Creating a YouTube video that's relevant to your business is an excellent way to boost your company's exposure.
According to Nielsen NetView, YouTube had more than 112 million unique visitors who streamed video more than 6.6 billion times in January, making YouTube the top online video brand and the fifth most-visited US website overall.
And according to Forrester Research, "any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index."
Those facts make a compelling case for investing a little time and energy in video—specifically, YouTube search engine optimization (SEO)—to make sure people find your video (and your business)
It doesn't matter how great your video is; if people don't know it exists, it doesn't have much business value. If your intended audience is to find your video, you need to optimize it for maximum visibility in Google and other search engines.
Here are eight tips for optimizing YouTube videos.
1. Place relevant keywords in your video's title, description, and tags
Search engines can't read video content directly, so you need to tell spiders and potential viewers what they're in for by describing the content in the YouTube fields.
When doing keyword research for videos, think about the terms users would likely use in a query as well as what makes your video unique. If it's a how-to video, make sure the title starts with the phrase "how to." Write a clear description in complete sentences.
Also consider including the URL of your company's website in the description. Placing the URL at the beginning ensures that people can see it in the YouTube search results.
2. Promote your video on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks
Increasing your video's views, ratings, and comments will boost its search engine rankings, and you're more likely to get those when people in your social circle know you have new content. Encourage your friends, followers, and colleagues to comment on your videos by in turn commenting on their content when possible.
As an added benefit, linking to your video on sites such as Twitter and Facebook prompts others to link to your video. Those inbound links increase the video's authority, further improving its search engine rankings.
3. Embed your video on your blog or website
Encourage others to do the same—a video embed, similar to an inbound link, is good for SEO. It also draws traffic to your site.
