What is the best way to host a video on my site from a SEO perspective?
-
Hi,
we are in the process of creating a video about a topic that is highly relevant for our customers.
Once it is completed we want to offer the video to our customers so that they can embed it into their own websites for free.
What is the best way to do this and still receive maximum SEO juice?
If we use a a video service like youtube or vimeo, then the link will go to vimeo or youtube and not our site.
One thing we are thinking about is asking our customers to link to our site in return for embedding the video, but if there is an automatic solution then this would be a lot better.
Any tips will be highly appreciated! If you have anyother tips regarding video content then the same of course!
Many thanks!
Daan
-
Thanks for your help Robert!
I just read Phil's post and it complements EGOL's answer really well. Thanks for pointing me into the right direction!
Best,
Daan
-
Thank you EGOL!
-
Daan,
EGOL says it well here.
A few months ago, Phil Nottingham with Distilled posted a response to a question and contained some of what EGOL has here and additional information. I suggest you look at this too, as it was excellent. Phil Nottingham - Best Way to Host Video
Good Luck
-
Here is what I do... I don't know if it is the "best way"... and I am willing to bet that "best way" for you might be different from "best way" for me.
I operate on the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world... and I also know that YouTube will promote my video as "related" when many other videos are viewed.
So, I upload my videos to YT and write a big, detailed description that contains links to related pages on my website and tell visitors there is LOTS MORE HERE. (I know that they are nofollow links but you never know what google does with those links
My videos also have EGOLsDomain.com obviously visible in the video window. So people know where to find my site.
I am not doing this for the links. There is more valuable fruit here.
I also place the video on a page of my website that has what I believe is best-on-the-web content for that topic. So anybody who lands on my site will see the video plus more.
So, now I have a really rich page of content on my site to pull traffic. Maybe search engines will rank my page better because it has a video and a big caption under the video and a substantive article below it. My videos get viewed a lot on youtube by searchers. They also get viewed a lot from related video links. My videos appear in the Google SERPs. Some people click the links in my description... some people see the URL in the video window and arrive at my site as "type-in traffic".
If you have read the posts that I make here you know that I am a preacher on "do not give your content away"... however, I think that giving content to youtube is the exception. And if another webmaster posts my video on his site then his viewers will see my URL in the video window, hear me mention it, have opportunity to click to my channel... decide if my video has good information and maybe that inspires them to visit my site.
Bottom line... if you have good information in a video give it to youtube... if your video sucks then you better not show it to anybody.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Video page duplicates (that aren't really duplicates)
Hi. My company has a 1000 videos, each of the videos appear on their own page that follows the same template. The title is of course different / videos linked to / etc. Google is reporting them as "duplicate content". What should I do to differentiate these pages enough so that google can recognized that they are different pages?.
Image & Video Optimization | | adamorn0 -
Can anyone recommend an SEO agency that has provided outstanding results?
We're looking to hire an SEO agency and wanted to see if anyone could personally recommend some. We do not currently have a resource dedicated to SEO, so the agency will be the driver in developing and implementing the strategy. UPDATE Our site sells custom products so while there are around 60 products, there are many variations of any given product (paper type, cover type, color, etc.). We do not have a physical storefront and we ship anywhere in the US and Canada. We are looking for SEO services, mainly link building, monitoring rankings, and on-site factors. We have a resource dedicated to content in-house so the agency would work closely with this person in building out a content strategy. We are open to agencies around the US but are located in Maryland so EST time zone would be preferable.
Image & Video Optimization | | lforemannpl0 -
Localized SEO for Restricted Niches
Sorry for the hypothetical, it's a sticky subject! Suppose I work for a company that offers Online Widget Counseling. Due to the fragile nature of Widgets, this service is only legal in one state and must be administered by a registered and regulated Widget Counseling company. Widget counseling is only available online so there is no competition from bricks and mortar stores. Unfortunately the SERPs are dominated by unscrupulous black market outfits offering Widget Counseling illegally. If we were to use intensive and strong local signals, could we expect the SERPs to favor our pages for searches "in or about" the state in which we are registered? Thanks for your help -SEO Newbie
Image & Video Optimization | | bbarber570 -
LOCAL SEO: Franchise --> One storefront. Multiple territory. Multiple listings?
