SEO & Videos

[ep2012]

Ok, so I guess we have to face facts, video isn't going anywhere & it's quickly becoming the way that people are selling their products.

We are about to ditch the copy & go for a video based on someone's expertise opinion, BUT, he failed to mention how we deal with SEO. So, what do I do now if we remove all the copy except a few headlines? This is kind of scaring me.

Thanks


Michelle

[keyon]

So, what do I do now if we remove all the copy except a few headlines?
Guess I'm not understanding why you feel that using video means you have to ditch copy. My perspective on using video as a marketing tool is that it simply supports/enhances the content you already have in place. If we're talking about your own website page, you'd certainly want to include plenty of descriptive copy about the video on that page. Even if we're talking about a YouTube page itself, probably a good idea to include "copy" with the video -- a well-written description, a complete video transcript, etc.

[freehits]

How where when and why? If you are adding video to an established site, well thats "adding" so should only make more materieal for the G? Why does it mean removing anything?
Show the pages you plane to add video and what you plan to remove. .. adding is always more. And the video transcript is a great idea, done that one before. Its like an SEO teleprompter.

[ep2012]

Hey, just telling you what the experts say. The text distracts, the video should be the full focus of their attention. He said only use a heading at the top of the video.

Trust me, I ain't keeping all that copy LOL, I currently have the long sale letter technique which isn't working well anymore.


Michelle

[keyon]

Hey, just telling you what the experts say. The text distracts, the video should be the full focus of their attention. He said only use a heading at the top of the video.

Kind of sounds like you're talking about a landing page? In which case, maybe it's not something that needs to be optimized for organic search results to begin with? Sure, I can see the logic of keeping text off a page -- that is, if you already have a means of getting traffic to that page, and the sole purpose of that page is to simply get people to click the play button. All depends on what your particular marketing strategy is.

[ep2012]

Kind of sounds like you're talking about a landing page? In which case, maybe it's not something that needs to be optimized for organic search results to begin with? Sure, I can see the logic of keeping text off a page -- that is, if you already have a means of getting traffic to that page, and the sole purpose of that page is to simply get people to click the play button. All depends on what your particular marketing strategy is.

Well it's the index page, but it's not a blank landing page with a list to sign up to if that's what you meant. I guess there are different types of landing pages.

Since I ONLY rely upon Organic traffic, I need the SEO in place.


Michelle

[ep2012]

Videos are more concerned with Branding and not with SEO, I also tried is a year before but couldn't find the right path with it, so now back to SEO :-?

The video is for selling, it just replaces the text to sell. All text, videos, etc. deal with branding, that's not what I'm talking about. My question is, how do I deal with SEO since there won't be text on the page anymore.


Michelle

[keyon]

Well it's the index page...Since I ONLY rely upon Organic traffic, I need the SEO in place.

Well in that case, deciding to "ditch the copy" seems extremely counterproductive in regard to SEO. You could certainly place the video at the top of the page, and then just run all of your text below. With that arrangement, I don't think the text would "distract" from the video. In fact most of the copy would probably appear below the fold anyway.

[keyon]

My question is, how do I deal with SEO since there won't be text on the page anymore.
Don't remove the text.

[ep2012]

Don't remove the text.

I have to disagree. The whole point is to get sales. If the text wasn't distracting it would be left there. The whole point of the video is to sell, not give them a reason to back out b/c they get overwhelmed with the text or there's something they don't like about the text that makes them back out even though the video sold them.

The video is meant to be there to replace the text, not add to it.

I thought there was a way to SEO a video (somehow), maybe with the text within the video. I take it no one has come up with a solution to this problem yet.


Michelle

[keyon]

I have to disagree. The whole point is to get sales.
You might be wanting your page to do too many things. Making sales is one thing. Getting organic traffic from search engines is something else.
If you want a super-focused, high-converting webpage that has nothing on it but a video, maybe your traffic should come from somewhere else -- like from a page that is optimized for search engines (with text), PPC ads, affiliates, or other websites.



I take it no one has come up with a solution to this problem yet.
Yeah...it is kind of problem, in regard to how well search engines can interpret the information on a webpage. It's the same dilemma with images. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but it's all lost on search engines. I suppose there are special html tags you can use with video (like with images) to help describe the invisible content, but I'm not sure I would rely too much on that.

