How To Kick Up Your Search Results with Online Videos

Part two in a three-part Business Boosters series. Part one, Simple Steps to Capture Customers with Online Video, ran Nov. 22, 2010.

Want to get closer to the top of Google’s search results? Add video to your online marketing strategy.

Recent research shows that sites with embedded videos typically place higher in search results. In a 2009 blog entry, a Forrester Research analyst said any video that uses keywords for which Google offers blended results (meaning results for video hits are included in regular results), is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of results than a traditional text page.

“Search engines give a lot of weight to videos,” said Nichole Schlecht, vice president of marketing for Luxe Travel Deals in Mequon, Wisc., and a former Internet marketing consultant. “Web pages with videos are ranked 60% more often on page one than pages with just text.”

Travel agencies who post videos on YouTube now have an advantage. Because there are not many agencies who have a presence on YouTube, those with a travel channel including videos on the site are much more likely to appear at the top of any YouTube search for travel videos. A Google study, “The Travelers’ Road to Decision,” which explored online travel search and planning behavior, found that 81% of all travelers who watch videos visit YouTube. In fact, YouTube is the number two search engine in the world.

An agency that has a presence on YouTube will see better results in Google. In addition, Google gives videos that are embedded into websites using a YouTube embed code more weight in its results.

Get Noticed
Luxe Travel Deals maintains a branded travel channel on YouTube. In a recent Google search for videos using the search phrase “luxury travel agent,” Travel Market Report found the top three of 10 results returned on the first page linked directly to Luxe Travel Deals’ YouTube channel. The same search on YouTube returned 21 results, of which 16 were Luxe Travel Deals videos.

The lesson is that it’s important for agents who plan to add online video as a marketing tool to post videos on their own websites and on a branded channel on YouTube. That’s to start with. In order to achieve the best results in Google and YouTube, travel sellers need to optimize those videos.

“As long as your video is SEO-optimized, meaning you’re using tags that are appropriate for what you’re writing about, and you’re using headlines with keywords, your search results should be better, whether you’re embedding it onto your website or using it on YouTube,” said Amy Porterfield, a social media strategy consultant.

Porterfield is a regular contributor to the online magazine Social Media Examiner and is a new media consultant for several companies in the health and beauty, real estate and travel markets.

Porterfield offered Travel Market Report readers a few tips for optimizing online videos.

– Make the title strong. Just as the title of a book can snag a reader’s attention, video titles have the power to catch a viewer’s eye. In SEO terms, by using the appropriate keywords in your title your video, and the page it’s embedded on, are more likely to show up in search engine results, particularly Google’s video search. If you have a video of yourself on a recent familiarization or inspection trip to Jamaica, make sure to title the video in a way that someone searching for a resort in Jamaica will find your video (for example, “Jamaica Resorts” or “Jamaica Resort Reviews”).

– Don’t ignore the description. Keywords are important in the description of the video as well as in the title. While a description of the video is required to post a video on YouTube, many people do not write a description for videos they embed in their websites. A short description, concentrating on appropriate keywords, increases the chances a web page will be found by Google. Whenever possible, target specific search phrases in your description rather than single words. 

– Provide an HTML link. When posting a video on YouTube, Porterfield said, always start the description of the video with a link to your website. This is the first thing viewers will see and you want to make it very clear that your website is the place to go for more information. Even better, when creating your video add a text box with your website address so viewers can see right on the video where to go.

– Embed YouTube videos onto your website. Porterfield always tells her clients to load their videos onto YouTube first, then use the embed code provided by YouTube to embed the video onto their website. This gives the video double visibility. Every time a client watches a video on your site, it increases the views tally on YouTube, which Google takes into account when ranking search results.