An interesting problem came our way, and I'd love your help in solving it. An individual I'm chatting with owns and manages a number of territories of a service-based Franchise business around Eastern Iowa.**His territory covers multiple cities and zips. He services all of those places, but does not have a physical presence in all. There is one company office. But he has local numbers for each territory.**The corporate franchise's website is dynamic. It shows the 'local' number and information based on the visitor's location. Basically, little microsites for each franchise territory.Three years ago he set up individual Google Places pages for each territory, using a PO box address and the local phone numbers. The Google listings are set up not to display an address. The kick is -- those addresses are now expired. Those Google Local listings still exist, and drive considerable traffic in each target city. As you can imagine, this also causes havoc on his other citations. There are scattered (YP, Yahoo, Yelp, etc) listings for each address. Their name in GetListed brings up all five different addresses, each with a number of web properties already claimed.Now that I've offered to help, I need to determine the best way to move forward. Suspend the verified listings with hidden addresses and move to a single listing for the office location? We could add all of the zips in manually, but it would cover a very wide range, and could lose its rank in local SERPs. Even with a well-optimized description. And the local numbers would likely not show up. Keep the listings. Don't touch them at all. The owner is looking to maintain the look and feel of a local business in each of his territories. That is difficult to do with a single listing. Assuming we decide not to touch the active listings (option 2), what will we do for other listings? Do we claim a local Yahoo listing for each location? Just for the corporate office? Would love to hear how others have attacked the multi-territory franchise problem, or would in this case.Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | SocialJosh0 -
Best Video Sitemap plugin for wordpress? And do I need both a video sitemap and a normal one?
Hi all, I currently use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin on my wordpress site. But we've recently began adding (self-hosted) videos that we've been careful to markup with the relevant schema. However, there's a couple of things I don't understand and am hoping someone could help: Do we need a separate video sitemap that either works alongside Google XML Sitemaps or replaces it? If we do need a video sitemap, what's the best video site map to get? (we are using the Thesis theme so can't use the Yoast one unfortunately as they don't play nice together...) Thanks for your help! Andrew
Image & Video Optimization | | seowhiskey0 -
Does displaying a mobile number for business hurt local SEO?
Perhaps a silly question but could someone please clarify if displaying a mobile number in the main site or Google places etc would hurt local SEO? Is having a regional landline/fixed telephone number a ranking factor? EDIT: This is for a UK site, does anyone have experience of this is UK please?
Image & Video Optimization | | Clicksjim0 -
Local SEO - Confirming an Address that Does Not Receive Mail
Hi guys, I have a question that might have been asked previously but warrants asking again. What is the best workaround for Google Local verification for a business that is located at a physical address that does not receive mail. I have a friend who lives in an area that does not receive mail. This particular person tried using a local PO box to verify, but as it turns out that is a poor option a) because it is not allowed within the guidelines of Google Local, and b) because the listing was not accepted as a unique address and is listed without an address in Local because of this. Is there anyone with recent experience in terms of getting around this and verifying perfectly legitimate businesses in no-mail areas? I would have thought Google would have provided a workaround for those types of businesses. Any thoughts / experience would be appreciated!
Image & Video Optimization | | toddmumford0 -
Video Rankings and Optimization Issues
I have noticed for some pages of the site I am working on that I see the video that is posted on that page ranking a lot higher than the page itself or the page does not rank at all, just the video. I'm curious to know if these two can technically be competing for rankings and if Google sees that the page does not need to rank because it chooses to put the related video into the SERPs. Also, has anyone seen any differences in the way videos rank based on where it's hosted (youtube, wistia, etc)? I would think this is common sense not to but still unsure, is it bad practice to keep videos hosted on multiple sites (currently I am adding videos on a new host, but have not deleted the old ones on Youtube yet)?
Image & Video Optimization | | Hakkasan0