[snakeman]

Dear all, I found out the hard way that videos and SEO do go togeather.
As owner of the registered “snakeman” and “snake man” trademarks, I was able to maintain number one on search results without too much difficulty as most people in my business (wildlife education) were ethical and didn’t market themselves using my name.
Anyway, back in about mid 2008 a newly licenced operator decided to milk my business and good name by bootlegging the trademark and optimising his site with on and off page SEO.
As soon as I dropped from one on google, the incoming calls turned off like a tap and I was inundated with complaints about the imposter.
Out went the cease and desist letters commencing Jan 2009, and then I decided to outgun him on two fronts, namely my own SEO efforts and keeping an eye on his own website’s SEO.
He tried all sorts of black hat methods to maintain primacy and succeeded for over two years in maintaining number one position and taxing my business to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars in lost income.
He had agreed to cease and desist using the trademark, but was hooked on the income he was stealing from me, so made sure he remained number one of the organic (SEO) results.
Eventually in mid 2011 I looked more closely at his site and it’s SEO and found that he had backlinks all over the place, but of relevance here was that the overwhelming majority were ones he’d placed on video sites such as youtube, for which he had over 800 youtube pages, each with backlinks to his webpage for the term “snakeman”.
I petitioned youtube to remove the sites on the basis of trademark violation, which they did and this single act was enough to knock him from number one for all searches, to allow my site to (properly) replace his position.
See the full story at:
http://www.smuggled.com/trademark-infringement-online-breach-bootlegger-loses-over-800-illegal-webpages.htm
But please note it took google and bing several months to recognise the dead backlinks and alter their results accordingly.
I have now briefed lawyers in terms of the trademark thief for these trademark breaches, others, defamation and a raft of other stuff.
But what became clear was that google rates video sites highly and backlinks from them also rate highly.
In terms of SEO for videos themselves, I have seen it written elsewhere and agree it’s true, that if you name your video in terms of what you want it to rate for in search, it is a reasonable form of SEO.
I uploaded a video with the exact words trademark infringement, the url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfWkM8Ls10 and it comes first or second in most google searches for videos for the term, ahead of the many advertising type videos by law firms.
All the best
Snakeman

[ep2012]

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

But I'm talking about replacing my copy with just a video on my site. It's not the same thing as this guy did (I think), as he was putting URLs on videos on YT.


Michelle

[LD]

I, for one, don't usually have time to watch an entire video, even if it's selling something I may be interested in. I'm more of a "scanner" and would rather scan a page for what I need and decide to buy or leave. I'd say, along with a video, you should include text for information, added "sales" (call to action) and the for the optimizing part. Then the visitor has the option to view the video or scan the page for what they need.

[ep2012]

k, maybe what I'll do is offer them one or the other & have them click on one or the other.

Thanks


Michelle

[snakeman]

LD, I think most people (including myself) are like you and only "scan" videos and the like. That's what our adversary counted on with his backlinks. That no one would actually see the videos (all short cuts of rubbish), and yet the backlinks had full link juice.
Which also gets me to another issue.
Most of the video sites have "no follow" on the backlinks but I can say from here the search engines are counting them (I assume the sites are already indexed).
We know this because in the absence of other factors and when we killed over 800 of these no follow links on youtube the offending site dropped from one on all major search engines, (where it had stuck for two years like glue), to way down the page on most SERP's.
All the best
Snakeman

[williamc]

If you are absolutely dead set on removing the copy that is the foundation of any rankings, then think <noembed> and stick the relevent copy in there...

personally, if a page ONLY has a video telling me about it, I generally close the page rather quickly.... IMO: video helps the conversion, but thats in conjunction with the text that I can skim for specifics.

[LD]

The video should usually accommodate a title, a description or summary, and some keywords or tags. For more video optimization read this article. I found this article in google.

I got an email alert for this?? Did you even read any of the posts, never mind reading the thread from beginning?

