Video SEO for Google

[oomdomarketing]

I was wondering what the prime factors were to make something rank for a video on Google. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I think that length may be important, but I don't know what the ideal run time is.

Hypothetically for local SEO, would I be better off doing a tag like "Mercedes Buffalo NY" or do individual tags of "Mercedes" and "Buffalo"

Thanks!

[LynnPatchett]

Hi,

Phil Nottingham did an excellent post a couple of years back on video seo, worth having a look especially the bit on what types of searches are likely to result in video results (not local for example!). He has done some other more recent articles on various sites, all worth having a look at.

[TommyTan]

Hi,

Ranking YouTube videos and ranking articles are pretty much similar.  To name a few, you might want to optimize the following:

• Video Title - similar to an article title, you should include keywords and make it attractive since this is what visitors see in search
• Description - Keywords and any text in the description box will also take into consideration when ranking
• Tags - I would include Mercedes Buffalo NY instead of Buffalo since I don't think your content is relevant is someone is actually searching for videos about  the animal.  Relevant is key in SEO.
• Length plays an indirect role.  Search engine won't necessarily rank based on how long or a short a video is but they take how much of the video a user watched into consideration.  Views, attention span and retention plays a role.  Most viewers won't spend more than 3 minute on a video unless it is something like tv shows and etc.
• Thumbs up and thumbs down give search engine an idea the quality of the video which will help.
• Like everything in SEO, inbound link to the video plays a role.
• Add transcript to your video to the description as well since it adds more content to your video and also keywords

Hope this helps.

Thank you!