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.)

Comments

Encourage comments, ask for them and respond back when you do get them.

Listen to Sidewiki Comments

The buzz about Google Sidewiki has died down over last few months. Although there are still a number of Sidewiki comments being made on sites, there doesn't seem to be the huge number of updates that were envisioned nor the appropriate backlash. The actual number of Sidewiki posts are extremely difficult to find, but from my perspective I think the hubbub seems to have resided somewhat.

My comments and those made by others stay linked to a specific site. They also are still there, even when the site has been updated (provided the URL doesn't change).
Note: This has already happened with the Russell and Bromley site I criticised about 6 months ago. Although the site has been updated, my words still remain.... fixed there in time like permanent virtual graffiti.

But just because this service (part of the Google browser toolbar, a free plugin for Internet Explorer and Firefox - but surprisingly not Google's Chrome browser) isn't highly utilised.... it doesn't mean you shouldn't also monitor what's being written there.

Now obviously you can regularly open up Sidewiki and check you own site to see what's being written there. However my suggestion is to use Google's own Data API to capture this date
Hint: you can then run it through various tools / services (e.g. Yahoo Pipes) to further filter out the information you want.

For example, the feed for this blog is:
http://www.google.com/sidewiki/feeds/entries/domainpath/press20.blogspot.com/default
(to see the feed for your own site, simply replace the URL 'press20.blogspot.com' with your own).