How To Improve your Video and Images for Higher Ranking in the Search Engines.
Acquiring SEO and traffic to your Blog or Website using great content, titles, descriptions, and keywords etc. has always been a subtle yet powerful strategy in the Blogging community. Many new businesses and individuals don't start off blogging or creating websites with the understanding of how SEO (Search Engine Optimization) works, or why it might be important to their success. In time... they learn. We all do.
In my travels around the country teaching SEO, Blogging, and Social Networking, the one thing that is least talked about or questioned is the power of video and images. You hear "Content is King" but you won't hear or learn that video and images are the most viewed and sought after items on the Internet. Could this be one of the reasons Google has links to them at the top of every search results page?
How do you get YOUR Video and Images to show at the Top of the Search Engine Results?
Matt Cutts from Google explains a few ways you can accomplish this. He shares some great ideas and tips on using and adding meta-data and user generated content. The idea of using captioning in Video is brilliant! You provide the transcripts and youtube will auto-align the text.
Creating captioning is easier than you may think, Matt and others do this on every video and I can show you how.
Matt also shares some great ideas on how to use flickr, he gives some great examples and says “it’s almost like crowd sourcing!” Flickr has great SEO but you need to understand how to use tags, descriptions and some of the tips in this video will assist you in knowing how and why.
If you create and use your own pictures, images, or video, and you want to get views, traffic, and ultimately generate leads and business, it's important to know a few key things including the SEO tips Matt shares in this video. It's also important to know that SEO isn't the only key ingredient that gets your material found on the web. Apply the concept that "Content Is King" to images and video, along with these tips and you've won 90% of the battle.
I find this info fascinating & yet it can be so overwhelming. I am going to follow that adage "How Do You Eat An Elephant"? One bit @ a time. I am looking forward to gaining this knowledge and putting it into use. Thanks.
Thanks Brad...i'm doing it in baby steps but i'm totally empowered to try more...you are such a help!
Brad, thanks for this information, I use youTube a lot and I need to ensure I use Matt's tips!
Wonderful info! My flip video camera and I thank you!
Brad - Another great emphasis needed in my SEO. It is so key to have the right words and meta tags in the content and now adding video and images as well. Gotta love the google juice. I need to incorporate it now into my blogs and get on the rise on the page. Because I am terrible at it now.
I know I need to be better about using both Flickr and Video, heck even combining them and making videos of the area out of my photos would be a great idea. I guess you have giving me a project over the next couple weeks.
Baby steps is correct, one bite at a time. We all started at the beginning and had to "Crawl" our way up the ladder to learn this stuff. The beauty is that the learning curve and time it takes to accomplish what took many of us years can now be done in days, hours, and literally minutes.
When I learned that adding captioning to video would help with SEO, it made more sense to me that the text was right there included with the video so of course the SEO would improve, but what I didn't know was how easy it is to do once you figure it out... or in this case, once somebody shows you how. That might just be my next post if there's enough interest from all the AR peeps and friends. :-)
Thanks, Brad. I'll study this later today. I'd definitely like another post on this subject, or perhaps an University dlass?
I love learning all this good stuff you bring us, but some of it just has to sit on the back burner while I take my baby steps.
This is fun stuff, for sure. I absolutely LOVE using YouTube and Flickr within blog posts but I know there is ssoooo much more for me to learn about ALL of this stuff.
Brad, thanks again, my man...
Hi Brad, I have been a big Flickr fan for a long time when I first noticed what great Google juice it gets. I have even left some comments on your most recent photos.
I noticed that Google has changed the whole look of their images. It is nice and clean and you have to cursor over the photo to see the info on it.
AR members should who tag the photos they submit on their posts should be able to find lots of them on Google images. I think it's important to make sure you include your name as one of the tags so when someone "googles" your name and selects images your photos will pop up.
Also the name of your community.
Question: I've often wondered if you add a slide show on AR if Google sees the photos individually?
Brad, I do my own photography. Thanks for the post with the video and links.
And you need to be very careful with Flickr. They have very strict terms of use and they have a whole bunch of kumbaya bloggers on there who love to snitch on anything that smells like soliciting, anything smells like anything other than all free, calls to action, etc. I know agents and small biz owners who have had their accounts shut down.
Posterous is very good for images and Google has a love affair with Posterous right now.
And of course, youtube is awesome for SEO! An agent I know just auditioned for HGTV because they found him on youtube!
Brad - I've bookmarked this - Another project for me to absorb and learn. Thank you!!
Hi Evelyn - sorry about that, it must be that a lot of folks are watching it right now. I just hit play and it seemed to load and play fine so it m,ay also be the internet connection or maybe AR is loading it slower than normal. Thanks for being patient, I hope the information is worth the wait for you. :-))
Howdy and afternoon to you Brad
This all sure does sound mighty fine!!! I have learned and use photos the right spots with in my blog posts. Thanks to y'all. Need to start learning about puting videos in my blog posts, to take advantage of the SEO of using them.
