January 5, 2010

Want Page 1 search engine result rankings? Of course you do; we all do. Well, what if I were to tell you of a little known way that profoundly increases your odds of getting a Page 1 search engine result – might that be of interest?

I thought so.

The answer is video. But not just any old video. It has to be search engine optimized video. Properly post that, and according to a recent study by Forrester Research, you stand a 53 times better chance of getting a Page 1 Google ranking.

Yes, I know, the holy grail.

By now I’m sure you know all about search engine optimization – keywords and key phrases and incoming links and all the rest. The problem is, so does everyone else. That means that getting Google to think that your page is more valuable, more deserving of a high ranking than other pages, is harder than ever, despite all of your fancy SEO work.

That is where SEO video comes in.

What I am not talking about is simply putting a video on your homepage or some other desirable page. And similarly, I am not talking about submitting a video to YouTube and then embedding a YouTube player on your site. Neither of those will generate great Google results for your site because

1.     They are not search engine optimized, and

2.     Videos using YouTube result in click-throughs results for YouTube, even though the videos are re-posted on your site

But what will work – the magic bullet if you will – is video SEO. Video SEO is the process of using SEO tools with your video and then submitting the SEO videos themselves (not just the pages where the videos reside) to the various search engines.

Here is why video SEO is such an incredible Page 1 generator: First, search engines like Google are increasingly using “blended” search results – articles, video, pictures, and other forms of content. So video inherently gets more play because there is less competition for video results. And that is the second, and more important, reason. Because there is so much less of it, and because only very little of all online video is properly submitted with SEO, there is a disproportionate bias towards properly submitted SEO video.

You end up being a big fish in a very small pond.

So here is what you do:

1. Create some great video for your site. Note: Research indicates that if you have video on your homepage, up to 80% of your visitors will click that first, so it better be good!

2. Post it prominently throughout your site.

3. SEO it and submit it. Here’s the trick, and it is two-fold. First, you must optimize the video for search engines. That means key words and phrases must be used in the file name, in the captions, etc. Second, once posted on your site, you must then submit the video itself using XML tools to Google and the other search engines.

I know that last part may sound a little intimidating, but it need not be. There are some great online services that will submit the videos for you. For example, one I like a lot is Fliqz.com. Fliqz will, easily and affordably, index your pages and video, and properly submit them to the various search engines.

The upshot is that your videos and video pages should end up at or near the top of any default search results, the “Web” results, and not just the video results.

In fact, according to Fliqz, by using their “SearchSuccess” tools, “more than two-thirds of all videos submitted produce a first-page Google search result, and up to 25 percent have resulted in a number one Google ranking.”

Well, what are you waiting for?

Join the conversation ( 26 )

• Ken Lewis 10 months ago

  

  Does this article need a disclosure of personal interest with Fliqz? I love great leads on marketing tools, but this one seems to be thrown out there without careful description, analysis, or comparison.
  
  I've been using video for SEO for years now, and this article made it all seem too easy. I can't imagine any automated system for this, or for any other content uploading, to be a one-size-fits-all solution. No program that I know of can create link structures, meta-tags, and keywords with the precision and intelligence of an Internet Marketing professional.
  
  Ken @ http://www.KennethLewis.com

• Sue Kendrick 12 months ago

  

  Thanks very much for this. I will definitely try it out.

• Geoff Stock 1 year 3 months and 21 days ago

  

  As high quality cameras get cheaper many people are seeing the huge opportunities of putting good looking, relevant videos on their sites on a regular basis. This is excellent info to help them get the most benefit for that effort. Many people doing my courses are really enthusiastic about putting great looking videos on their sites and reaping the rewards. Thanks for the help you are providing.
  Geoff at http://video-camera-courses.com

• AC Foster 1 year 4 months and 16 days ago

  

  I find this interesting, but lately, there seems to be a lot of conflicting ideas on SERP.
  http://oksportsfans.com

• Tom Ritter 1 year 6 months and 13 days ago

  

  Used to do old fasioned SEO. Best part about video is that many third party websites will take properly formatted videos and syndicate them to a larger audience.
  
  There is a vacuum for video media. Why else would those third party websites be so eager to share others content? Video should be bananas with the advent of HD Flip cameras and other tools that allow for "pretty good" video product at minimal expense.
  
  I think video is the most efficient tool for internet marketing and social media marketing.
  
  This is what I do : http://www.BusinessNetwork.ORG

• Corrisa Malone 2 years 0 months and 6 days ago

  

  I thought I was pretty SEO savvy, but I still not sure how submitting your video to Google and other SE's is going to help you get on the first page of Google? Is it so you can be indexed faster? If so you can bookmark your videos in a couple of top bookmarking sites and get indexed that way. Fliqz.com is trying to sell a service, so I'm not sure if it's a service that's even needed??
  
  Corrisa
  http://www.InternetNetworkMarketingTraining.com

• Matthew Hurst 2 years 0 months and 11 days ago

  

  These are great suggestions that should help a great video get the attention it deserves, on top of promoting your site in search results. Thanks for sharing these insights with us.

• Eric Grimnes 2 years 0 months and 12 days ago

  

  Excellent idea. It would work great for teaching your potential customers how to install or use the products you sell.
  
  I was wondering if anyone knew of any free software that can be used to create the videos?

