YouTube is now the largest video sharing search engine in the world. Ever since Google purchased it, it has improved greatly and it became a powerful tool for SEO. YouTube has become the second biggest search engine in the world in 2011, when it took Yahoo’s place. The popularity of YouTube is ever-growing, thus making it a powerful medium for SEO. Videos are an important type of media which can help you maintain your web presence and improve your online marketing. As you already know, research has shown that people are drawn to video for several reasons. It is far easier to describe something and explain it when people can see and “feel” it rather than just visualizing it and guessing. Bear in mind that more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month!

How Can Video Content Contribute to Your Business?

The implementation of video content on your website is a great marketing move. It is hard to hold your visitor’s attention with basic text. Even if the text is typed in different fonts, and not only those default ones such as Times New Roman or Calibri, or if it is in different colors, shapes and sizes, it still doesn’t leave such a strong impression as an image or a video. It is important to have eye-catching content on your website – content that will hold the attention of your visitors and increase traffic on your website. This is where YouTube videos kick in.

What do people want to see?

YouTube visitors do not want to waste their time on watching commercials for your business. These short advertisements have already been implemented in various YouTube videos and cannot be fast forwarded. No… People want to watch interesting and informative videos of you speaking about a certain product, showing its benefits and special features; videos of you explaining how to use them or even fix them.

Share your knowledge

This isn’t where you should stop. You should strongly consider sharing your expertise and knowledge with your visitors and viewers, and if you do so, you will most certainly get more traffic and spread the list of your potential customers. I am going to adduce some examples which should help you generate the bigger picture of it all.

• If you are selling fishing equipment and accessories, you should not only create advertisements for your products, but also videos of you going to fishing trips with the products you sell and even interviewing people who use your equipment.
• If you are selling car parts, you can make car customization videos – videos of you solving or fixing problems with various cars, etc.
• If you are running a restaurant, you can make videos of food preparation processes, you can make a film about the preparation of an exotic specialty as well as wine recommendations for the same (this, of course, is all done in your restaurant)

The possibilities are infinite.

Now That You Have Come Up With an Idea, Let’s Make Magic!

Now, there are a few mistakes that people make when filming advertisement videos of their products. DO NOT HIRE PROFESSIONALS TO DO IT FOR YOU! People will less likely watch your video, if it is filmed as a commercial. Use normal HD cameras and film yourself in real time. This way, you will have better communication with your visitors and will draw more potential customers. The web is already clogged with various spam advertisements and those are most often avoided. If it is filmed professionally and resembles a commercial, it will produce a counter-effect and drive away your visitors. The lower the number of CTRs (click- through), the narrower will the circle of potential customers be. In layman terms, keep your videos a bit “homemade”.

VSEO – Video Search Engine Optimization

This is the most important step. When you upload a video on YouTube, you will be asked for information about the video you are uploading. VSEO is easier to explain using examples so here is one that will help you get the picture. For instance, your company is selling sunglasses. When you are naming your video, make sure you use relevant keywords, but also make sure you formulate the title as a how to, or a guide, or something similar whenever possible, i.e. “How to Choose the Right Sunglasses for This Summer”. The next step in is to add the description of the video. An important thing here is to add a link to your business’ website but it should be done “casually”. By this I mean that it is not enough just to add a link and leave it like that, but it is also important to surround it by some relevant but casually written text which holds keywords and information about your product.

For example:

www.somethingsomething.com – Here is our CEO John Doe explaining how to pick the right sunglasses for this summer. New trends have been set for this summer, and new models of sunglasses are there for you. Fashion companies have launched new models which fit, blend and point out your style for this season. This video will help you choose the sunglasses which best suit your needs.

See how I “casually” added words like summer, sunglasses, fashion, style, season… When you come to think of it, the whole text contains keywords, packed in a form that doesn’t “hurt your eyes” but yet, it is enough for YouTube to recognize them all and implement your video in more searches. By doing this, you increase the possibility of your video being seen. More views equal more CTRs, more CTRs equal more traffic on your website and more traffic; well… you figured that one out already.

Final Step – Social Network Sharing

Although YouTube is directly connected to Google+, you should not neglect other social networks as well – share your content via other social networks. Create a circle of people with whom you will share your video. This circle will expand in time and will prove as a great marketing move. People know people who know people who know people and this goes on to infinity. If you have done your advertising video right, many of them will share it and you will have an increasing percent of potential customers. What I would focus most on would be Facebook, Google Plus and Pinterest. Especially Pinterest, because it gets watched and re-pinned in no time, which brings you visits and popularity. Ask your employees to share and repin, and you will create a large sharing network in no time.

To Sum Up

SEO is still a great form of online marketing. Some people think it “died” over the years, but it hasn’t. It just adapted, gained a new form and it is still permeating all aspects of online marketing. Video SEO is a new form of search engine optimization and it is not to be neglected. The rules have changed, but the game hasn’t.