This article was recently featured on SearchEngineWatch.com.

Although YouTube isn’t the only option in video distribution, it’s hard to deny that if YouTube was a search engine, it’d be No. 2 in the world behind Google.  A strong argument could be made for producing and optimizing video for SEO results, especially if you think about how much time you devote to content marketing to garner rankings for web pages.  Given the amount of competition on the written web, ranking for video in YouTube may be much easier and — as an added bonus — top spots in YouTube often mean an equally attractive position in Google’s universal search results.

Optimizing YouTube videos for SEO

The YouTube algorithm relies on three signals when ranking your videos within YouTube’s search results:

1. Text in your titles and descriptions.
2. Number of views, and recent trending.
3. Ratings.

Since I’m more of a cat person, I tried searching for “stupid dog” (dog lovers: don’t worry I’m equally allergic to both).  Here are the results:

Surprising results! You’ll notice that the top result for “stupid dog” only has 1.2 million views, and the second place result has over 3.3 million views.  Despite over 8,000 comments, and over 5,000 “likes,” “louisck” can’t catch a break, as trending for their video is relatively flat over the past two years.

Even though “camilamrgh” isn’t sharing their analytics, you don’t really need to know how their trending looks. It’s probably the deciding factor.  We know the following:

• Both videos have short titles, and no mention of “stupid dog” in their description
• louisck’s video has more views
• louisck’s video has more ratings

What’s the deciding factor here?  Obviously, camilamrgh’s video views have been trending higher over the past two years, and earned them the top spot.  Lo and behold, look at the top results for “stupid dog” in Google search:

Some may say this is a terrible example because these videos aren’t optimized at all, but that’s the point.  These videos are poorly optimized, but rank extremely well, even in Google!  Just imagine if the video was optimized for “stupid dog” and any number of other keywords that could be relevant.  Here’s a checklist you can follow to optimize your videos in YouTube:

1. Title text: You have 99 characters to optimize your title text, so consider your target keywords and any other keywords you may want to rank for, but don’t forget including your branding and descriptive text.  If you have little chance of getting that top spot, aim for second to boost views by proxy. Related videos also get lots of views.
2. Description: You have 5,000 characters, which is a lot, so use all that space to write as much about your video as possible.  Since user ratings and views play a factor in your search rankings within YouTube, and therefore Google, make sure to ask for people to rank your video, but also share and embed your video.
3. Tags: Useful for search terms you use in your title text and description, including names and branding.
4. Broadcasting and Sharing Options:
   a.    Privacy: Most marketers may set videos to “Private” while working on them prior to an official launch date or campaign. Just make sure to set them to public when the time comes.
   b.    Comments: It’s up to you whether you want to enable comments or not, just keep in mind: If you disable commenting, users will go elsewhere to talk about your video, your brand or your message.
   c.    Video responses: These help boost views because they are automatically linked to your original.
   d.    Ratings: These have a direct impact on your rankings, so make sure you set this to “yes.”
   e.    Embedding: Blogs and social media shares really boost views and help your message get to new audiences outside of YouTube. It’s a good idea to keep this enabled.
   f.    Syndication: Again, anything to boost your views will help your video rank higher in YouTube and Google, so keep this enabled.
5. Getting views:
   a.    YouTube considers a video “viewed” after eight seconds of runtime, so make sure your video has enough “pull” to get you past that hump.
   b.    Embedding it in your company blog or on product pages can boost video views and encourage discovery.
   c.    Post your videos to your Facebook channel.
   d.    Encourage others to share your video on social media platforms within the video itself by asking people to share it in your video itself and in the description.
   e.    Seed your videos on bookmarking and listing sites.
   f.    Distribute links to your videos in press releases and embed them in social media releases.
   g.    Promote views of your video by buying them through Google Adwords.
   h.    Group your videos into smaller parts and link them all together using playlists.
6. Getting ratings:
   a.    Rank your own video – I’ll never tell.
   b.    Encourage others to rank your video by asking for it within your video, description, etc.

