Where to host our videos

[Heydarian]

We're in process of moving HookahLounge.net to Hookah.org. We're upgrading all the software packages, adding features, etc. One of the things we're going to do is gradually add a lot of video reviews to our site (400+). All the videos are going to be hookah/shisha related of course.

Should we host the videos on YouTube and put them on related pages in our website? (We have a hookah wiki section with a different page for every shisha flavors, hookah, etc).

or Should we host it on another platform or our own server?

1. SEO. I don't know how where we host the videos affects the ranking of those Wiki pages that the videos would be posted.

2. View count. I think YouTube has a large number of viewers which would mean a lot more people will see our videos. That being said will that be mainly good for brand building? Or will I actually be able to put links on those pages and drive traffic to our site too?

Thanks

[Ben_Wistia]

Hi EGOL,

Your points are well taken and it sounds like YouTube is definitely the best option for your business.  If you are using video to generate ad revenue then YouTube is a great partner...  my comment that their business is built for advertisers plays both ways -- if you want ad revenue then this is a positive attribute of YT, rather than a criticism.

Our customers (ourselves included) use video in a very different way.  Instead of a direct source of revenue, we use video as a marketing tool to drive customers to our website, to explain our products and business, to provide support to customers, etc.  We don't want YouTube to own these assets and we certainly don't want ads appearing anywhere on our videos or our site.  Obviously we are not the solution for everyone using video on the internet and that is not our goal -- we just want to provide an alternative for businesses who want more control over the video assets that they spent lots of time, effort and money producing!

Hopefully that helps to clarify.

Ben

[Ben_Wistia]

Hey Nima,

You actually have to have a massive audience to push 1TB of bandwidth per month...  the vast majority of our customers pay only $99.

That said, if you are just using video for basic brand awareness -- comparable to say display advertising -- YouTube is definitely a good option.. and of course you can't argue with the price!

However, if you want to use video to bring traffic to your website or to sell products / services, that's where the value of Wistia and other pro hosting comes in.

Thanks,

Ben

[EGOL]

I see a lot of these from a very different perspective and traffic numbers influence my opinion....

1.  Youtube is built on advertising revenue which means -- (a) their goal is to drive visitors away from your site and towards youtube to watch more videos / ads and (b) they can choose to show ads over your videos anytime

YouTube is the world's second largest search engine.  I get all of the traffic that my site can produce and enormous additional traffic generated by youtube search and related videos.  These produce far more views of my video than my own site produces and I have a really busy site.  Plus lots of traffic moves from links in my  youtube video to my site and I am certain that showing my URL in the video brings additional youtube visitors to my site as type-ins and domain queries.

How much traffic does Wistia send to their clients?

And for the youtube revenue model, I make a lot of money from the ad revenue share.

How much is Wistia paying when videos on their service are viewed?

2. From an SEO perspective, all of the SEO benefits go to the YouTube domain, rather than yours when you embed YT vids on your site.  Wistia, on the other hand, helps you create a video sitemap so those serps point directly to the videos on your website -> near your call to action, more content, etc!

How often do you see a Wistia video in the Google Search results when you type in "keyword video"?   I haven't seen one.

**3.  Customization and Control - with Wistia you get to determine exactly how the video player looks and behaves -- from player color to post roll call to action.  **

Don't know what you have here but YouTube has some nice features.

4.  Support - we have a customer happiness team here that makes sure your questions get answered.  That's not in YouTube's business model.

I am really happy with Youtube.  No complaints.  Making nice money from ads and getting lots of views from their site that never would happen otherwise.  Lots of support on YouTube from authors making videos of how to make videos for youtube.

5.  Analytics - Our analytics are designed to help you evaluate your videos and improve them over time... The YouTube analytics are designed for advertisers to understand demographics

Do you have engagement metrics that show how my video holds visitors compared to how competing videos hold visitors... then drive me more traffic via rankings increase if my videos are more effective.

I hope advertisers do understand the demographics.... that means more targeted ads and more income for me.

