How to Optimize Your Videos for Search

Online video and video search is HOT! You have surely seen the entire buzz on the internet about sites like youtube, blinkx, etc... With this, bloggers have been writing posts about how to shoot video, how to upload videos to these sites, etc... However, few have provided information on how to get these videos seen and discovered. Here enters Video SEO.

To ensure that your video gets seen and discovered on these search engines, it is important to first learn some of the technical aspects that are important to online video as well as search.

There is misconception that, keyword research for video content is same as standard organic search or other search verticals. This is not true and moreover, till now there aren't keyword research tools to determine and measure video search results. Before you begin with your actual video search optimization, put together your keyword list. The list can be based on standard search results; however, they should be supplemented with results from news search engine results pages for more appropriate content. At this early phase of online video revolution, video searches at this point tend to be shorter keywords as opposed to "long tail" searches. More than any other piece of advice makes sure you include the word "video" in your keyword list. Examples - car videos, car video, racing video, automotive videos, etc....

The next step after you have generated a keyword list is to take a good look at the video search platforms to see which channels and categories, tags, etc... tend to get the most views, as well as to look at which platforms have the highest performance in views, ratings, etc... You will certainly want to submit your video to multiple sites but you will want to make sure that at the least, you submit your video to the more popular engines.

You should also keep a track of the audience already searching for your targeted terms. In case you fail to find the same, find the closest related terms being searched. In video search engine optimization user feedback plays a very vital role.

Make sure that when you add your video to the video search sites that you allow users to comment on your videos. Videos that enable users to comment tend to get much more traffic. In addition, those users that do comment and provide feedback are more often the users that will result in a conversion.

If you can do this, it is always better to pick a video theme that is not saturated in terms of competition out there. As an example, a video about Tom Cruise will likely be very hard to optimize for as there are thousands of results for that search.

Another important factor to know is that typically, users do not watch videos that are long and drawn out. Instead, users want quick snacks of video content, usually viewing no more than a few minutes of a video. If you have a video that is many minutes long, consider creating several shorter clips for your video ranging from 1-3 minutes in total length.

You can even put the actual branding inside the video, such as text or domain name or specific URL as a graphic in the video. Of course, getting users back to your website or business is one great result for doing video SEO in the first place.

So if you wish to succeed in search engine optimization's mad frenzy race, video search engine optimization is an incredible new way to get exposure, and you have the opportunity right now, to get in the ground floor.