• Brian Duvall - Web Video Producer 2 years 0 months and 16 days ago

  

  Nice article. Thanks for the tip about Fliqz. I've been using tow services... TubeMogul and TrafficGeyser for web video syndication. Here's what I've experienced: there are two ways to rank... 1. your website and 2. your content.
  Getting content like video to rank is fast and fairly easy. The trouble is that it tends to be temporary. The more competitive the topic then faster your content drops in the serps.
  I recommend combining several strategies for a synergistic effect.
  1. Syndicate your video to multiple sites using the SEO tactics mentioned in the article.
  2. Embed the video on an SEO blog post / page with a written description of what's in the video for additional SEO of the page.
  3. Social bookmark your page on sites like Digg and StumbleUpon to pick-up a couple more positions in the serps.
  
  I have used this "Golden Trident" strategy to grab not just the top position on page 1 of Google, but the entire front page of Google... yes, all top 10 positions. These results were achieved in just 6 hours after implementing the strategy. And that was for a competitive phrase.
  Hope you find this useful.
  Cheers

• Matt Fleming 2 years 0 months and 21 days ago

  

  I wonder how long it will be a unique aspect to websites' SEO. My real question is "How long can we bank on one variable in the algorithm?". But this is a GREAT little tid-bit that can really make a difference for the foreseeable future!

• Scott Shrum 2 years 0 months and 21 days ago

  

  This is good advice. Just so I'm clear, the video must be hosted on a company's own site (not embedded from YouTube)? Fliqz would allow you to do that?

• Murem Sharpe 2 years 0 months and 25 days ago

  

  And you can add voice widgets easily too using www.evoca.com.

• CJ Bruce 2 years 0 months and 27 days ago

  

  Great post. Video SEO is an incredibly powerful tool, we use it all of the time at my company Video Army when marketing for our clients.
  
  One thing companies need to keep in mind is that it is exponentially easier to get into the page one search results with video at this stage in the game. As more and more companies begin to use these tactics, it will get more and more difficult.
  
  Also, make sure that the content you are optimizing for matches the keywords. Video SEO will get you in the space, but relevancy will keep you there.
  
  If you are interested in having your video SEO taken care of for you, feel free to contact us at http://videoarmy.tv/contact

• SUZANNE MUUSERS 2 years 0 months and 28 days ago

  

  Thanks for the great info! I've just started using video on my web sites and learning video seo is really important to me. I'll ask my webmaster to do the XLM site map.

• MATTHEW WHITE 2 years 0 months and 28 days ago

  

  Great article. I use Fliqz as well and have been very pleased with their service - as well as their SEO capabilities.

• Mike Volpe 2 years 0 months and 30 days ago

  

  Video can be an effective part of SEO, though I think it is a tad more complex than this article implies.
  
  For anyone looking for some details around how to actually optimize a video for SEO, I wrote this article a while back: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4826/SEO-for-YouTube-How-to-Search-Optimize-Video-for-B2B-Marketing.aspx

• Andrew DiFiore Jr. 2 years 1 months and 1 days ago

  

  Great post and will definitely expand SEO strategy to video for our clients. Have used TubeMogul with good results but will explore Friqz.
  
  Have you used other content optimization and distribution services like TubeMogul or Ramp (formerly Everyzing)? If so, how do they compare?

• Matthew Valentine 2 years 1 months and 1 days ago

  

  Great tip! We will be implementing this on our website http//:www.kdf-comp.com very soon. Thank you!

• DANIEL ZUKOWSKI 2 years 1 months and 1 days ago

  

  Great article and comments. Video is key not only to organic search ranking but to communication and stickiness on your web site. We know: we've been producing Web video for our clients for 10 years.

• Richard Matthews 2 years 1 months and 2 days ago

  

  Video is really the Killer App on the internet. If you want to have success you must learn to leverage it. My favorite tool of the trade is Traffic Geyser. Search for it on google. :)

• Kerry Rego 2 years 1 months and 3 days ago

  

  This is EXTREMELY useful information. I train people to use social media and market themselves effectively. Wow, I can't tell you how helpful this is to me personally/professionally and to my clients. Thank you!

• URSULA VON RYDINGSVARD 2 years 1 months and 3 days ago

  

  This is a fantastic article! I just gave a presentation on exactly this topic today. I own and operate my own production company. http://youhere.com/ and it seems people are really coming around to the concept that they need video on their site. And increasing Google ranking is a definite added value. Do you have any other tips?
  Ursula
  COO YouHere Productions

• Noah Wieder 2 years 1 months and 3 days ago

  

  I've had success using tubemogul.com which is free. What is the benefit of fliqz over manual submission. If you upload to tubemogul.com or even just youtube and your title is optimized and you have annotation or other SEO elements in the video your video has a very good chance of a Page 1 SERP on Google.
  
  For example:
  Typing this search term in Google:
  Triton 9100 Screen Repair
  shows my Video in #1 position
  Search Results Quick Link: http://tr.im/JCwV
  
  ---
  http://twitter.com/SEONoah

• BRUCE COLWIN 2 years 1 months and 3 days ago

  

  Ideally, whatever OVP you're using would create an index page which is submitted to search engines or the very least can be exported as XML site map.

• Promod Sharma 2 years 1 months and 3 days ago

  

  The title of this post seemed gimmicky, but because it's in OPEN Forum, I visited.
  
  You make excellent points. I hadn't considered optimizing video for search engines. I thought posting on YouTube was enough.
  
  Thanks for your eye-opening ideas.

• SUZANNE OSHIMA 2 years 1 months and 4 days ago

  

  Steve,
  
  Thanks for sharing such a great tip on SEO. Not only will I try that on my website, I will definitely recommend it to clients.