Videos are some of the hottest content on the net. Everyone receives those periodic emails from a friend or business associate advising, ‘Check this out!’ Videos are the main form for viral content, add interest when embedded in a site, and draw traffic like a magnet.

Videos are easy to make, too. Anyone with any kind of camera can create one, and anyone with a computer can upload one. Popular videos don’t have to be high-quality, have good production values or even be well-edited to succeed. Skilled children can make them.

Why, then, isn’t everyone rushing to include video content on their site? There’s a reason SEO experts don’t push video content. Videos, like images, present problems when it comes to search engine crawlers. The search engines can’t see video content. This means that all the effort you put into getting a video onto your site is wasted, from a search engine optimisation point of view.

This doesn’t mean that you should avoid video content. Videos have proven attraction for internet users, and as time goes by they are being used increasingly as part of internet marketing strategies. The value of video content as an attention magnet can’t be ignored. The answer is to work around your video content to ensure that everything is done that can be done to explain its content to a search engine.

Optimise your videos

The search engines rely on extraneous information to determine what your video is all about. Much like they do when ranking your site, the search engines examine the on-page factors around the video, the links to the video and links from the page the video is on. On the whole, search engines are unable to view the content of the video, but it is thought they can detect some on-screen text. This makes it worth optimising any subtitles and titles.

Many people forget that the video file can be optimised. Use your keywords in the title and, if the platform your video is on allows it, map out an SEO-friendly description and tags. If you host the video on a site like YouTube, don’t forget to re-enter all of the meta data.

Format will also affect your video’s search engine friendliness. As time goes by, Google is developing techniques to work with Flash content. This may mean Flash videos will gain some SEO standing in the future. For now, it’s a good idea to consult your SEO firm about the best formats for search engines, and you can talk to us at SEO Consult on this issue.

How to maximise SEO techniques around videos

The content you put around your video is vital. Writing a brief description of the video will help users and search engines identify the content. Ensure you use the word ‘video’ as part of your keywords for that page. The very fact that you have a video can prove part of the attraction. Finally, include a link to a transcript of the video. This will ensure the content is used to maximum SEO effect.

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