I'm going to be having an AR Tennessee member, good friend of mine call you. She is a real nice and kind lady. And she needs our help, in the community.
Have a good one
Dale in New Hampshire
Brad, I keep telling myself that this is the week I'm going to start doing the videos. I've gotten the equipment, I just have to use it!
I had no idea. I've loaded a BUNCH of pics on Flickr, but never took the time to label or tag. I'll go back and do that.
Thanks very much for the heads-up...
Thanks for sharing these tips Brad and links to other helpful video tips. I've bookmarked this post for later use.
Hi Brad,
Thanks for such great information....
I guess I should open a flickr account. One more thing to put on my long list of goals. Thanks!
Hey Brad,
Thanks a million for this.
So if I'm understanding correctly I can go back into my previously posted videos and upload the transcript to be added after the video, right? I'll need to create the transcript myself because most of mine are not scripted, yet dialogued.
Now a question, do you think it's helpful to add the word video on your title?
Yes, there's interest! When asked to suggest topics for rebarcamp rdu, video was the topic I mentioned, and the response was that several people were asking for that. Please, pretty please????
Hi Brad, thank you again for sharing and educating us, great info
Hi Brad - I will need to come back to your post later to view the video. I'm currently on a slow wireless connection and the audio is very broken up and download speed is slow. However, the closed captioning was very useful. One important use of closed captioning is that people who are "secretly" surfing the internet (e.g. at work, late at night at home etc.) can obtain the message of the video without turning on the sound.
so KOOL and thank you for sharing
Brad - Great information as usual!
Hi Brad...another great how to Post..I think I'll be revisiting my YouTube and tweaking the meta-data.
Thank Brad you as always Rock !
I'll be book marking another one of you how to posts...thanks !
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read, watch the video (when it finally loads... lol) and comment. I was going to post the tutorial for how to do the transcripts and captioning, but I'm trying to help out in the AR Ticket Box right now and we are really backed up. I'll try to throw something together real soon though.
Jenny - I don't think that search engines see each slide or image in a slide show, I'd have to look into that one to be sure but I'm thinking no.
Katerina - kumbaya bloggers?? lol~
Dale - have her call me, I'd be happy to help her out! Thanks. :-)
Connie - This is the week!!!
Waynette - sorry, didn't mean to make more work for you, hopefully it wil pay off though.
Sharon - the whole page??? WooHoo! You go!!!
Sandy - you can also give them title tags and descriptions when loading them into your AR posts... just fyi.
Lynda - first off, it's great to see you. :-) What I've learned is that Youtube will create a transcript in most cases but it will need to be edited, saved, and then re-uploaded. I'll do a post on how to do that when I get a chance to come up for air. I don't think it's important to add the word "video" into your title but maybe in the description, or keyword tags. I would have to test that one out and do a little more research to be certain.
Margaret - that word "please" gets me every time! Call me, lets talk.
Marc - your video issue seems to be a common problem here, sorry about that, it might be my Blog or an AR issue too.
Everyone else - thanks for your comments, I'll be back later,
I gotta head back to the dungeon and get those tickets outta there!! :-)
Ahhh... thanks Barbara - I'm really glad someone thinks so... (Big Smile) :-))
Thanks Brad for this post. Hasn't everything(technology) changed since you were in West Tennessee about 2 years ago? I still use my flip vido camera you encouraged me to buy.
Super d dooper stuff. This is just another great way to improve SEO on our sites.
Mike - oh everything has changed alright, that's for sure. Hope all is well my friend. :-)
Dan - seems there's always a new or better way to improve SEO, it's nice to discover these little pearls of wisdon to share with others.
Brad - I am NOT blaming your blog or ActiveRain for the video download / synch issues in my comment #30 above. I was using a wireless connection at a free wifi location that I have never used in the past and it had poor signal strength. It didn't appear that I was getting very much bandwidth on the connection and thus, I gave up at looking at the video at the time.
Haha Marc, no worries, I knew you weren't blamimg anyone. I have High speed Internet access here and it still takes a few minutes to load. Funny, if you click on the title of the video in the top of the player, it loads and plays instantly on youtube, even on a dial up computer modem. Guess there's always something to try and figure out around here, keeps me busy for sure. lol~ :-))
In other words we've gone way past "can you hear me now" to "can you see (and hear?) me now".
Great tips!
I shall assimilate into my master plan to conquer the earth!
Thx. I'll have to come back and rewatch the video. I seem to be having connection challenges today. I'm going to reblog, too, so I don't lose it.
