A lot of work goes into YouTube for the sake of search engine optimization. It’s hard to tell if it’s worthwhile.
I spend a lot of time researching online marketing tactics and go to many forums and blogs about search engine optimization.
YouTube used to show up fairly often, but it doesn’t seem to get mentioned much anymore.
Yes, YouTube is hugely popular, and it’s a great venue for branding. But does it help a site with SEO?
SEO on YouTube is Simple
et’s look at a scenario for optimizing a video for search engines on YouTube. It’s much simpler than optimizing an article.
- Name the video based on a relevant keyword.
- The name becomes the title of the video that appears in search results.
- Use the keyword again in the description that appears under the video. This gets used in the meta description that appears in search engines.
- Add a link on the video page to the relevant page on the external site.
The video will be ranked in search engines like any other document. Factors include:
- Competition for that keyword among all documents.
- Competition from similar videos on YouTube.
- Popularity of the video on YouTube.
- Back links to the video.
- Whether the video is embedded on other sites, which also impacts its popularity.
Google will recognize the link on the video page back to the Web site where the video originated.
The value of the link will be determined by the above factors, i.e., popularity, competition, back links, etc.
That value then lifts the ranking of the landing page.
Video is a Lot of Work
reating a decent video is a lot of work — more work than writing a quality article.
The amount of work expands for anyone who produces videos infrequently. Experience saves time while inexperience takes time.
If a lot of work goes into producing a quality video, and it doesn’t play well on YouTube or rank well in the search engines, the effort is not worthwhile.
It’s another way of saying that YouTube has a higher risk than other back link sources that involve articles or photos.
One way to manage that risk is by choosing video topics carefully. Review similar videos on YouTube. Consider whether your video will be effective enough to draw adequate attention.
Finally, treat the video like another other content. Link to it and distribute to YouTube, Facebook, Google+ and everywhere else that makes sense.