Picking what NOT to do is an IT Strategy

Technology change and progress never stops. There is always a newer version, a better alternative piece of software or another way of supporting an evolved business process or two.

For internal technology departments and especially those within larger organisations, this rate of change means there's never an end in sight. In a world of infinite need and finite resources... there's usually a long list of things to do once the current projects & programmes have been delivered.

With all this demand and the expected pace of implementation (that can come from all angles including: business stakeholders, vendor sales people and consultants) it can feel like everyone wants to change everything at once:
New finance system? Yes
New HR software? Sure
New B2C website? Of course
New B2B website? No problem
New sales portal? Yeah
New customer data platform? Naturally

Faced with a these requests, perhaps along with a potential new-found investment in technology to fuel a "digital transformation", senior IT people will want to say yes. Who wouldn't want more resources, increased budgets, the chance for some new "toys" or the opportunity to stick a big 'look what I've done' post on their LinkedIn profile?

But like the proverbial plate spinner, who (theoretically at least) should know how many plates they can spin at once... those in a position to take on technical work need to understand how much change they can take implement before they hear the sound of virtual crockery smashing. Experience needs to inform them (and so do their managers, subordinates and peers) just how much change their organisation can take on in parallel.

But when the demand for so much change outpaces the organisation's ability to deal with that change, someone has make the important decision as to what to do and therefore what NOT to do. 

Nobody, least of all IT people (prehistorically noted for saying "the answer is no, now what's the question?") want to tell a business stakeholder that their project is less important than another... but sometimes there is only so much change you can do at once.

Advice on Video Search Engine Optimisation

The aim of video SEO is simply to make it as easy as possible for both YouTube and Google to understand all video content. And why wouldn’t you? With Google being the largest search engine and YouTube being the second, it is more and more important that companies now factor online video optimisation into their marketing efforts.

Since Google can’t fully understand what your video is about without help (not yet, anyhow) optimising your clip currently means providing as much textual information about it. This is so that search engines can properly index it and then show it in their relevant search results.
My advice here is therefore:
Creating an optimized title is perhaps the most obvious thing to do, yet is probably one of the most overlooked. The clip title should be several words long (we tend to keep to the same 55 – 60 character range we recommend for web page title optimisation) and include the major keyword(s) you want to your video to rank for. Note: There are differing opinions on whether the keywords at the beginning of the title give more of a boost than those added subsequently… but I have found no definitive proof of this.

Description
Insert as much text as you realistically can into the description field of your clip. Add words about the video content, the people or characters, the situation or product it shows, and the usage or benefits being explained. In short… consider this a blog post and use several hundred words if possible. Obviously, any content placed in the description needs to include your targeted keywords from your SEO strategy, plus don’t be afraid to sometimes repeat keywords or derivative terms here
If your clip contains people speaking (e.g. a voice-over or some dialogue) strongly consider obtaining a transcript of the text and inserting this in the description too.
Don’t forget the transcript can also be:

1. Used to correct or improve the closed captions, which you must consider - Sure, YouTube can auto-transcribe your audio content, but not any visual content than you may also want to describe
2. Added as additional content into any web page that embeds this video clip (potentially providing some on-page SEO help too)

Video Tags
There is growing consensus in the SEO community that tags for YouTube clips have minimal optimisation benefits (but they do help with cross-linking between clips with the same tags). So still use them to describe your content in the same way you would a social media or blog post. However, remember to use those tags which highlight the uniqueness of your video (and therefore avoid very generic and therefore very competitive terms).

  

Title information

Remember to provide bespoke information about each different clip uploaded.  Don't upload the same clips with different info title & descriptions.

(Although I have no personal proof that this is "black hat" SEO activity... it does go against the very premise of what Google is trying to do. Plus, if it was suddenly treated as such... it could have a lasting negative effect.)

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