The SEO Checklist for Uploading Video

The most obvious benefit of putting video on your site, from a SEO perspective, is that it provides content that the search engines like. You’ll often hear that from people, but the reality is a little different. Video isn’t really the best search engine fodder but there are ways to make it count for something. Videos are usually embedded into search results from major video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. If you’re going to have video embedded onto your website, then you should spend some time uploading them onto video sites.

Here are some things to keep in mind when uploading a video:

Label it. Create a keyword laced label or short description that aligns with your keywords that value website optimization. When available, use an <H1> tag in the HTML so that search engines can “read” the heading. 

Describe it. Include a description of your video that contains the keywords you’re trying to target. Don’t stray too far from the actual video description, though. Remember, you’re trying to appeal to humans and search engines alike.

Transcribe it. Post a real transcription in text form onto the page, either through a comment or other viable route. There are some affordable online services that can transcribe videos. Google it.

Name it. The name and URL of your file should also contain keywords.

Link to it. Use some link building basics for SEO by linking to the video. Also, get others to do the same. Using the keyword “video” in the link can be beneficial in getting it ranked. 

Tag it. No surprise here: use keywords (like the word “video”) to tag your videos on video sites. These tags could also influence the placement of your video in results.

Use the word  “video” throughout the above steps. Remember, you’re trying to help the search engines understand that the content is that of video. Also, you want to make sure that your video gets embedded because pop-up video players won’t do anything for SEO, especially if the pop-up is generated by JavaScript. You may want to consider getting other websites to embed the video into their sites, ultimately giving you more publicity through links and rich media. Lastly, Google is getting more serious about indexing video. In particular, Google is interested in getting your video-sitemap data. Matt Cutts, a Google SEO guy said, “If you tell us where your videos are, we will try to index them a little bit harder.”