Home » Blogs, SEO Tips

SEO Benefits of Video – One That Will Touch Your Heart

15 August 2008 37 Comments

How does video have anything to do with SEO, you may ask?

Google favors blogs and sites with video – placing a video on yours can help your rankings. A video on a blog post brings the bots around quickly and ranks the article very high.

Update: Google picked up this post with 16 minutes of my upload. An hour after I uploaded it I did a search for “SEO Benefits of Video” and here’s the #2 result:

screenshot - SEO diva

You can find available videos on YouTube, Yahoo Video, MetaCafe, and many more places online. Even better, make your own video, whether it’s of you teaching something, showing off your product, or…just dancing.

I’ve been aware of the SEO benefits of video for some time, but until now haven’t come across a video I wanted to place on this blog. Well, I found it today, and here it is! I hope you enjoy it. Have a great weekend!

This video, from Where the Hell is Matt, may seem a bit goofy at first, but keep watching. You’ll see the common thread we share the world over – the willingness and desire to celebrate joy.

P.S. If you visit Matt’s site, you can view the video in higher quality, and you’ll get a kick out of the outtakes video too.

37 Comments »

  • My SEO Experiment said:

    Wow! Google isn’t fair…

  • John, Camas Homes said:

    We agree that Google seems to visit our videos quite quickly, even though we are just starting to use this media in our posts and our business. If that helps our overall ranking with Google and our prospects, all the better!

  • JBO said:

    interesting point – I have never considered using other peoples videos on my site – I have just checked youtube and it looks simple!

  • SEO Diva (author) said:

    @My SEO Experiment – Google keeps changing their algorithms, and that’s part of SEO, figuring out and keeping up with the changes.

    @John – it is a simple thing to do, so why not take advantage!

    @JBO – it’s as easy to add a video as it is to add a pic to a blog or site.

  • Eric- New Orleans Co said:

    I think all updates help and keeping up is one of the things that keeps google on top. I have been looking for the best video to use for real estate, do you have any that you recommend and fit easily into the blog and the site.

    I will hang up and listen. Great point.

    Eric- New Orleans Cos last blog post..801 St. Joesph Condos-New Orleans Warehouse District- Luxury Choice!

  • Eric- New Orleans Co said:

    How did that last blog post come up in the comment?

    Eric- New Orleans Cos last blog post..801 St. Joesph Condos-New Orleans Warehouse District- Luxury Choice!

  • SEO Diva (author) said:

    @Eric – maybe you could film your own of a house you have listed. Make a little tour of the house…or the neighborhood, a local attraction, that sort of thing.

    Your last blog post comes up because I have CommentLuv enabled. It’s a great plugin (read my blog post about it).

  • Eric- New Orleans Co said:

    Did you have a media format that you like. I am trying several and have not decided which is best. Which do you like. Eric

    I will cehck out the comment luv again as I did not understand it the first time.

    Eric- New Orleans Cos last blog post..New Orleans Condos buyers can get a Federal tax credit of $7500 and Be able to Use State or Parish Bond Money also!

  • Christos Panayiotou said:

    Hi,

    Would like to read this post but cant see the text on the right as it appears to be cut off for some reason.

    Have tested in IE and mozilla and get the same thing.

    Just thought you may want to be made aware of this.

    Regards

    Christos Panayiotous last blog post..Leapfrogg shortlisted for 3 business awards

  • SEO Diva (author) said:

    @Eric – I don’t think it matters; use whatever is easiest for you.

    @Christos – I’ve been unable to duplicate the problem. Thanks for letting me know – I’ll check it out further.

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    @Christos – now I see what you mean. Thanks again for the heads up. Sometimes images blow out the template.

  • Liora said:

    interesting point – I have never considered using other peoples videos on my site – I have just checked youtube and it looks simple!

    Lioras last blog post..Naperville, Illinois

  • Mike Johnston said:

    It’s no surprise that Google is tough to stay on top of.. it’s an entire job on it’s own just maintaining one’s SEO.

  • Edward Mugits said:

    This is why I visit, quality Information. What’s your backlinking strategy to maintain position and what do you believe the primary attributes are to maximize the life cycle of a video.

