Video Rankings and Optimization Issues

[Hakkasan]

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)?

[Blenny]

Hi Dylan,

Wow, I totally should have read your question before I posted one  of my own.

First of all, no hard evidence on this..but it appears to me that Google is giving a page a rankings boost when a video is embedded on it...and in my case, these videos are hosted a variety of places - not just YouTube (one on site, one on a product manufacturer's). Conveniently enough, they also give you a chance to gain more of the SERP by pulling out the video within with a thumbnail.

In my case, the two pages became visible in brand searches for my company, though those pages were NOT optimized at all for our brand terms, and have nothing but internal links to them. Investigation is on-going - I haven't checked if they rank for what they're optimized for, but this is probably moot since they ranked well before.

Anyway, takeaway for me appears to be Google is giving more love to videos as quality content & ranking factors...and hosting platform doesn't matter...but my evidence is minimal at this point.

Also, all searches were performed Universal Google..not on Youtube.

[EGOL]

These are just observations... I have not done a detailed study....

I have blog that ranks #1 for a moderately competitive term.  One day my #1 ranking disappeared... but a video from one of the blog posts  was displayed in universal search results.  I deleted the video and the #1 ranking came back a couple weeks later - when the video result disappeared.

So, if organic SERP rankings and universal search results compete - one displacing the other - then someone with #1 rankings could lose that position from a video.

On your second question.....

I am only placing my videos on YouTube because I believe that the number of views and embeds that they receive contribute to favorable rankings in a YouTube search result.  I'd like to know more about how they rank videos.. if this is not correct let me know.