10 Tips for Optimizing your YouTube Videos

Today YouTube is more than just a website to upload your videos. It represents an extremely popular video search engine, an online community and a powerful marketing tool for every business promotional campaign.

YouTube offers marketers the chance to develop great inbound traffic to their business websites, since an interesting and well-optimized video can attract many viewers. As you already know, YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the web. According to Alexa, it ranks as the 3rd most popular website in the world and it receives millions of users per day.

Keep in mind that users are usually very fond of videos. Creating them is usually a low-cost investment since the only cost involved is the development of their content. For all the above reasons it is of greatest importance to know how to use YouTube and be able to improve your posted videos’ performance.

In a previous article we have discussed about the 10 commandments of Video Marketing. Here we will see some additional tips on how to improve your videos’ performance and make the most out of your YouTube posts:

1. Video content

Be original and create interesting videos. Use existing material of your business such as virtual tours, flash presentations, various videos shots and quality images in order to make a clever montage targeting your videos’ theme. Also add music or voice-over and you will have a nice presentation.

2. Video Length

The most popular videos on YouTube have an average length of 3 minutes. This means that the ideal length is between 2 and 4 minutes. Keep in mind that longer videos usually make visitors lose interest.

3. Video Resolution

Upload high resolution videos when your presentation includes slides. It makes them easier to be read.

4. Watermark your video

Add your domain name, your contact details or your logotype, in order to increase the chance to turn video viewers into loyal customers.

5. Optimize your account

In order to post videos on YouTube, you will need to create an account. Make sure you use your brand name as username or/and a keyword term relevant to your videos. Update your YouTube profile, write optimized texts, add links and use the appropriate theme and colors.

6. YouTube search results

YouTube works as a typical search engine regarding listing results. The search algorithm checks the title, the description, the tags, the number of views, the links and ratings of the video. Therefore you should focus to the above factors to make sure that you have fully optimized your videos and get high rankings not only on YouTube but also on Google.

7. Use Captions/Subtitles

Having Captions/Subtitles in your video is something very important since you give the chance to people who do not speak your language to watch them. Lately having captions in videos become easier since YouTube uses experimental speech recognition technology to provide automatic timing for English transcript.

8. Include a URL on the top of description

When you post a video make sure you add a URL before the descriptive text. In that way, even when the “more info” option is collapsed, the user will still see the link and he/she will be able to click it.

9. Follow the 10 commandments

Make sure you check the previous article about the 10 commandments of Video Marketing. These are the key parts where you should focus:

• Include keywords in your video name, titles & description.
• Build a video library to make your channel more relevant
• Activate comments, rates, favorites through your channel
• Add a link to your website within the description

10. Create a channel with multiple videos

A single video upload does not lead to a successful video campaign. To be successful you must upload content on a regular basis. Don’t forget that the more videos you create, the more chances you will have to attract new visitors and increase your online reputation.

If you follow these tips, you will ensure popularity and higher rankings YouTube Videos and consequently you will increase the traffic of your online business. Don’t forget to have fun while creating your videos. It will surely increase your “optimization” if your feelings are translated in the video’s results!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 12:51 and is filed under SEO, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.