Optimizing Video for Search and Social Networking

Due to the increasing demand for web-based video viewing more and more people are using video search engines and social networking sites like Google Video and YouTube to find video online. To satisfy this high demand for video, search engines are now also beginning to show video and images within the text-based content in the main search results. The latter is causing a shift in the practice of organic search engine optimization from primarily text-based content optimization to optimization of integrated media components such as video, images and audio.

In a previous issue of this newsletter we covered image search optimization, in this issue we dig deeper into optimization of video for search engines and social networking web sites.

Video Search
Web users are using the search function at video search engines and social networking web sites to find video clips. There are essentially two types of sites where people can search for video:

	General purpose search engines and specialized video search engines. These services crawl and index video content from multiple sources and allow users to search for video content within the video databases or from across the entire Web. On Google Video, for instance, users can watch videos from websites across the web that were never uploaded or indexed in the Google or YouTube video database. Users who want to play the videos are redirected to where the videos are hosted when they click the video thumbnail image. Some video search engines also allow users to upload video.
	Social networking or online video sharing web sites (e.g. YouTube, Revver). Within those sites users can use the internal search function to locate video clips. Social networking or online video sharing web sites allow users to upload videos for viewing by private or public audiences. Video sharing sites also rely primarily on their audience to upload video to their video databases. Video search engines, on the other hand, are using a web crawler to collect video from multiple sources across the web, included video blogs, web sites and video sharing web sites. A number of video search engines, like Google and Yahoo, now also allow users to upload videos and rate, review, recommend, categorize and "tag" the videos they watch. The latter functions facilitate the organization and retrieval of video content because users can easily find new videos based on other users’ recommendations.

	Crawling web sites to find video clips. Most video search engines, including Google Video, use this method.
	Submitting video by upload. This typically is required by video sharing sites such as YouTube.
	RSS feed (Media RSS). This enhanced RSS format can be used to feed video files into Yahoo Video Search.

Tubemogul.com is a good tool for submission of video clips to multiple video search engines and social media networks for a single source.

Video Search Optimization Benefits
Attractive and well-optimized video content that ranks well on the search results pages of the general purpose search engines, video search engines and social media networking sites can generate a steady stream of web traffic and leads, boost brand-awareness and can be a good source for getting more incoming links.

	Blended search (e.g. Google’s Universal Search). When videos appear within the main search results on related keyword queries, they can generate a powerful marketing message and a steady stream of web traffic, even when they appear in lower positions on the first search results page.
	Viral marketing. Video can be one of the most effective tactics for spreading a marketing message online. When video is uploaded to social networks and/or video sharing sites they can be viewed and passed on to other people building brand-awareness and web traffic.
	Link building. The viral aspect of video on the web also facilitates link acquisition because people may feel a need to link back to the page where the video resides.

Getting Started with Video Search Optimization
Video search optimization is based primarily on basic search engine optimization (SEO) tactics. This means that most web-based video search engines rely on text around the video for search optimization. A video clip that is placed on a well-optimized video page can be a strong contender in the main search results of the general-purpose search engines. Below is a listing of best practices that can be used when optimizing video for search at video search engines and social networking web sites.

	Video page. On a web site or blog, place the video clip on a single page surrounded with contextually relevant keyword-rich text. The search crawlers rely on the text surrounding the video to determine what the page and the video is about. Optimize the video page using basic on-page search engine optimization tactics such as keywords in the file name separated by dashes, keyword-rich page titles and meta tag description, tagging with relevant keywords and a H1 tag for the main title heading.
	Link building. As with regular text-based search engine optimization the video search engines and video sharing sites are relying heavily on back links and keyword anchor text in those links to determine the relevancy and ranking of the page in the search results. So it is important to get as many back links as possible pointing to the video page.
	Clean URL’s. Avoid search engine crawler blocking by converting excessive long URL’s with parameters or embedded session ID’s into short clean URL’s using ISAPI-rewrite (Windows IIS) or Mod_rewrite (Apache).
	Video sitemap. Implement a video sitemap to facilitate video content crawling by the search engines, along with a keyword-rich page title, a short description and links that contain keyword-rich anchor text to all video pages on the web site.
	Video directory. Keep all video files in one directory off the root directory. This facilitates video content crawling by the video search engine crawlers.
	RSS feed. Create an RSS feed on each web page or blog page that contains video. Within the RSS structure include a title, description and keywords.
	Google video sitemap. Google Sitemaps for Video, an extension of Google’s webmaster sitemap program, assists webmasters in having their videos indexed by the Google video search engine. Webmasters can simply submit the URL of their video sitemap to Google for indexing.
	Viral marketing. Include social media links to Digg, Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. “Send-to a friend” and “Learn more…” call-to-actions on the video page are also helpful in encouraging people to pass the video on to friends and peers.
	Video meta data. Add meta data to the actual video file during encoding. Encoding the video file with a relevant keyword-rich title, description and relevant keywords are key to optimum optimization for most video search engines. A good video tool to accomplish this is Autodesk Cleaner XL for the PC and Autodesk Cleaner for the Mac.
	Video thumbnail. If possible create an attractive video thumbnail for display in the search results. Giving video producers full control over the first frame thumbnail is crucial for video branding. Displaying an attractive and branded video thumbnail also entices viewers to play the video. Unfortunately, most major video search engines and video sharing web sites provide only limited or no control over the selection of a video thumbnail. YouTube allows users to choose from three images the system creates automatically, but you still cannot upload your own thumbnail image. Google Video does not give users any control over video thumbnail creation. It automatically creates a default thumbnail image from the video content.
	Video branding. Brand and watermark your videos by placing your company name, logo and a call-to-action in the first frame of the video.