[#ElsonOnDemand]

I have to disagree...Michelle

A/B Testing is a simple way to see how well your page is converting. Using Google analytics to see what visitors are landing on. You can use CSS and jQuery to organise content around the video so long as the title, metas and h1, h2 tags are accurate and the page has already been crawled it should be easy to tweak your pages to stike the right balance (the rules of writing a good elevator pitch will still apply). Hope this helps.

[TrafficProducer]

IMHO which is not even worth 2 cents this, and it is Tongue in Cheek :)

I guess you want to get tons of subscribers, (don't pay). But just drink 25 cups of strong coffee before shooting video, talk daft and be no older than 25 years

This seems to work looking at YT

[ep2012]

LOL, unfortunately I feel you are RIGHT!!!

This is why the most ugliest of sites that no one can figure out how to navigate (FB anyone) get TONS of traffic & make TONS of money.

Not all nicely done sites that have clear GUI do poorly, but this seems to not be a requisite at all.

The world has gone to hell in a hand basket (what does that even mean literally speaking? LOL)


Michelle

[ep2012]

Do you know anyone who does this type of video?


Michelle

[TrafficProducer]

Do you know anyone who does this type of video? do you meen 25 cups of coffee first, look up Fred on YouTube

[MyRentals]

I have to disagree. The whole point is to get sales. If the text wasn't distracting it would be left there. The whole point of the video is to sell, not give them a reason to back out b/c they get overwhelmed with the text or there's something they don't like about the text that makes them back out even though the video sold them.

The video is meant to be there to replace the text, not add to it.

I thought there was a way to SEO a video (somehow), maybe with the text within the video. I take it no one has come up with a solution to this problem yet.


Michelle

"... just telling you what the experts say......"

Michelle, I'm not sure what proof your experts are giving you, that say a website using videos should dump text in favor of videos.
You mention that you are relying on an Organic audience to generate visits and customers.
You also mention that your current "text" is not working.

There's 2 different aspects to your question:
1) Being visible and ranked well in the search engines so that the "organic" visitors find you.
2) Having an impulsive website/page which keeps the visitor and encourages them to stick around / bookmark you / buy from you.

These two things are not the same!

Video when done well, is engaging and can convert very well. If the video doesn't answer clearly and easily what your visitor is looking for - then they will leave as easily as they arrived.

Video hosted in the right place and with a suitable name and the right length and description [lots of AND's sorry :) ] will certainly be indexed in the search engines. How the search engines rank your video vary much depends on how closely you pay attention to how they rank video content.

One thing is very clear. ALL the main search engines will only give ONE line of videos in the page one of their results pages!!!!!!!!
So focusing on getting your website with video only, to appear high in the organic search results is already a fools errand, as you have just increased the difficulty of achieving your goal drastically.

Example:
For example, the search phrase "New York" shows Google to have around 6.4 billion matches in their results. Google's organic listings show mostly URL's of web pages. They even show 2 lines of Images higher in their results than the 1 line of videos that they show in the first 100 listings. Who would go further back in Google's listings than the first 10 pages anyway ????

Hence - Organically, it makes sense to focus on text and the way your web pages rank in search results than trying to do the equivalent purely with video.

Where Video actually works is where site owners have decent sized subscription lists for emailing - then, its very conceivable to drive traffic directly to a video page and convert the focused audience. Unless video goes viral, (and there's various ways to go about that) the chances of a search engine giving any weight to your video page is extremely slim.
NOTE: Even YouTube doesn't leave its pages purely to video !!!! Think about it, they have numerous text areas on the page including a comments thread - because they know that people like to engage with 'text'.


If you can prove otherwise, then I would be pleased to hear how you achieved it.

Alternatively, share the website you are needing to improve in here, I will be happy to give positive feedback on probable areas and methods of improving whatever conversions you currently have.

Martin ;)

[snakeman]

Martin, I agree with you, especially in the context of youtube and the ability for visitors to post text.
The problem is what happens when you get overwhelmed with SPAM?
And/Or your SPAM blockers don't stop them?

[ep2012]

A/B Testing is a simple way to see how well your page is converting. Using Google analytics to see what visitors are landing on. You can use CSS and jQuery to organise content around the video so long as the title, metas and h1, h2 tags are accurate and the page has already been crawled it should be easy to tweak your pages to stike the right balance (the rules of writing a good elevator pitch will still apply). Hope this helps.

