Very well understood as a website for videos.(owned by Google since 2006)

Studies have shown that only about half of YouTube's primary users bracket, actively go to the site to use it as a

search engine.

YouTube website is available in 54 language versions & the interface of the website is available with localized versions

in 61 countries.

Video humanizes your content and is easier to consume.

2nd largest search engine in the world

The ‘how to’ video category is the fastest growing vertical on YouTube

1 hour of video is uploaded every second.

YouTube says that on an average there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link.

Age group statistics of watching videos

Videos are Panda friendly

VIDEO REQUIRES A BIGGER EFFORT = LESS LIKELY TO BE SPAMMY

Videos are SEO friendlyStickiness  – Visitors spend an average of two more minutes on websites that host videos than on sites that don’t. Video helps to increase a website’ quality score too. A ‘long click’, which leads to more time spent on site, results from higher quality content, ultimately enhancing user engagement. 

Ranking – According to Forrester's, chances of getting a page one listing on Google increase 53 times* with video because there is still much less competition for video pages.

CTR – A video thumbnail in the SERPs attracts

attention.

Benefits of Hosting Video

• New incoming links directly from YouTube (even if they are NOFOLLOW).

• The generation of new video subscribers to your video channel (if you have one).

• Great for driving traffic to the site and (hopefully) converting that traffic

Video Sitemaps for search enginesUsing video sitemaps is a recommended way to give us information about your videos. Submitting a sitemap pushes your video metadata to Google and reduces the time it takes for us to discover your video.

Benefits of adding sitemap• Lets the search engines know about the video content• Tells the search engines what the focus of the video is with the help of title,

descriptions & thumbnails which are required field.

YouTube Metadata

Titles• Keyword rich (not keyword

stuffed)• Use YouTube Keyword Suggestion

Tool• Make the first 27 characters

countTags

• Use the right keywords• Use “.......” otherwise all the tags

would be separated• Ignore ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘it’, etc.

DescriptionsThere is plenty of information you can put in the YouTube description including calls to action, text that frames the content or provides context, links to similar content or websites etc.

YouTube open & closed captions

1. Captions and subtitles are rich in keywords. Unlike the audio/visual content of a video, captions and subtitles can be indexed and understood by search engines, like any other text. This means that your videos are more likely to be found if you use closed captioning

2. Including captions and/or subtitles in your videos is good practice because it makes your videos accessible to people with visual and hearing impairments.

BIG reasons why you should use closed captioning

The ‘closed’ captioning is that only viewers who choose to activate them will see them. ‘Open’ captions are visible to all viewers.

Thumbnail OptimizationThumbnails act as miniature marketing posters for your videos – they attract viewers to your content and compel them to click through to watch. Create high-quality, custom thumbnails for your videos that accurately represent the content.

AnnotationsAnnotations are unique to YouTube which are clickable text overlays on YouTube videos. It drive viewers to more content, increase community actions on your videos, and attract new subscribers.

Channel Optimization

Optimize your channel for placement in search, related channels, browse channels and the feed so you’ll engage current and potential subscribers across YouTube

Channel Name Channel IconChannel DescriptionChannel Art

Some Common terms of YouTube which is to be focused

How YouTube ranks search & how it is strongly influenced

• FULL views of video

• Number of Comments

• Number of Likes

• Video Inventory

• Upload frequency/consistency

• Engagement /Interaction (views, likes, comments, being

added to playlists, shares etc.)

• How many people use the embed code on their own site

• Subscriber numbers

• Inbound links to the video

Shorter videos generate more views. More views means more popular videos. The more popular the video, the more comments and bookmarks are generated. Comments and bookmarks lead to incoming links. Incoming links lead to the generation of Google PageRank. Google PageRank results in a higher ranking video in organic results.

Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO

• Add back links to your website and blog.

• Offer multiple video formats & languages

• Encode your video files with relevant, targeted metadata

• Add Closed Captions! They are indexed by the Search Engines.

• Auto play one of your videos.

Guide lines

• Keep your YouTube Video Under 3 Minutes in Length

• Use your Website Name as your YouTube User Name

• Post the videos to YOUR channel (not your agency)

• Use a keyword rich file name for the video

• Use the description feature!

• Use CTAs, captions and annotations (In Video Overlays)

• Customise your own landing pages

• Make sure video is enabled for all devices (mobile phones, tablets, iOS5 (HTML5)

• Use JW Player (WP plugin available) or Wistia. Both provide cross platform support

YouTube General Tips