If you don’t have the technical resources, infrastructure or budget to host your own video, YouTube is the best way to get great SEO results for your videos, so make sure you do everything you can to maximize views, ratings and influence.

Optimizing Hosted Video for SEO

Optimizing hosted video is like optimizing video for YouTube.  However, there aren’t hard and fast rules that can be formulated in a handy checklist with specific instructions on fields to use, maximum character counts, and other tidbits of tribal knowledge.  Not much has changed with respect to optimizing hosted videos — it’s a lot like optimizing normal web pages. You have to consider the three main tenants of organic search success:

1. Delivery: Accessibility, geo-gating, speed, video sitemaps, media RSS, multiple formats such as HTML5 vs Flash vs Silverlight, iTunes and iPod/iPad-friendly video types, etc.
2. Content is King: Organization of player code should be as good as a well-optimized web page. Relevance is still important. Use metadata wisely. User experience (especially from organic search) should be paramount.
3. Links: Encourage sharing, allow embedding, watermark your video, submit video to video-specific engines, seed lists and bookmarking sites.

Although video isn’t new to the web, many marketers and businesses fail to make the best use of tools and social networks that will take their video and SEO results to the next level.  If you’re going to invest time and money in boosting your SEO efforts this year, do yourself a favor and consider video in your marketing mix. You’ll be glad you did.

The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) recently put on a combined event in Las Vegas for their annual RTDNA @ NAB 2010 conference. Over the course of four days, Marketwire’s Media Relations team was there in full force, not only to represent the company, but to educate ourselves on the future of broadcast media and to meet members of the press from all over the world. The team also split up to attend a variety of sessions and keynote speeches to keep our collective finger on the pulse of current media trends.  Session highlights included:

• New Technology on a Budget: Olivia Ma of YouTube Direct, Jay Nix of KSHB-TV, and Mark Toney of Smith-Geiger presented options for free news-gathering, how to utilize social networking sites such as Twitter, and “backpack journalism.”
• NAB Show Opening Reception/Luncheon: NAB President Gordon Smith discussed the challenges facing broadcasters in the digital age and emphasized the importance of free local news coverage, especially pertaining to weather services and Amber Alerts.
• Producing News Content with Your Phone: Tiffany Campbell of seattletimes.com reviewed different ways to cover breaking stories with your smartphone, utilizing apps such as twitpic, twitvid, ustream and Photoshop for iPhones.  Campbell revealed that news consumers are most concerned with getting their content quickly and conveniently – aesthetics are less important, so image quality can take a backseat to currency.  Additionally, the use of hashtags in tweets is important to ensure your news can be searched.
• News & Product Integration: Too Close for Comfort?: Although the separation between news and advertising should remain, locally sponsored segments are important to viewers, advertisers and news directors because they maintain a sense of relevancy for viewers in their local markets.  Sponsorships are generally not mentioned, especially when using an advertiser as an “expert,” in order to maintain the credibility of the news organization (no “pay to play”).
• Future of Broadcast News: Russ Mitchell of CBS Evening News moderated this session about how broadcasters can seek new opportunities out of slashed budgets, reduced staff  and advances in social media.
• Making Money Out of Metrics: Dan Shelley of RadioOne, Inc. presented the best methods for utilizing your website’s analytics to turn a profit and revealed what really counts as far as page clicks, unique visitors, etc.

Conference season is always exciting for us and there are several coming up for Marketwire’s Media Relations team. Next one up:  Hispanic PR & Social Media Conference in Dallas, May 10-12 – hope to see you there!

