What are the SEO best practices for Video optimization?

We all know that videos are powerful ways of spreading your message but how do we make the most of this powerful medium?

Here are some SEO tips that will help you market your videos more effectively.

1. Naming the video file:

It is very important that you use a relevant name for the video. For instance, if the video is about photography then you might consider naming the file on the basis of what the video is about, if it is about teaching basic photography skills then the name could be something like “Photography basics” or something else but it should that clearly define what your video is all about.

2.Video Content:

Before publishing your videos, give your content some thought.You should be able to answer these:-

Who is the target audience?

Is the video specific to a certain region?

Is it in a different language?

and more…

Once you have answers to the above questions, it will be easier for you to produce content that will appeal to your target audience. The quality of the video also needs to be kept in mind. YouTube has some options to edit and enhance the videos and you might want to utilize those options to optimize the quality of the video.

3. Attractive and relevant title:

As with almost everything that you wish to promote online, the title or the caption of the video happens to be the most critical part of your optimization activity. It is important that you get it right. From among so many videos that a searcher comes across while searching, your video must stand out, in order to get noticed. Your title should be so interesting that at one glance visitors would want to click on the video and find out more. Your title should also contain relevant keyword/key phrase or synonyms or any indicative term that closely describes the video.

4. Video Description:

The video description also plays quite an important role, at least two-three lines of description shows up along with the video and the title on the SERPS. It is therefore important that your description is an exciting summary of what is going to come in the video. The description should contain relevant keywords and key phrases.

5. Tags:

Selecting tags that are relevant for the video is another essential step. YouTube will provide you some basic suggestions only. You might want to do a thorough keyword research and include relevant keywords and key phrases that the visitors are searching for.

6. Assigning your video to a category:

Choose the correct category for your video from the list of categories that are available in video sharing sites such as YouTube.

7. Popularizing videos through social networking sites:

Last but not the least, make your videos popular by sharing it to all the social networking sites. The default options that YouTube offers is Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. But you can popularize your video on the other social sites as well by sharing directly on those sites.

Even after your video has got published, you can go back and edit the video. I would recommend that you give it some time, go over the analytics report and then make
changes.

Being socially active on YouTube and other networking sites will certainly help in promoting your videos. In YouTube you can subscribe to channels, view videos, and participate. You might want to subscribe to channels on YouTube that correspond to your interests, that way you can reach out to your target audience as well.

Also, don’t forget to promote your videos from your website and other platforms so that your video gets maximum views. Make it easy for people to share your videos by providing links.

The SEO principles and SEO best practices remain the same, no matter which medium or platform you are using online, all you need to remember is to use ethical SEO practices and focus on providing content that is of value to your visitors.