Domaining SEO Sunday: Why Video Should Be Part Of Your Long-Term SEO Strategy

When it comes to SEO things can change pretty quickly and one area that is red-hot at the moment is – video. The moment that Google added Universal search the SEO world was changed and there are many people (myself included) that are benefiting from this. Video can help your brand or business appear on the first page of Google even if your site can’t outrank the leaders of the category. Now, as You Tube takes steps to make video easier to find online you too can help future-proof your sites and build your brand at the same time.

Don’t think video is going places online? 20 hours of video are uploaded every minute right now – this comes out to over 10 million hours of video a year and growing. Along with this video content comes the next generation of web user. First let me tell you this – it’s not you! Sorry to say it but this current generation of kids and teens are using the web like never before – they have a strong focus on video both producing it and watching it online, as they get older this trend only continues to grow and with it the way we access information online!

So what can you do to super-charge your video SEO strategy? Video transcripts are definitely one technique that many savvy web video publishers are using right now. Mashable wrote a great article this year about video and seo – How Web Video SEO is Finally Coming of Age. In the article they say:

First, YouTube now has the ability to place captions on its videos. The transcript of a video can be attached to its timeline, allowing users seek to specific portions of YouTube videos by phrase. This transcript can be searched and indexed by the engines, meaning your video content itself can count toward ranking now. Whereas originally you had to provide your own captions to attach, YouTube can now do captions automatically. As with any robotic transcription however, human intervention may be required to fix computer-generated mistakes in the text. (from MashableHow Web Video SEO is Finally Coming of Age)

Automated captions are only the beginning of how videos will soon be able to index and outrank well-established sites online. More and more people want video content every day – the tipping point is getting closer every day! Just think – the iPad has already sold more units than the iPhone did when it launched…both devices have the You Tube app pre-installed and it happens to be one of the most heavily-used apps on either device!

There are more video-transcription companies coming-out of the woodwork now like SpeakerText that are making it easy for content creators to share a small section of a video with their audience. Soon – rather than linking to an entire video clip you’ll find more and more people linking to a 10-20 second portion.

So how can you as a Domainer benefit?

Make sure you transcribe all of your videos, oh, and if you’re not making videos yet – start! You might be a little late to the game but it’s still the first inning so you haven’t missed much! The easier it is for people to find your videos and share them with others the greater the opportunity you have build your brand and business.

Want an example of someone who used video to create a multi-million dollar business online? Just check-out WineLibrary.tv – a video blog run by Gary V. who recently wrote an excellent book – “Crush It!” that I highly recommend.

Whether you are making product sites, amazon stores, branding yourself, your business, or your product – video is an essential medium to connect with a growing audience of web users. This should be a part of your long-term SEO strategy and getting your videos transcribed is the perfect place to start!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton