Using Online Videos for SEO

Internet video sets you apart from your competition. It has become very easy to create videos yourself due to the numerous easy-to-use video-making applications available. There are two types of Internet Videos, onsite and offsite.

Onsite: With onsite video’s you essentially create a video and upload it to a sharing site such as youtube.com and then use some special code referred to as embed code, to display it on your site. They are great for a number of reasons, mainly:

• They tend to grab a visitor’s attention
• There are many lazy visitors who would rather watch a short video clip rather than read text
• They are excellent for branding purposes
• Great for building trust
• They are a great tool to provide information and for educational purposes

Offsite: With offsite video’s, you submit your video to a number of sharing sites ensuring that you optimize every submission that you make. You actually end up being ranked in search engines with minimal effort. Offsite videos are therefore great for the following reason:

• They are great at grabbing search engine traffic and redirecting it to your website or phone number
• They can be used to rank for multiple keywords
• They can be used to spruce up other landing pages and Web 2.0 properties
• They help you source your customers in multiple places

A good video should contain the following:

• A slide show that demonstrates a problem and provides a solution
• An FAQ video
• An Interview with the you, the business owner
• An overview of the business
• An expert article written by you or your staff
• Testimonials for past clients

You will need the following tools to make a good video:

For the slide show, you will require pictures, music and slide show tool. Some of the best slide show tools are Animoto, Windows Movie Maker and iMove. For an FAQ video, you can have a voice over with your slide show.

The following is a list of great tools you should consider:

• Windows Movie Maker which is free
• Jing which has both a free version and a pro version
• Camtasia which you can try for free for 30 days
• MS PowerPoint which you can try free for 60 days

To prepare video testimonials, you will need a camera and editing software. It would be good if you own a professional camera but if you do not, you can still create a good video using a normal camera. To edit the clip, you can use any of the following tools:

• Windows Movie Maker for PC’s
• iMove for Mac’s
• Sony Vega Studio for PC’s
• Apple final Cut for Mac’s

In order to publish your video, you will need to save it in MPA, WMV or FLV format. Once you have done this, just visit any sharing site and upload it. You will receive an embed code which you can then use to display the video on your site. The steps to follow are simple and quite straightforward:

• Create a Gmail account, the username should be a keyword
• Using the same Gmail username and password, create free accounts on YouTube, Yahoo Video, and MySpace Video
• In order to activate the accounts, you will need to confirm the e-mails you receive
• Upload the video
• Enter title, description, tags, and select your video category
• Be sure to keep a record of all your accounts and login information

To be dominant in the Internet video market, you must be sure that your video is going to as many websites as possible. For the best chance of a high ranking, your video should be Search Engine Optimized.

A well made SEO video will be laid out as follows:

• Enter the title: Begin with the main keyword, then the secondary keyword, the business name and phone number. For example: LA Day Spa |rock massage | Emerald Day Spa – 555-555-5555.
• Enter the description: Always begin with your main domain and use the “http://” prefix to make it clickable. Use the main and secondary keywords to write a description, which you shall end with a Call to Action such as “call now on…”
• Enter your tags: Be sure to use keywords using location modifiers, that is, your city and state
• Choose the appropriate category for your Video: if you are not sure about the category, upload it to the miscellaneous category

To succeed and for your Internet videos to have a real impact, you need to submit them to as many sites as possible. This can be a real headache and time consuming if done manually. Luckily, there are automation programs that make things a lot easier. There are currently two excellent programs, Tubemogul and TrafficGeyser. Tubemogul is a free tool but has limitations. Traffic Geyser on the other hand is a paid service and is much more suited for multiple submissions. However, you must comply with the terms and conditions of both sites.

Keep a record of all your submission URL’s so that you can monitor them and see the one’s with the best rank. Social bookmark the URL’s with the best rank to increase their exposure and ranking.

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