Interaction & Sharing1. Helps to generate inbound links & buzz

2. In turn - helps search engines more easily discover & rank your content

• Allow visitors to grab & share your videos

• Create easy links for users - Permalinks

• Enable commenting and rating– Creates relevant text & promotes buzz

• Allow users to subscribe to your videos via RSS/MRSS

• Include social bookmarking tools

Tips for Hosted / Website Video SEO

Page 22: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Optimized Video Landing Page Anatomy

Page 23: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Search engines currently do their best to crawl the web and index video content. BUT, don’t wait for them to find you. Help them by telling them about your video content.

MRSS Feed SyndicationMRSS = RSS feed w/media enclosures

1.Submit RSS/MRSS feeds directly

2.Create active MRSS or link to MRSS

3.Submit MRSS or XML to Google Sitemaps

And/or – Leverage Posted Video SEO

How Do You Get Into Search Engines?

Page 24: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

SEO TIPS & RECOMMENDATIONS Posted - Video syndication + SEO

Page 25: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Consider submitting videos, especially those of a viral appeal to video sharing sites

Tips•Use services like Tubemogul to upload your videos to multiple sites.

•Titles are extremely important

•Try slight variations in titles across sites

•Descriptive text around video (e.g. more info section in YouTube)

•Leverage tags – use tags liberally – optimize & de-optimize

•Put your URL at the start of the description

Posted Video SEO - Syndication

Page 26: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Drive Interaction & Conversion

• Add URLs to your descriptions

• Create a branded channels

• Leverage annotations to drive viewers to your other videos

• Use watermarks, include website URL

• Include measurable calls to action (coupons, promo codes)

• Allow commenting & rating

• Find related videos & comment with your video, only if relevant & useful

Some YouTube Specific Tips

Page 27: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

SEO TIPS & RECOMMENDATIONS More Thoughts & Tips

Page 28: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Measuring Success• Check Analytics Referrers

• Check SERP rankings

• Check YouTube Rankings

Remember• Be patient• Have reasonable expectations• SEO is a balance• SEO is a continuous effort

Measuring SEO – Is it Working?

Page 29: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Keep in Mind the Future of Video Search1. Speech recognition – Blinkx, Google Audio, Goog411

2. Image recognition – Google, DigitalSmiths

3. Facial recognition – VideoSurf, Google

Why is this important?• Video Production quality

• Audio quality

• Scripts – keywords

• Perhaps dup content is not an issue now, but…

• Etc…

Future of Video Search – Production Quality

Page 30: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Lean Back vs. Lean Forward• "It's got to be 30 sec"

• My answer is always, "Let's tell the story first.“

• You don’t have to shout at the audience, their already watching

Telling a story:• Engage customers

• Educate customers (sit & fit experience)

• Prominent branding

• Point of differentiation

• Entertain customers

Focus on Quality and Engagement

Sales increased 5X the company's old record

Page 31: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Other Tips for E-Commerce SEO

Page 32: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it."

(Google Guidelines)

Do your research•Not everyone searches the same way

•Tools– Google Search Insight

– SEOBook.com

– “Related Searches”

•Good keywords to append for products– Review

– Demonstration

– Test

– Buy

Keywords Research is Crucial to Success

Page 33: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Keyword Research – Google Search Insight

Page 34: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Longer search queries are becoming more popular YOY

Facts:• The majority of searches are 1-3 keywords

• But, queries with 4-8 keywords grew YOY -3% to 20%.

• Long tail keywords are:

– Easier to rank for in organic search

– Cheaper to buy for PPC

– Typically result in higher conversion %

Long Tail Keyword Searches

Page 35: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Avoid Manufacturer Product Descriptions:• Resist the urge. Re-write descriptions - make unique.

Allow your customers to comment and tag products with their own keywords. • Start ranking for slang keywords that you would have never thought of..

Don’t Use “View” or “Watch”• On your product category pages, link to the individual product videos with

good anchor text – No - “View” or “watch video”– Yes – “Canon HF-10 Review Video”

Links in Product Descriptions:• Create keyword rich links in product descriptions of one product to another

Other – SEO tips for E-Commerce

Page 36: Video + SEO - Best Practices for Online Video Publishing & E-Commerce

Questions?Mark R. Robertson

[email protected]

www.reelseo.com

Twitter: reelseo