Search Engine Optimisation & Video Optimisation

Making your website and online video production work for you Need some help? If you are unable to undertake these recommendations yourself, and don't want to pay for what may be a very expensive search engine optimisation company to do this for you, then please contact us. We are happy to evaluate your site, increasing your brand awareness and driving up revenue.   Search Engine Optimisation Online video integrated within your website is a proven method to increase sales and reduce your bounce rate. However, people need to find your website first! Here are some top tips in ensuring your website is visible and discoverable.   The three main search engines are Google (75% of market share), Yahoo and new for 2009 Bing (previously MSN). Although in september 2009, Bing announced a 10 year deal with Yahoo, it is still worth optimising your site for all 3 search engines. In terms of how this is done, both Google and Bing have released their own guidance in ensuring your website is stored within their index and ranks well in the search engine results pages (SERP's). Following the criteria contained within these documents will ensure you have a search friendly website, which people enjoying browsing and link to. [ Google, Bing]   Seo Checklist Keywords: in title tag, in URLs, in the text, in anchor text, in headings, at the beginning of documents, in meta-tags, and image alt-tags. Links: (internal, incoming and outgoing) should contain keywords in the anchor text. Incoming links should be from reputable sites as well as outgoing. The more the better. Content: should be unique, relevant and updated regularly. Dont duplicate content - make each page original. Dont overuse flash or scripts. Dont use frames. Integrating video in your website The use of video should complement a website not dominate it (unless of course your website is a video share platform such as Youtube.) Here are some top tips for video integration: Use a streaming video player as opposed to a download video clip (such as mov, mpeg, wmv). People are impatient. They are less likely to view your video if they are forced to download it first. Flash Video is the most common choice as its already installed on 99% of computers (source). Its also a much smaller filesize than other formats, meaning your bandwidth or quotas should be able to support the traffic. Always have a click to play option. Never have your video playing automatically on page load if it has audio. This can be incredibly annoying for returning customers, or for those that simply didn't want to watch the video. Make sure the video player complements your site not dominates it. Provide a full-screen option instead. We have developed a free online video player which is fully scalable, with subtitle function and full-screen option (unbranded) to suit any site. Upload a video sitemap (see Google SEO guidance above for more information). Search engines read text not video, and so a video sitemap tells search engines the video is there. Statistics prove that surfers are more likely to select a link which has a video! Alternatively, if webspace really is an issue, you can integrate an externally hosted video player into your website. (a) Free hosting: If you choose a free option, such as youtube, then you will need to consider that this will display branding and you will have no control over any 'related' videos displayed at the end. (b) Paid for hosting: There are also various other paid for providers. Some of these stream in high definition, but can also be expensive. Shop around!     Video Seo Checklist Share your video: Increase your online presence and brand popularity by sharing your video content wider than your website. Here are some of the most commonly known share websites, but there are various others out there. Optimise: If you are asked to, make sure you complete the description box for video uploads. The more relevant information the better, and if you get a link in there back to your site - definitely do it. Seed & Syndicate: Submit your video feed to social bookmarking sites, articles, blogs and newsfeeds.