How to Optimize Videos for the Search Engines

One question that looms in the mind of many is how to optimize videos for the search engines. Unlike with articles or blog posts on your site, videos cannot be seen by the search engines so you can't expect to just utter a few keywords on camera to get your videos ranked.

Tips for Getting a Video Ranked for Target Keywords

Since the search engines cannot see anything in your videos, there are only a few things you can do to inform search engines of what your videos contain. The title of the video, the comments, and the meta information are all seen by the search engines so you can add target keywords to these areas to optimize your video. It's also recommended to use a transcription service and have all of your videos transcribed. This will make it easier for people because they can read the transcript if they are too busy to watch the video and the target keywords within the transcript can be picked up by the search engines.

Putting Your Video on a Third Party Site vs. on Your Own Site

When uploading your videos to the web, you have the choice between uploading them to third party sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Meta Café and to your own website. You can also do both if you wish. If you are looking to create a viral video and want it to be seen by as many people as possible, you will be able to get the maximum number of viewers at a site like YouTube. If your primary aim is to get visitors to visit your website, you should put your video on your own website.

How to Optimize Your Video Title

A title that contains your target keywords is of course great for SEO but you're better off using such a title only for the videos you upload to your site. This will help your site get ranked for the target keywords. If you use your target keywords in the titles of the videos you upload to third party video sites, the videos on your own site are far less likely to rank highly on the search engines because popular sites like You Tube will always end up coming first. When you upload videos to third party video sites use catchy, compelling titles to increase the chance of them becoming viral but do not use titles that contain the target keywords. Save those target keywords for video titles on your own site to attract targeted traffic and build your site's search engine ranking.

Another factor you'll want to consider is the length of your video. Optimal videos are always under ten minutes. People are short on time and they will turn off your video if it is too long or too boring. Make sure your video is short and sweet and remember to keep things exciting.

So there you have it. Keep these tips in mind in order to optimize the videos you create for both search engines and humans. While it's not possible for search engines to know exactly what is in your videos, you can help them rank well by providing the search engines with information through your video titles and transcripts.