6.  Views -- it's true that there are lots of viewers on YouTube, but there is also a massive amount of competing video content.  With some notable exceptions, business videos don't rack up the views -- just check our the view count on the next couple of businesses you come across.  We focus much more on turning viewers into customers, rather than getting another couple thousand views that lead nowhere.

Where there is great competition that pulls in viewers.  I'll take my chances against my competitors and if I win the prize will be really big.

Hope that helps add another perspective to the video hosting discussion.  To be clear, we here at Wistia love YouTube and think they've done amazing things for web video...  we just think there are better options for the specific purpose of hosting video on your business website!

I am trying to understand who would use a service other than youtube.  I am sure that there are some folks who want their videos behind a paywall.. but other than that I don't see a lot of weight on the other side of the balance.

[Heydarian]

Ben,

Thanks for the reply. Wistia is $239 a month for unlimited videos with 1TB bandwidth. That might be industry average (I have no idea) but certainly far more than it would be worth to us.

Also for us number of views is much more important than turning them into customers. Because our YouTube videos are mainly to build our brand online not to sell them anything.

Best of luck to you guys

Nima

[Ben_Wistia]

Hi Nima,

To be completely transparent, I work for Wistia so my answer is admittedly biased!  Nonetheless, I would like to share some thoughts on hosting videos on your site with Wistia instead of YouTube.... so here goes:

1.  Youtube is built on advertising revenue which means -- (a) their goal is to drive visitors away from your site and towards youtube to watch more videos / ads and (b) they can choose to show ads over your videos anytime

2. From an SEO perspective, all of the SEO benefits go to the YouTube domain, rather than yours when you embed YT vids on your site.  Wistia, on the other hand, helps you create a video sitemap so those serps point directly to the videos on your website -> near your call to action, more content, etc!

3.  Customization and Control - with Wistia you get to determine exactly how the video player looks and behaves -- from player color to post roll call to action.

4.  Support - we have a customer happiness team here that makes sure your questions get answered.  That's not in YouTube's business model.

5.  Analytics - Our analytics are designed to help you evaluate your videos and improve them over time... The YouTube analytics are designed for advertisers to understand demographics

6.  Views -- it's true that there are lots of viewers on YouTube, but there is also a massive amount of competing video content.  With some notable exceptions, business videos don't rack up the views -- just check our the view count on the next couple of businesses you come across.  We focus much more on turning viewers into customers, rather than getting another couple thousand views that lead nowhere

Hope that helps add another perspective to the video hosting discussion.  To be clear, we here at Wistia love YouTube and think they've done amazing things for web video...  we just think there are better options for the specific purpose of hosting video on your business website!

Also feel free to check out the video we made a few weeks ago on this topic - http://wistia.com/landing/youtube

Thanks,

Ben

[ChristopherM]

Yup, I've used YouTube, Vimeo and a few other services for video hosting and I can say hands down that YouTube is the best one for so many reasons, most of which EGOL has mentioned. The only ONE thing I can say is that a premium Vimeo account is advert free, whereas with YouTube (embeds included) you often have Adsense showing and off the top of my head, I don't think you have control over turning the Adsense adverts on or off.

[HandsomeWeb]

A big bonus is YouTube will serve non-flash versions when embedded on an HTML 5 page, so the embedded video will show on page on an iPad.

[Heydarian]

EGOL, you're always super helpful man. Thank you.

I think I needed a little more convincing to use YouTube and just did.

[EGOL]

Nima, Mine are on  YouTube.  Here are the reasons...

-- after google.com, youtube.com has more searches done than any other website

-- YouTube videos work reliably on a range of browser versions

-- Easy to embed

-- good statistics so I know what is popular

-- engagement metrics so I will know what part of each video performs well or loses viewers

-- YouTube videos frequently appear in google.com search results

-- I can link to my website in the video description

-- my website can be associated with my YouTube channel (maybe that influences SERPs??)

-- my videos show up as "related videos" on competitor view pages

-- I can earn adsense revenue from my videos

-- views for videos embedded on my website count as views in YouTube popularity

Good luck with your site.  Great domain!