Brad, thanks for your help as always, you make it sound so easy!
Brad, thanks for the laser targeted tip. Another important task to add to my internet marketing project plan which already has 1,000 line items...
very cool Brad! You could get a lot of meta data if we helped label your new vacation pictures :)
Brad,
Hmm, Flickr having that much juice is something that needs to be looked into pronto. It never stops. There is always something new to tinker with.
As a commercial broker, I've started to add visual tours to my listings and am getting great reviews from my property owners. I seem to be on the cutting edge with my competition. Next is to add them to my blogs.
Jim - that was funny... I hear ya!! lol~
Ralph - conquer away, I'm right behind ya! :-)
Hi Marianne - I use my iPhone, a flip video, my digital camera, and now I have a Kodak HD Flip video. Love em all~
Debbie - thanks for the reblog, that was sweet. You can always view the video directly on youtube if it's too slow on AR.
Yvette - it gets easier once you know the secrets and tricks. Or just hang out with me and I'll share and show you this stuff.
Dave - sounds like you got quite the list going, similar to my "honey-do" list? (hehe)
Maya - if I had the time to practice what I preach, I'm not sure I'd be working here. lol~ How much would you charge me to help with the titles, descriptions, and meta-tagging for all my flickr photos? lol~
Esko - Jeff Turner told me a couple years ago to watch out for flickr and the SEO generated there, I trusted and believed him then and it's been proven now. Pronto would be good timing my friend. :-)
Barbara - no problem, your gratitude is always appreciated. Thanks.
Sue - if you need any help with that and can't find a tutorial, let me know, I'd be happy to show you how it works and how simple it is. I did a class over at AR U a while back and everyone really liked that portion of the class.
Joe - you're on it and adding them to your blog posts and sites is easier than you may think.
This is great information although a bit overwhelming at the moment. I have a library of wonderful AR teachings. Thanks to everyone!
Thanks for the info Brad, we heard that you can do some great things with the Kodak z8i a relative of the Flip camera. The main difference is the Kokak has an input for a microphone. We heard people will watch a video even if the quality is not so great, but will leave quickly if it has bad sound.
I do love my Kodak (HD Video camera) and yes, the audio is phenominal and a very important component of quality video. Bad sound will definitely lose visitors quickly.
Wow, what's next. This will be great, I think?
Thanks Brad! I will be adding this post to my bookmarks, and catching up on it. Right now I'm trying to get my new laptop to go wireless, and thats the priority for the moment. But I will check it out because you always give great suggestions! Thank You!
Love the tips but I'm not sure I'm camera material. But the neighborhoods I visit are.
Thanks for the educational post, Brad...I re-blogged it! :)
Leilani
Brad, thanks for the great information. I just talked about this in my online marketing class for realtors! What a perfect time to reblog your post!
I've got so much to learn. I wish the draft review class wasn't cancelled.
Just saw your meta tag response ~ I would work on it for you! You've done so much for me and for us all. I'm grateful!
Brad, Video marketing is my next focus. I'm bookmarking this post! Thanks for your endless sharing of information!
Hi Ruth - I'm actually in NY (Long Island) at the MLS Tech Fair and one of our panels today is talking about video and social media, sure wish you were here to join us. If you leave now, you might still make it! :-))
MLS Tech Fair - Long Island
Brad, Nope, can't make New York. Matter of fact, can't even make New Orleans. Where's your next stop???
Ruth - we may just have to have you come to the "Z"academy online Campus, I'll have to put together a "Video Marketing" class so you won't have to travel. I'll let you and the rest of the AR community know when I have it all put together. Very soon, I promise. :-)
Brad, That would be WONDERFUL! Count me in (I'll be keeping my eyes open for the announcement!)
Hey Ruth - we're still working on the Zillow Academy Campus, but the first class is next Monday (it's not video, it's widgets) but you're always welcome to join us anytime. We'll do video sometime in the near future once everything gets settled in. :-)
Brad, Bookmarked for sure! I am flying to Dallas next week to attend a video conference put on my Brain and Frank of TBWSdaily and the Mortgage Marketing Animals and Ron Quintcero...three days of complete immersion. I am expecting to rock the world with video very shortly. LOL
Hey Deborah - looking forward to a "Rocking World" with you in charge!!
Happy Holidays if I don't talk to you before years end. :-)
PS - Tell Frank and Brian I said Hi ~
Brad, When is the class on video? Missed the one on widgets, but don't want to miss the one on videos!
Hi Ruth - I will be doing some video classes over at ZillowAcademy after the start of the new year. If you need some help before then, feel free to contact me anytime, I'd be happy to try and help. :-)
Hello Brad,
Great post, was not aware that pictures could play such an important role in SEO optimization.
Was not aware also that Flickr picture could help in the SEO Optimization.