    Nice little rep management tool as well

  • Scott McAndrew said:

    Kay – I’ve been testing this also and have had great results. It isn’t universal; you can’t rank for any keyword or key phrase that you want, but it is definitely real and it definitely works.

    http://www.onlinemarketingperformance.com/google-page_1-ranking-easy-video/

    Scott McAndrews last blog post..Google page 1 rankings check-up

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    @Scott – I’ve discovered the same thing, sometimes it will work, sometimes not. It’s certainly worth a try.

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    @Edward – I’m glad you find the info here helpful. As far as backlinking goes, I’d use the main keyword I’ve used in the (meta) title for the page with the video on it. As far as maximizing the life cycle – it seems the more it’s played the longer it stays in the SERPs (and gets higher rankings.)

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    @Mike – yes, it’s a lot of work, especially with the constant changes!

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    @Liora – YouTube is waaay simple to use. I think there must be a video on there for just about anything you could think of!

  • SEO India said:

    This is certainly a great tip if it works… :)

    How much difference does the topic of the video make?

    Is it given high importance only when it is relevant to the other content of the page…

    SEO Indias last blog post..Google uncle, please visit my home more often :)

  • Buffalo New York Law said:

    I never thought to use videos on my website. Thanks for the helpful information. Hopefully by posting videos on my website, it will improve my ranking on Google.

  • Alan Barker said:

    So will simply copy and pasted embedded video code from you tube help your search results?

    Or does the video need to be in a different format on your site for google to care?

  • Autoloanus said:

    Would like to read this post but cant see the text on the right as it appears to be cut off for some reason.

    Is it given high importance only when it is relevant to the other content of the page.

  • Debt Settlement said:

    This is certainly a great tip if it works

    How much difference does the topic of the video make?

  • Debt Settlement said:

    So will simply copy and pasted embedded video code from you tube help your search results?

    Or does the video need to be in a different format on your site for google to care?

  • Suzi Patrik said:

    Yes you are right, videos are crawled very fast today, but rather than using others videos on your site and moving the traffic to others sites, why not add your own industry specific videos.

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    Here I go, late on comments once again…

    @SEO India – the topic of the video should be relevant to the site; it does seem to make a difference.

    @Buffalo – I hope it works for you!

    @Alan – you can use a video from YouTube or any of the other video syndicating sites; it doesn’t seem to make a difference. You don’t have to change the format on your blog.

    @Autoloanus – hey thanks for letting me know about the text messup on my blog. I have to make the videos smaller or they seem to blow out the format.

    @Suzi – I agree, your own videos are the best.

  • Videos Graciosos said:

    this is certainly a great tip

    Videos Graciososs last blog post..México rompe nuevo record – Nocturninos

  • Lose Weight In A Week said:

    I always thought videos are not text that Google loves. How can videos improve SE ranking?

    Lose Weight In A Weeks last blog post..Amazing Peanut Butter Diet Plan

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    @Videos Graciosos – glad you like it! Nice to see you have videos en Espanol.

    @Lose Weight – Google like fresh content, and a variety of text, graphics and now video seems to work.

  • video said:

    Another great post as usual. I have seen the best success with video blogs come from either videos with humor or training videos.

  • David Leonhardt said:

    I have not gotten around to video yet, but anything that pleases your visitors will please Google (and Yahoo and MSN). They try to engineer their algorithms to deliver the results people will like. So if you do what your visitors like, you can’t go wrong (even if Google doesn’t notice!).

    David Leonhardt

  • jack said:

    i had tested before and i came across same thing.Nevertheless thanks for information

    jacks last blog post..ice age 3 trailer : Dawn of the Dinosaurs movie trailer

  • Seo Diva (author) said:

    It looks like this little bonus is about over though. Google tests different things, they work great for awhile, then it’s back to business as usual.

  • Dave said:

    This is a really interesting point made. Like JBO commented already: I have never considered using other peoples videos on my site.
    But I do agree with David “the Happy Guy” that anything that pleases your visitors is pleasing Google. I’m a great fan of Google and I do believe that they are only creating algorithms that follow the logic of Internet users. After all, Google is not a judge. All they try to do is serve and please the visitors as well.

  • Tennessee SEO said:

    A video on a blog post brings the bots around quickly and ranks the article very high.

  • Scott Gardner said:

    Phenomenal results! The goal of a search engine is to place authoritative sites at the top of the SERPs — and part of being an authoritative source is to be a comprehensive one.