Everyone’s ideal video is the next viral “Charlie bit my finger” video clip. This particular clip has been viewed more than 224 million times. Who wouldn’t want that for their own YouTube video?
So what are some of the best practices to optimize your video so that it goes viral and gets picked up on Google searches? Below is a list of some of these practices:
- The Title: Ensure it is clear, concise, descriptive, and contains a strong keyword phrase.
- The Format: Offer different formats for viewing your video as each computer and computer user is different. Some prefer Flash videos (i.e. YouTube) while others may prefer to view it on a different site in .avi or .mov format.
- The Keywords: Keywords are very important in anything you wish to optimize. Make sure that they are used appropriately in the filename and video clip URL as well. This will help the search engine spiders to identify and rank them well. It is also good practice to avoid “stop words” (a, and, is, the) as these will not help with optimization very well.
- The Transcript: Provide the written word to word dialogue used within the video. This is good practice as it is easier for the search engine spiders to read text then to pick it up directly off of the video’s audio file.
- The Publicity: Publicize your video online. Drop a link to the video on web forums, discussions, and on your social media platforms. It is important to drive traffic from a variety of avenues. Also, post it in a directory such as TubeMogul.
These are only a few tips to optimize your video. There are certainly other ways to help to SEO your YouTube videos, but start with these as a basic starting ground and then go from there.