Google has been making leaps and bounds in providing search engine results that include content, photos, videos, archives, news, and much more. Known as “universal results,” people now have a much wider selection of online choices than ever before.
Videos are typically given high priority in search results; viewing videos is one of the most popular forms of retrieving news, entertainment, product and service information, and tutorials online. For businesses, having online videos is crucial, and even more importantly, you’ll want to ensure that your videos reach as many potential customers as possible.
Consider the following tips for your own videos that will help you reach your target audience:
1. Keywords: Proper keywords are important for both search engines and for video social networking sites. Make sure you use the correct keywords in your title as well as your description. If you need assistance figuring out the best keywords to use for SEO purpose, try variations of different keywords on Google’s Keyword Planner, which will show the strongest, most popular keywords being searched for.
2. Embed Your Videos: When you embed your videos, you have the opportunity to share them in several different places, such as your blogs, social networking sites, bookmarking sites, and more.
3. Cross Linking: Along with embedding your videos, be sure to cross link across several different platforms. Examples include “tweeting” your video links on Twitter, cross linking on industry-relevant websites, interlinking with pages on your own business website, and via bookmarking services.
4. Choose the Right Length: The average view times on YouTube are a little over four minutes, and across the web, average length of business videos run a little over three minutes. Ideally, you’ll want to keep your videos less than five minutes, if possible.
Of course, this will also depend on the type of video you are creating. For example, a tutorial video typically runs longer than a new sales advertisement. In these cases, consider breaking your video ups into different segments.
5. Keep Them Interesting: Your online videos should grab and hold your audience’s attention right from the start. You want them to be as engaged and as interested as possible throughout your entire video message for the best results; however, the first few seconds of a video are the most crucial. If viewers get bored within the first eight or so seconds of the video, they usually leave.
