The saying, “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t necessarily apply to online video. Just because you upload a video doesn’t mean that people will find it, watch it, or pass it along to someone else. Oh sure, you will always come across those videos that go viral without much thought or attention given to SEO strategies – like this one. Unfortunately, no one can guarantee that a video will go viral. However, aside from the content you create, there are three important things you need to do to help improve your video’s SEO. Since Google’s acquisition of YouTube, online videos are now included in Google search results, so it’s important that you consider SEO strategies for your videos. Here are some basic tips to help improve your video’s search rankings.

1. GIVE YOUR VIDEO A SPECIFIC TITLE. Do me a favor – take a look at the top of your browser window. What you see written there is the title for the web page you are reading right now. This title bar is extremely important to search engines. As you browse the Internet, you will find that there are many web pages that simply don’t have a title, other than the generic “home” or “index” or “about us.” When you upload a video to YouTube, the title that you give to your video becomes the title written at the top of the browser window. So, you want to make sure that the title is specific. If you are uploading a video for your business, include your company’s name in the title of the video, followed by a brief description of the video’s contents. If you visit our YouTube channel, you will notice that I have used “Red Fox Media” in every title, followed by the client’s name and a general title for the video itself. By default, YouTube will match the video’s display title with the title you gave it when you originally saved it to your hard drive. If you don’t change it manually, you might end up with a video library full of generic titles like, “Presentation08-16-10.mov.”
2. ADD A DESCRIPTION TO EACH VIDEO. Video descriptions provide the viewer with a little more information about what he/she is seeing on the screen. Depending on your industry, you can use descriptions to A) give viewers the specific benefits of a product or service, B) advertise a particular special or sale your company is offering, or C) provide the viewer with a case study and how your company helped solve a client’s problem. Descriptions are also a great place to insert a link back to your company’s website or blog. Search engines like Google are always looking for links. Also make sure to utilize targeted key words throughout your descriptions to help boost search results.
3. INSERT TAGS – Tags are an important way to define and categorize content across the Internet and have, therefore, become an important part of search. When you upload a video or post a blog article, you have the option to insert tags that are used to define aspects of the video. Take advantage of the opportunity to tag each of the videos you upload. On YouTube, individual tags are separated by a space. You can group words together as a single tag by enclosing them in quotation marks. When you tag a video, also include your company’s name, your company’s location, and the place where you shot the video. So, a particular string of tags on one of our videos might read “Red Fox Media” Birmingham Alabama.

Remember, the term “search” is different from the term “viral.” By following the above steps, you will improve your search results, but it does not guarantee that your video will go viral. People choose to pass on videos for several different reasons. You can read about them here. But, increasing your search results is the first step towards increasing viewership for each of your videos.