Youtube Video SEO - How to Optimize Your Videos for Youtube
In 2008, there is plenty of buzz about the new and exciting online promotional tactics related to online video marketing and online video sharing.
Certainly we have all heard about the biggest online video sharing website out there, Youtube. In 2007, Google purchased Youtube and even before this acquisition, the site was growing in popularity each and every day. Youtube is a wonderful site for users to get started with sharing online video content. However, because your video is converted to flash upon uploading it to the website, you need to learn the tips and techniques that will optimize your videos for the best quality result after uploading to the site.
Obviously you need to first determine the camera and video editing software that you will be using. Know the format of video you are starting with. Most digital cameras today shoot video, as do most phones, which is a great cheap way to start. It is irrelevant where your video comes from; the responsibility lies on you to make it breathtaking. There are tons of editing tools on the Internet available for anyone to use on almost any platform; the latest computers already have these tools along with the basic install for just such editing requirements.
While Microsoft MovieMaker is a great introductory program for video editing, it does not do well with videos that are created using a mobile phone. If you are going to capture video from a cameraphone for use on youtube, I would suggest getting Quicktime Pro from Apple. This is a very inexpensive upgrade and can handle conversion in multiple formats.
It is important to note that youtube does not support all of the many many different video formats that are available, and for good reason. However, as a result, you should try to utilize a format such as mp4 or even mov. Most video editing software will support this but if yours does not, I would suggest downloading another program.
When exporting your video, I would recommend exporting to the Youtube recommended size, which is 320×240. Most video cameras and camcorders shoot video at much higher resolutions so you will likely need to compress and resize your video to the aspect ratio of 320*240. If you are using a webcam, sometimes the video exported directly from the webcam is ready to go.
As far as the bit-rate, I would suggest that you use a higher bit rate than YouTube recommends. You can target your bit-rate to be 1000kbps and anything much higher than 1500kbps would really be more than you need and will clearly make the conversion process take longer. Ideally you are looking for a range of 700-1000 kbps.
Once you are ready with size, codec, and quality set up, it is time for the selection of your audio format. It is better to use the MP3 audio codec, which should be standard on your editor.
Take the output of your video file as .mov or .mp4 and before you move further it is time to have the preview of your video file. It should look nice. If you are satisfied with the outcome, go ahead with uploading your video.
The uploading of your video, depending on your connection, can take several minutes and if large enough file size, can take up to an hour on a slow connection. After you upload your video, Youtube then automatically begins the process of converting and encoding your file as a flash or flv file. This process compresses your file further but if you followed the suggestions above, you should have a nice resulting quality video on YouTube.
In terms of video search engine optimization, it is always important to know the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to both your content and of course, your target audience. You will want to be certain that you include these words and phrases within the video title, description, and tags. It is also important that you choose the most appropriate category on Youtube to submit your video to.
Choose and appropriate but popular category to post your video in and allow users to post comments, ratings, and embed your video elsewhere as this attracts incoming links to your video page on Youtube and provides you with the opportunity to show up in the Google search results as a result of their universal search initiative and purchase of Youtube.
All of these suggestions should help you with your video sharing future. I would also suggest reading ReelSEO as it is the primary resource for online video SEO. Finally, try some of the other video sharing websites out there, like blip.tv and revver. Good luck.
