Make Your Videos Rank on the Search Engines

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There was a time when web pages consisted mainly of text and perhaps a few static images to add a little color and interest. Many web sites are still like that, but by and large the web has become a lot more dynamic and interactive. One sign of this is the popularity of videos. If you're thinking about including videos on your web site, that's going to affect your optimization strategy.

There's nothing wrong with continuing to keep it simple, but your visitors are likely to want and expect more. Plus videos are a great way to attract those visitors in the first place, and the issues with the slow download speeds experienced through dial-up Internet connections are becoming less of a problem every day. A new survey from Nielsen/NetRatings shows that more than three out of every four active users of the Internet at home connect via broadband. These broadband users also spend about a third more time on the Internet than dial-up users, and view twice as many pages as dial-up users.

But it isn't just pages of text that they're viewing. According to a survey of 2,600 adults conducted by Burst Media in November, three out of every four men on the Internet watch video content -- as do more than half of the women online. Almost half of the respondents watched news clips; other content viewed included movie trailers, comedy, music videos, and TV shows and clips. The point is, video is becoming an integral part of the web surfing experience for many people, and you don't want to get left behind.

Assuming you have some good video content to put up, however, that raises a question. We all know that search engines are most comfortable with text, and have problems indexing other kinds of content, including video. If most of your visitors are finding your site and your content through the search engines, how are you going to let them know about all the great videos you have posted to your site? There are certain techniques you can use to help the search engines find your video content and index it correctly so that searches on the relevant keywords will bring up links to your site. In fact, since video optimization is in its early stages yet, you might even be able to score highly for broad-based keywords you wouldn't dream of putting a lot of effort into with conventional SEO.

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Comments On: Make Your Videos Rank on the Search Engines

· I hope you found this article useful; thanks for reading. Feel free to comment...    · As a new user to SEO chat, I really believe videos are the future of the internet...    · Thank you very much! We do try to keep on top of the field. If there's anything...    · I have to say that I agree that videos are going to the top of the line. But I only...    · There is a right way and a wrong way to do videos. Whether they're videos placed on...   >>> Post your comment now!