Video Optimization
Multimedia content is rapidly gaining popularity and necessitates SEO techniques to produce the best output. Compelling video content has the potential to allow for site traffic, boost brand awareness, and attract targeted visitors. Optimization of Video is an imperative in enhancing the performance of online videos and enhancing viewership. The trend of watching videos online is climbing exponentially. An ever increasing number of users nowadays prefer to watch online videos over television. While predictions of the total demise of television may be premature, viewership is certainly on a decline.
The explosive growth of online video has caused marketers to concentrate on promoting their brands and capturing their target markets through effective video. With more video content surfacing on the Web, optimizing becomes an essential function. Businesses are devising more attractive and effective methods to capture select users and thereby promoting their businesses. Videos are effective tools in promoting brands, products, and services. They have a greater far-reaching effect compared to plain text. Hence optimizing video content in the competitive business arena becomes critical. The three main aspects to be considered when optimizing a video are, the target audience/user, language, and the message requirements. In a nutshell, there are five basic steps that assist in video optimization:
- Name the file using keywords
- Add the watermark of the brand
- Connect to RSS feeds
- Position on the Website and optimize the page
- Submit to video sharing Websites
Evolving as a mainstream aspect in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Video Optimization has to be done using the best practices. An online video clip should foremost be relevant to both context and information. Videos of topical discussion, such as ‘How-to-do’ videos, explanatory videos about the brand or service, etc. are all highly informative content that draws viewers. The video should be given an appealing title, which contains a keywords associated with the product, service or brand of the marketer. This title is optimized keeping in mind the likely terms, which users might search for, and then the video is tagged with these key terms. These key phrases should reflect the content. A few of the videos can be uploaded to portals (YouTube, for instance) and interlinked to related content and other videos in the marketer’s own Website. Additionally, providing a transcript of these videos like on-page copies would make it more effective.
Video optimization has several other criteria to be followed, in order to bring about the desired results and high ranking on the Websites. Brand awareness is a major concept that determines the success of any product or service. Video is a great tool to promote brand awareness; hence optimization of video includes incorporating the brand of marketers in the videos. Provisions should be made for inbound linking such as a link between key phrases used in the anchor text and the online video clip. It will be advantageous to provide the option for embedding video, which will give access to the coding to other users who can then embed the respective marketer’s video on to their websites or blogs. Including descriptive metadata is another important step in optimizing video content. The video can be optimized with keywords and a good description of the video content.
The rating of a particular video by users is crucial. It is to be noted that videos that receive higher ratings from users are the ones, which search engines pay special attention to, and hence determine the ranking. Allowing users to rate the video is also an important part of “going viral,” as potential visitors are drawn towards highly ranked videos. Video optimization adds more value when the video is syndicated (submitted to RSS feed).
On a technical note, there are a few major aspects associated with optimization of video. The first step is planning. It includes steps such as preparing a keyword list, supplementing it with content from search engine results pages (SERPs), and analyzing high ranking video search platforms. Secondly, production is the stage wherein the final video footage is reviewed and optimized through editing, compression, exporting and saving the video using a keyword-rich file name. Thirdly, promotion is an important phase that regulates video content. After creation of videos, they are published and submitted to search engines. For the maximum level of video optimization, video content should be published in Media RSS (MRSS). Finally, proving is the stage, which measures the performance of the video with the viewers and shows the effect of optimized video content.
The clichéd catchwords that captivate the Internet-driven viewers, who expect information, education, and entertainment from the Wide Area Network (WAN), are media casts, Flash Ads, streaming videos such as in YouTube, etc. It is true that a picture speaks a thousand words; More so a readily available video that can be viewed instantly. This kind of technology hooks viewers and thereby increases site traffic and market value. The significance of online video streaming and video optimization can be better understood by having a glimpse at the video ratings and user frequency. According to a recent (April 2008) video census conducted by Nielsen, Google’s YouTube topped the list of top 10 brands on the basis of total video streams, with an incredible 4 billion streams. The rest of the top nine, including Yahoo and MSN, delivered up to 1.3 billion streams for the month.
The concept of using videos necessitates the need for continuous Internet connectivity so that there would be no disruptions that would negatively affect the viewing experience. This directly brings to the forefront, the importance of a stable WAN infrastructure, which has continuous uptime. Enterprises and businesses rely on a stable WAN for business continuity. For instance, when there is disruption in connectivity when users (who may be potential clients to the marketer) are viewing a video clip or podcast, may get annoyed and lose interest. Also, when a video is not optimized properly, the streaming will not be smooth and will not appeal to customers. Hence, in addition to this technology, it is also necessary to have a robust WAN connection.
Redundancy, availability for the WAN infrastructure, and maximum bandwidth utilization are key components that ensure a robust WAN. The efficiency of WANs is increased with enhanced technology features including dynamic load balancing and automatic failover capabilities. Load balancing can aid in optimization techniques and yield the best output for businesses that use the Internet as a medium for information and business operations.
