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Based on a lot of the things written about videos, you’d think the search engines were pausing during their crawls to fill themselves in on the content of your videos.

Of course, this isn’t true.  For all the artificial intelligence that search engines are putting into their algorithms, the little darlings still can’t see – besides that, they can’t hear the voice over on a video to determine what it’s about.

Why Do So Many People Stress Website Videos?

Website visitors love videos.  It gives theam a break from reading, and you can often communicate something much  easier and more clearly on a video.

In addition, search engines like “seeing” videos on your website because it means that you are keeping up with technology, and offering your visitors a richer experience on your website.

While the engines can’t watch your video, they can see that it exists on a page because of the code required to display the video.

How to Make a Video as Useful as Possible

1.  Don’t Talk too Long

People have very short attention spans and won’t sit still very long.  A number often bandied about is less than 3 minutes.   Of course, it depends on what the video is for.  If you’re trying to explain how a short sale can avoid foreclosure, you may need 3 minutes.  If you’re trying to get people to sign up for a special report, the shorter the better.  That type of video is more like an advertisement.

If you can’t fit everything you want to say into a short video, you’re much better off doing multiple videos on the same topic.  Just make sure people know how to get to the other videos in the series.

2.  Use Your Video as a Marketing Tool

I know that if you’re making a video about how short sales can avoid foreclosure, at least part of your motivation (I hope) is to help some poor folks who are in a bind.   The other part of your motivation should be to build your business.  So, don’t forget to ask for the business at the appropriate time.

Maybe something like “We have managed 40 short sale transactions and have saved all 40 families from declaring bankruptcy or going through a foreclosure.  If you are having problems with your mortgage payments, call us at 888-999-6666, or send an email to Us@Ourwebsite.com.  We’d be glad to offer you a free consultation to identify the best way for you to proceed.”

3.  Set Up Your Video to be Attractive to Search Engines

Since the search engines can’t see the video, they depend on the SEO-related characteristics of the video to determine value.

• Make Sure that You Use Keyword Phrases in the Title of the Video.  If you’re uploading to YouTube, don’t ignore the description field, either.  Make sure you write a concise description that highlights the key benefits of the video, including the use of your keyword phrases.  Don’t overdo it and stuff keywords everywhere, though!

• Display the Video in as Many Places as You Can Find.  You should always upload videos to YouTube.  Done properly, they end up in a lot of Google searches.   Create a channel for your business where you can send people to see all of your videos in one place.

Google also offers a service called “Video for Business”.  There is a fee involved, $5.00/month for each user account.  I haven’t heard of a lot of people using this service, and I haven’t seen a lot of videos from this service in search results.  But, it’s not a bad idea to be aware of what Google is doing.

There are other places where videos can be displayed:  on the appropriate page of your website and on the appropriate posts on your blog.  And, don’t forget to announce new videos on your Facebook page, Twitter, Linkedin and any other social networks you participate in.

4.  Use the Secret Weapon for Obtaining Reader and Search Engine Points.

I hate to admit it, but I’m one of what is probably a small number of people who generally don’t like videos.

I know, it sacrilegious.   But, unless the subject is very technical, or I enjoy the speaking style of the presenter, or I’m bored (which practically never happens), I would much rather read a transcript of the video.  Providing a transcript will help your visitors.  Besides folks who would rather just read the transcript, there is another group who want to watch the video and read the transcript.

As for the search engines, they CAN read transcripts.  So, if you really want your video to improve your SEO and end up in more search results, a transcript is definitely what you need.

There are a couple ways to get transcripts.  Let’s assume that the video you’re creating is a bit more complex than the videos you see of people talking while driving in the car.  If you really were doing a video about short sales, I would suggest that you put some thought into what you’re going to say and how.

In fact, writing a script, or at least a set of bullet points will go a long way toward making your video as professional as possible.  It doesn’t mean that you’re going to read the script on the video, but you should be familiar enough with it so that information comes out in the right order, and you’re not skipping around, for example.  You also don’t want to forget an important fact.

If you have a script, you practically have a transcript.

The other alternative is to hire a Virtual Assistant to create a transcript.  You may already have a VA.  You could also look into using a transcriptionist.  Do a search for video transcriptionist.  You’ll find a number of companies you can evaluate.  The fees I saw were somewhere around $1.50-3 per minute of the recording.

 What’s been your experience?  Are you using videos?
If you’ve posted transcriptions with the video, how did you do in the search engines?