Unless you’ve been on a mission to the ends of the earth for the last year or so, you’ve seen video take over the online world. It has permeated the way we buy, learn, and market online. There used to be a semi-level playing field when it came to web content, but the reality is, if you’re not utilizing video on your own site as well as in your marketing, you will be left far behind, with virtually no hope of making up that ground. Let’s see how you can avoid that deadly scenario!

With Google being both the primary purveyor of videos, (YouTube along with Google video) as well as the big dog in the search world, it should get your attention that Google pays a great deal of attention and favors video results. More and more you’re seeing video results on the first page of Google’s search results, and the trend shows no signs of lessening.

Particularly with the emphasis on social media, having video as an integral part of any traffic strategy you are developing for your site only makes sense. Let’s look at some things that have proven to be important in this regard.

• Use targeted keywords in your video filenames (titles). This should go without saying, but often it seems the need for a catchy title outweighs the need for keywords. Not in my book. I want them to be catchy; and found!
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• Host On YouTube, Embed on Your Site – Make sure you host them on YouTube, as it offers you a great deal more than the the world’s largest video sharing site. You are able to track views and market your video (and thus your site) more effectively. Be sure to embed the video on your site. The views that occur on your site add to the views counted by YouTube for that video, enhancing its ranking. Also, there are hundreds of other places to embed your YouTube videos, which can only help.
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• Optimize Your YouTube Videos – Make sure you optimize the titles, descriptions, (make sure the live URL is first in the description, or it won’t show on the first page) and tags. Copying the tags from other highly-viewed YouTube videos for that keyword will enhance your chances of getting your video into the related videos section, bringing you a LOT more views!
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• Utilize the Google Video Sitemap – Google has created a specific sitemap just for videos on your site. Once you start to accumulate more than a few, create one of these and submit it through Google Webmaster tools.

Hosting these videos on YouTube also has a corollary benefit, and that is you don’t have to use your web hosting resources to host the large video files! Google does. This will help your site load faster, which is becoming a more and more important ranking factor these days anyway!

Video has landed, and has forged a strong beachhead in the search world. Make sure your site is making the best use of it possible, and we’ll see you at the movies!