Benefits and cons of hosting video content vs hosting via youtube

[monster99]

Hi if a site is hosting its own videos (not embedding them on youtube) is there less benefits then getting youtube to host it, and then embedding the youtube video.

For instance:

For benefits such as building channel authority, easy to rank the video in the search engines hosted on youtube, better opportunity to increase visitors and traffic and higher chance for the video to spread and rank for the keyword when hosted on youtube.

What do you guys think?

[IainReloadMedia]

Hi Monster99,

It's a great question. As with anything is SEO/Life it depends on a few factors. Here are the main pros & cons of both..

Hosted

Pros

*** Others sites will link directly to your domain, when linking to a video* You have greater control over the videos, i.e. no ads, recommend videos etc **

Cons

*** Cost * Technical Setup **

Embedded

Pros

*** If you're a less well known brand, can help your video get shared* Can help build your You Tube Channel * It's free!* Very quick to setup**

Cons

*** Websites tend to link to You Tube* You can have ads shown* Shows other peoples related video **

If you're just starting out and you're not making very unique linkable content, I'd go with the embed option.

Hope that helps

Iain - Reload Media

[SEO5Team]

I suggest hosting it on you tube and then embedding the you tube video on the site if the reason is purely SEO benefit. You Tube videos tend to rank really well as opposed to the ones hosted on the site.

Phil did a great post on a related topic . http://www.seomoz.org/blog/hosting-and-embedding-for-video-seo