Can embedding videos from other sites help SEO?

[ClaytonKendall]

I work for an eCommerce site and many of the vendors we get our products from have videos our their site that explain how the products work and the different features of them, ect. We really have done nothing with video marketing, and would like to create some of our own unique videos, but this will be impossible for the vast majority of the products on our site. We know from a content standpoint embedding videos from our vendors to our product pages will be beneficial, but at the same time it shows our competitors and other site visitors where we are getting our products from which we would rather not do. How will this effect us from an SEO standpoint though? Will it help us to have new content, even though it is embedded from another site? Or will it hurt us because it is not unique? Or will it have no effect at all? Thanks for you help!

[SEOPA]

I agree with EGOL -- great way to stand out. That said, bad video can  be detrimental. Using videos from the manufacturer will largely depend on how good they are. I've seen some horrible product videos that probably hurt a product page.

Why not create your own?

Some good posts here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/search?utf8=✓&query=video+seo&x=0&y=0

[EGOL]

I use videos on retail and information sites and think about it this way....

If my competitor and I had identical pages and he had videos and I did not, who would google think is a better webpage and rank higher?  Who would visitors think has a better webpage and tweet, like, bookmark or link it?

The answers are very clear to me.

I do believe that google ranks pages with embedded videos higher than identical pages without them.  A better approach is to have your own YouTube channel where you can control the branding and have links there that will lead visitors to your website.