On any given day, one needs look no further than Marketwire’s newsroom to see the wide range of content and types of press releases issued by our clients: breaking news, media advisories, product launches, Social Media 2.0, foreign-language news, and much more.   And, while there is no “one size fits all” for press releases, our clients are using multimedia content – embedded photos, video and audio – more than ever before.  Sharing richer, more colorful stories with the media and consumers, engaging online audiences and taking advantage of universal search are just some of the reasons why.  Lest you think that incorporating video into your press releases and having it hosted on Marketwire’s YouTube channel isn’t worth the effort, consider this:  In 2009, the top 10 most-viewed videos that were included in our clients’ press releases garnered nearly 300,000 views.  (Don’t forget that YouTube as a search engine is second only to Google!)

And now, the top 10 most-viewed YouTube videos as submitted by Marketwire clients in 2009, ranked in order of views:

RIM Introduces the BlackBerry Tour Smartphone

BlackBerry Bold 9700 Smartphone

T-Mobile USA and RIM Introduce the New Blackberry Curve 8520

Pepperoni Pizza Sings in New TOBASCO(R) Sauce TV Ad

Aer Lingus: 999 Nudes Bared Their No Hidden Extras

One in two Teens Believe Wearing Metal Braces Makes Them Self-Concious About Smiling; Lowers Self-Esteem, According to New National Survey

Disney’s THE LION KING Celebrates Las Vegas Premiere at Mandalay Bay

MOTOR TREND Names Subaru Outback 2010 Sport/Utility of the Year(R)

Santa Comes to Life in Personalized Video Messages

Le Père Noël prend vie dans des messages vidéo personnalisés

And, honorable mention goes to these three videos:

Bette Midler ‘The Showgirl Must Go On’ Celebrates 100th Show

“The Fall of America and the Western World” Documentary Is a Survival Guide

Actress Glenn Close to Appear on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ in Support of Puppies Behind Bars

I hope you enjoyed Marketwire’s first annual look at the most-viewed client YouTube videos, and I hope you continue to harness the power of video in your releases in 2010.

Happy Holidays!

After an eventful first day, Day 2 of the Online News Association’s annual conference opened with a bang as CEO/Founder Lisa Stone, BlogHer, talked about the evolution of “the mommy media.”  She spoke about the transformation of B2B and B2C marketing through blogging.

Some of the top sessions centered on hot-button topics, such as “Journalism for the Mobile Generation” with panelists like Benjamin Moss, director of mobile products, Associated Press.

Other sessions discussed the ethical considerations the media must take into account when using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and included tutorials on best practices when using SEO and SEM to reach your audiences. Take a look at J.D Lasica’s (founder, Socialmedia.biz) presentation on social media best practices.

My personal favorite was “The State of Global Innovation,” which brought to light the latest trends and advancements in online news abroad.

Overall, the conference was a huge success.  Our team was introduced to some of the top dogs at CBS Interactive, O Globo, YouTube, Twitter, Yahoo!, and Google.  Check out Evan Williams’ (founder, Twitter) keynote session:

We walked away with ideas that are invaluable to us as media professionals.  Additionally, we collected information we can share cross-departmentally that will ultimately shape us to be a better communications company.  A great opportunity to listen to knowledgeable speakers — visit the following link to see a list of speakers from ONA 2009.

The fifth annual Online News Association conference is being held this year in San Francisco and includes an amazing line-up of speakers and networking opportunities.  At the top of the conference, participants had already learned about Twisten.fm (Pandora’s cousin – a social media site for music), Muckrack (a journalist-only Twitter feed), and caught a quick glimpse of Yahoo!’s new editorial style guide. We collected a ton of marketing shwag and chatted with the editorial director of CNNMoney.com.

In the interest of objectivity, all media organizations provide great networking opportunities, but the information we obtain and relationships we forge at the Online News Association conference are invaluable to the livelihood of our business with respect to media relations.

This conference poses a question: Do you mourn the death of traditional media? According to Leo Laporte, host of ”This Week in Tech,” a netcast on TWiT.tv, the answer is “no.”  He says to embrace the transformation and remember that the public will always need great storytellers.

Sessions on the horizon include “Producing Content with Your Phone” and “From Flip to Web Via iMovie” – topics that are sure to shape the online news industry.

Check out the full speech, included below.