This presentation is from Ooyala's webinar on Video SEO. I presented along with Pete Kocks of Truveo, the video search engine. We provided background with regard to video search engines and video optimization and also gave some key tips on how best to optimize videos for search engines. I hope that you enjoy. You can watch a recording of the webinar for free here - http://www.reelseo.com/reel-video-seo-webinar/

1. “Reel” Video SEO
Strategies & Best Practices
Presenters:
Mark Robertson, ReelSEO
Peter Kocks, Truveo
Sean Knapp, Ooyala
Alex Holub, Ooyala
Audio Portion:
US: 1-866-853-0972
International: 1-857-350-1619
Passcode: 93062172#

2. Agenda
• What is Video SEO?
• Overview of Video Search
• Guidelines/Best Practices
• Examples
• Video Search vs. Web Search
• Special Tips
• Ooyala Video SEO SDK
• Q/A
Audio Portion:
US: 1-866-853-0972
International: 1-857-350-1619
Passcode: 93062172#

3. Mark Robertson,
Founder, ReelSEO.com
Audio Portion:
US: 1-866-853-0972
International: 1-857-350-1619
Passcode: 93062172#

4. What is Video SEO & Who Cares?

5. What is Video SEO
The application of SEO best practices with video content to ensure
maximum discoverability across search engines & ultimately, visibility
amongst the target audience
• Video SEO is NOT
– Smoke & mirrors
– About “fooling” search engines
• Video SEO IS
– Helping search engines “understand” video content
– An extension of SEO
– A method to drive valuable traffic to your video content
– Something that plays an important role in an overall video strategy

6. Why Video SEO? - People Search for Video
Searches for Video
– 38% of all US online users report using search engine results to discover video 1
– vs. from portal (19%) vs. other video destination sites (11%)
YouTube Searching
– 54% of online consumers reported using the site to discover video 1
– Dec 2008 – 2nd largest search engine in US2
– Dec 2009 – 3.9B queries = 28% of all Google queries2
Search Engine Referral Traffic
– Share of video referral traffic from search engines 4
• 11.81% - general & video search engines (YouTube excluded)
– 23% of traffic to YouTube originates from Google 3
Sources: 1JupiterResearch/NPD Group Individual User Survey (6/08) | 2 Comscore Search Rankings (6/09) | 3Compete.com |
4Tubemogul (2/09)

7. Why So Much Focus on Google?
Videos Dominate Universal Search
• 38% of users who searched Google were
served video in Universal search engine
results pages (‘08)
Google Video = 21.5M Unique/Month
Source – “Google Universal Search Results Searcher Penetration by Result Type” – ComScore – Jan 2008

8. Universal Search = Opportunity to Stand Out

9. Best Practices for Video SEO

10. Video Search – The Players
Video Search Engines / Aggregators
– Truveo, Blinkx, Videosurf, Veoh, etc…
General Search Engines
– Google, Yahoo, Bing
– Universal search, federated, blended, etc…
Video Destination Sites
– YouTube, Metacafe, blip TV, and many many
more…
*** Commonality
1. All searches begin with keywords
2. Dependent on textual metadata &
community factors

11. Hosted Video SEO vs. Distributed
“Hosted” or Website Video SEO
• Good for monetization and traffic to website
Benefits:
– Control: analytics & monetization, UI and branding
– Exposure to related videos
“Posted” or Distributed Video SEO
• Good for branding purposes & generating views
• YouTube optimization is key = 85% traffic
Benefits:
– Leverage authority
– Leverage community/audience
– Works without website video
Commonality
– General principles for on-page & off-page SEO apply

12. “Hosted” Website Video SEO

13. Create Optimized Video Landing Pages
Create Unique Landing Pages
– Unique URL for each video Video Landing Page Anatomy
Use Embedded Players
– No pop-ups or JavaScript (lightbox,tabs – OK)
Optimize the Landing Page
– SEO principles for titles, URLs, metadata, H1, etc…
– Inbound linking (PR) matters
• Keyword anchor text – include keywords
– “watch video” vs. “watch Climbing Everest part 1”
Provide Context to Surround Video
– Contextually related links (products, videos, articles)
– Related on-page text (tags, transcripts, comments)
– Leverage dynamically generated textual content
• On-page and/or
• Alternative text

14. Don’t Forget the User Experience
Create Positive User Experience
– Help users find videos
• Prominently link to video section
• Incorporate video results in site search
– Page load times are important
Create Compelling Thumbnails
– High quality & eye-catching
– Relevant & appropriate
*** Video search = browsing
Enable Interaction & Sharing
– Let visitors share your videos
– Enable commenting – provides additional text
*** Sharing increases inbound links

15. Hardest Part - Getting Video into Search Engines
Don’t Make them Look for You (crawls)
MRSS feeds and XML Sitemaps
– AOL Video/Truveo, blinkx & most others = MRSS
– Google = both MRSS & XML video sitemaps
• XML sitemaps (better)
– Specify player & thumbnail
Tips for MRSS/Sitemaps
– Indicate landing page URLs for each video
– Publish both video sitemap and regular xml sitemap
– Titles are given disproportionate weighting for
rankings
– The more data, the better

16. YouTube SEO Strategy & Tips

17. Success = Quality, Value & Community
YouTube Ranking Factors
• Title
• Description
• Tags
• Views
• Ratings
• Playlist additions
• Flagging
• Shares
• Comments
• Age of video
• Channel views
• Subscribers
• Embeds & inbound links

18. Tips for Uploading to YouTube
Titles are important
– Include keywords/phrases in titles
– Trade-off = Search keywords vs. enticing titles
Maximize descriptive text
– Leverage descriptions “more info” field liberally
(5000 characters)
– Leverage tags – optimize & de-optimize
*** Put most important keywords first in titles,
descriptions and tags
Enable interaction
– Embedding and sharing
– Commenting and rating
Consider manually uploading or API
– More characters available for titles, descriptions,
tags vs. uploading tools
– Must be active community member

19. Engage the Audience & Drive Interaction
Add URLs to descriptions
– Track with tiny URLs
Consider paid placement
– Allows off-site overlay ads
Leverage annotations
– Drive viewers to other videos
Leverage closed captions
– Indexing & placement
– Accessibility
– Global reach
Engage the community
– Subscribe to relevant users
– Add video responses when appropriate
– Encourage linking and embedding

20. Website Video SEO Examples

21. The New York Post - Video Pages
The Good
• Prominent link to section
• Available in site search
• Sharing enabled
The Bad
• Video quality
• No commenting/rating
• Clunky UI
The Ugly
• Slow page load
• No text (all flash)
• Duplicate meta-tags
• No sitemap

22. The New York Post – Search Engine Results

23. Fox Sports – Video Pages
The Good
• Loads fast
• Prominent links to section
• Available in site search
• Sharing enabled
• Full text transcripts
• Proper H1, titles,
descriptions, etc…
• Related videos, topics, etc…
The Bad
• No commenting
• ?

24. Fox Sports - Search Engine Results

25. “Reel” Example – Universal Search Rankings
Sony HDR-XR500V
Good:
• Traffic directly to ReelSEO
• Beats Amazon.com
Bad:
• What was I thinking with this
thumbnail?

26. Bookmark ReelSEO = Video Marketing News, Trends, Tips…
Thank You
Mark R. Robertson, Founder
www.reelseo.com
@reelseo
Facebook.com/reelseo