An email Q&A with the WHIR, SEO consultant Amanda Watlington discusses the upcoming SES Toronto panel “Optimizing for Video Search: Virgin Territory?”
In advance of next week’s Search Engine Strategies conference in Toronto, Canada, the WHIR is conducting email interviews with a few of the event’s speakers, who will shed some light on the subject matters of their presentations.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Even for the specialists in search engine optimization, video optimization is pretty uncharted territory. The obvious volume of video content online, and the vast appetite for that content, far outstrips the amount of expert energy being put into the optimization of that content for search at the moment.
Optimizing for video search is one of the slightly outsider subjects that will receive the panel-discussion treatments at next week’s Search Engine Strategies event in Toronto, Canada (www.searcheningeinstrategies.com/toronto). The session’s summary describes YouTube as the number-two search destination on the web (behind Google, that is).
Search marketers and SEO experts are waking up to the opportunity in video, if the program at SES is any indication.
In an email Q&A with the WHIR, Amanda Watlington, the owner of search marketing consultancy Searching for Profit (www.searchingforprofit.com) answers some questions about the SES Toronto panel in which she will participate, “Optimizing for Video Search: Virgin Territory?”
The panel takes place Mondy, June 8, at 2:30 p.m.
WHIR: Can we start with defining the general idea of the session a little more clearly? Is the idea that people looking for information online are, to a more significant extent than in the past, looking specifically for information in the video format?
Amanda Watlington: Video combines sound and movement into a compelling, effective communications package. As broadband and the technology to shoot video have become more readily available and inexpensive, we have seen a mushrooming of video content on the Web. This session at SES will look at two dimensions of video search optimization. What steps should be taken to optimized video that is hosted on the owners’ site and video that is hosted on a shared site with particular emphasis on YouTube? We will explore the strategic decisions that must be made in determining where and how to optimize hosted and shared video assets.
The summary mentions YouTube as the number-two search destination in the world. Is YouTube the only major venue for video search, or are there other significant players worth major consideration?
AW: YouTube with its astounding reach must be given primacy. It is the 800 pound gorilla, but that being said there are a number of other video sharing sites including hulu.com which shares highly professional content from television and movies to MySpace where users can upload very amateur content. It is up the content owner to decide where to share the content. One of the key reasons for focusing on YouTube during the session comes from the integration of YouTube results into the main search pages as part of universal search.
Search optimization is a real estate play – the more real estate a single brand can seize in the search results, the more likely the brand is to get the traffic. That being said, it is easy to envision a tantalizing scenario where a paid search is combined with organic results and supplemented with a YouTube video and or news results on the brand. Further, optimizing for YouTube combines many of the tactics that will work for other video search engines. In the session we outline the key components of video optimization for self-hosted and shared situations. This covers most of the bases for those using video.
Does “optimizing for video search” require the production of video content? And if so, is this whole conversation aimed at people who already produce video content, or is there a case to be made that it’s worth taking on the production of video content in order to be found in this venue?
AW: Video optimization highlights some of the most significant changes that are occurring in the search optimization management. The search marketer and the videographer have to work hand-in-hand to make sure that the video is optimized appropriately. This means getting the resolution right, selecting a file name, etc. Most SEOs are not videographers so they must create protocols and procedures for the videographers to use. A videographer would get a lot out of the session and an SEO who either aspires to shooting video or who must work with a videographer will find the session highly valuable.
