Why Use Video SEO (VSEO)?

Videos are dynamical, engaging content and represent one of the most exciting and promising developments in Internet media. As a visual element, online video is a substantial improvement over static imagery. As a means to provide instruction, it is more palatable and fluid than simple textual content. So, whether you are trying to relay information or entertain, this medium has become an increasingly indispensable component of Internet marketing. With the explosion of popularity of web video portals such as Youtube and Veoh, and the proliferation of video-sharing avenues in social-networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, it would behoove the intelligent marketer to incorporate VSEO – video search engine optimization or Video SEO– into their arsenal of services.

In recent years, the World Wide Web has become increasingly identified as a delivery system of multimedia. This is in no small part due to the still burgeoning, but already wildly popular, online video marketing that has taken roots in nearly all facets of the Internet. Youtube consistently ranks among the most visited websites in the world, and mainstream search engine and web portals such as Google and Yahoo! also boost popular video hubs that receive countless visitors everyday. According to the Internet Video Audience study conducted by eMarketer in 2007, 123 million Americans watch online videos at least once a month. This number is likely to have grown since then, or, at the very least, not likely to decrease anytime soon.

So what does this mean for search engine optimization? Simple, as videos become more and more sought after as content, their value in web searches has increased accordingly. In a recent experiment conducted by the Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals, indexed videos had an about 50 times better chance of ranking on the first page of Google search results. Although this is only one study, the implications are enormous for search engine optimization. A simple shift in content type can correspond to a dramatic increase in the likelihood of receiving higher page rank, and on one of the Internet’s most popular search engines for that matter.

Internet videos need video seo to also boost many diverse avenues along which to be featured and disseminated. It is indeed very common to “share” videos through social networking sites such as Facebook, or promoted to interested viewers on Digg. Additionally, it is also easy to imbed Internet videos in blogs and other websites. On video-hosting portals such as Youtube, these functions can be accessed and utilized with a simple click of the relevant button, or applied with a simple copy and paste of the code, featured right on the page of the video.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Internet video for search engine optimization. For the able marketer, learning how to become adept at optimization for this medium may be crucial to your continued success. Keywording for videos, placing them on the relevant sites, and learning how to distribute them along social-networking terminals are important skills to learn. It may be easy for some to dismiss Internet video, and consequently Video SEO (VSEO), as a fad that will run its course soon. Although there is no doubt new technology will continue to germinate and yield more advanced ways to engage the Internet, these improvements will likely build upon and enhance rather than displace the online video phenomenon. For instance, the emergence of high-definition capability for videos may further consolidate video’s popularity to web users. Moreover, taking into account the current economic climate, the Internet, and online videos, still present cheap, easily accessible, and highly diverse and engaging forms of entertainment when more expensive options become less attractive.