7 Steps to Optimizing Embedded Videos For Even More Free Traffic

7 Steps to Optimizing Embedded Videos For EvenMore Free Traffic

This is a guest post written by David Schloss. You can check him out at Rampify.com.

You love adding videos to your web pages, but you haven’t quite figured out how to get them to a high ranking with the search engines. What makes a video page rank, while others don’t? That’s why you’re here! Follow these steps and you will see a boost in rankings for all of your embedded videos:

Step 1: Optimize Your Title Tag

Start out by doing a bit of keyword research to see what people are searching for when they want videos like yours. Write down high traffic keywords with “how to” at the beginning and “video” at the end. Then tag your title tags with these keywords.

For instance, you might choose the following keywords if you are working with videos related to basketball:

  • How to put a basketball hoop together
  • Basketball dribbling video
  • Basketball dunk video
  • How to jump higher

And so on and so forth.

The title tag should start with your keyword then add the title. The entire title must be 66 characters or less, since that is the portion that will be displayed on Google search engine results pages.

Step 2: Optimize the Meta Description

This will appear underneath your title tag on Google search results pages. This is your chance to describe your post to potential viewers, so use the space wisely.

Video Meta Description

If you don’t like what is already showing for the description, go into your All-In-One SEO, WordPress SEO, or SEO related plugin for WordPress and make the necessary changes for that post. If you’re dealing with an HTML website, add or edit the Meta description tag in your HTML tags. You can edit what is already there, or add Meta description tags if it is missing.

Step 3: Invest in a Transcription Service

While video is considered content today, Google still cannot “listen” to a video and understand what’s being said (for now). That is why you need to present related written text along with the video. You can come up with something fresh but related to the content of the video or go to a freelance site to have someone transcribe the video.

Here’s an oDesk screenshot with search results for “Transcriber”:

Video Transcription

NOTE: Transcription takes longer than just watching the video. Multiply the length of the video by five to determine the estimated time frame for a transcription. Transcribers want to be paid by the hour, so that should help you understand what you might pay for this service.

Step 4: Distribute Your Video Content

It often helps to distribute a few teaser videos on other video websites get more traffic to your main videos. Take some of your videos, break them down to one minute, and have them broadcast on video sites such as MetaCafe and Vimeo. These sites are nowhere near as big as YouTube, but you can pull in significant views if you use them wisely.

TubeMogul (free), Pixelpipe (free), and Traffic Geyser (paid) are distribution tools that can make this process easier and faster.

Step 5: Mini-Videos = Increased Page Views

Go through all of the pages on your website and add a mini video, which corresponds with a regular video on somewhere on the site. This is a bit of a trick because the video will load every time these pages are loaded and you get credit for a video click, even if it was never viewed. It just has to load to be counted as viewed.

An example of a mini video would be a 100 x 75 pixel video placed on a side bar or at the top of the page. Your viewers won’t all look at the video, but since it will load along with the page you will get credit for a view. This is how a small video delivers more page views.

Step 6: Let Others Post Your Video

You probably don’t want others ripping off your written content, but videos are made to be shared. You want to provide code in an obvious place so others can embed your videos on their own pages. YouTube actually ranks videos higher if they are embedded by many other people. This is your ticket to higher rankings.

Embedded code is the proper route to get others to embed a video. This code should appear beneath the video screen with something like “Add this video to your website!”

Add Video To Your Site

You can either display the code, or have those interested click a link to get it.

Step 7: Invest in Backlinks

When it comes to rankings, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about backlinks. Many people believe this is the number one thing to consider when getting ranked high for videos.

Deep linking, or the strategy of linking to specific pages rather than the home page, is often more effective than concentrating all your links in one place. If you have many videos, try to build a number of backlinks to each of them.

Where do you get backlinks? Here are some ideas:

  • Web 2.0 Properties
  • Article Directories
  • Guest Blogging
  • Press Releases
  • Cross Promotions on Other Sites

If you create high value videos, much of the work will be done for you. Others with websites or blogs related to your site will catch onto this great content and voluntarily link to you.

Follow these steps and you will see that this isn’t much different from getting traffic for a website or a blog. You want to get traffic and gain exposure, but it all starts with simply creating amazing videos with high value content.

About David Schloss…

David Schloss is an Internet Marketing junkie! He works with clientele in various industries and helps strengthen their online presence in the search engines and social media through his online marketing service. He documents all of his successes and failures while working online and provide a wealth of information and results on his blog at Rampify.com.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Pat Monahan October 24, 2011 at 3:39 pm

Wow!

This is a very concise, well put together and helpful post of information. It provides accurate insights to “what’s working” and the best way that someone in this business can increase their productivity….and that always leads to an increase in profits! Keep it coming…and thank you!

Reply

David Schloss October 25, 2011 at 2:17 am

Thank you for the compliments, Pat!

Reply

Kurt Scholle October 24, 2011 at 4:13 pm

Great information! There is no dispute that video is king and the information provided here is great! Very comprehensive! All it needed was a video, but I give it 2 thumbs up!

Reply

David Schloss October 25, 2011 at 2:18 am

Kurt, I’m holding back the video for my new course ;)

I’ll make sure that every step is laid out in video form, and will let you know when it’s released.