Thanks Elson. This is something I wouldn't have thought of especially b/c I'm not a coder.


Michelle

[ep2012]

Hi Martin,

Well unfortunately, the guy I bought the program from didn't even train his staff how to address the SEO issue which is why I came on here.

Ryan Diess is his name if you keep up on all the IMs.

I still haven't done the video yet, only got someone to write up the copy which was so so.

I like what Elson said & what I concluded after what LD said. Give them an option of which they want.

Here's the 2 sites:

www.exoticpublishing.com
www.becomeanescort.com

Thanks


Michelle

[TrafficProducer]

A Reminder... YouTube, is said to be, the second largest "Search Engine" :)

[MyRentals]

Hi Martin,

Well unfortunately, the guy I bought the program from didn't even train his staff how to address the SEO issue which is why I came on here.

Ryan Diess is his name if you keep up on all the IMs.

I still haven't done the video yet, only got someone to write up the copy which was so so.

I like what Elson said & what I concluded after what LD said. Give them an option of which they want.

Here's the 2 sites:

www.exoticpublishing.com
www.becomeanescort.com

Thanks


Michelle

Hi Michelle, thank you for sharing the site with us. It's certainly a tight niche which IMO has both pros and cons.
I see that you have Analytics connected. I would get a thorough understanding of the activity within those reports. Analytics provides data on where visitors came from as well as what they searched for. It also gives information on how long they stay and how/where they left your site. Understanding how/why/where people left your site is the first indicator to where problems might be in your site. This understanding will allow you to improve things (text and or Video).

Besides studying Analytics, I would also turn my attention to what search terms people are really searching for relating to your niche target. This allows us to think about the structure of key text such as titles and density of the page. It also gives a clear indication of the size of your market.

The main phrase which your website currently targets is "How to Start an Escort Service". According to Google data you have 140x people specifically searching that phrase in the English language globally. The phrase also includes a break out phrase of "Escort Service" clearly appealing to the users of the service with a global monthly count of 49500. This makes me wonder what Analytics shows you is your site bounce rate ?

I mentioned earlier that your niche has pros and cons. The pro is that because the niche is small, the niche competition level in Google is low as is the competition for Adwords PPC, so the click price will also be relatively cheap. The disadvantage is that the true market for your product is slim so you can't afford to make mistakes.

There seems to be a spike demand in Singapore, I would consider having a translated version of your site and video specifically for this region.
Other search phrases suitable to your site include:
• how to start an escort business = 260x p/mth
• how to start an escort agency = 73x p/mth
• how to start a dating service = 73x p/mth
• how to start a escort service business = 73x p/mth
• how to start an escort service business = 46x p/mth
• starting an escort agency = 36x p/mth
• how to run an escort service = 36x p/mth
and a few more with lower monthly averages.

A few things which popped out immediately for me are:

• A quick look at the density of the page tells me that you can rearrange your focus keywords which would encourage the search engines to move you up in the SERPs higher than P7 as well as get you onto Page 1 for some of the phrases I listed above.

• Writing copy for squeeze pages is very specialised to succeed at it. Thinking about the motivations and hesitations of your prospect is key to ensuring that each line of copy helps achieve your goal. Repetition of key points is important, but I do believe the copy can be reduced.

• Portrait Photo: Anything pointing towards business creation should have a polished professional looking photo. Dress to impress with business subjects. I personally would organise a photographer with lighting equipment to give you a mini photo session. Its a good investment for a cost of around £200. Either dominatrix or suited would work well for you. The important thing is that the audience perception and faith in your product would increase.

• Your supporting pages at the bottom of the squeeze page need to have the same look and feel as your squeeze page for people to believe that they are not being taken advantage of. Also, it is proven that any website selling something directly on the page needs to have within their contact page a regular postal address as well as your telephone number.

• Your earnings claims might well be realistic considering the business service, however the claims need to be believable by your audience. Maybe it would be better to undersell and over deliver this phrase.

• Visitors are fickle things and if they don't immediately see what they are looking for, they often leave. I would consider getting your opening title into a form that allows your visitor to instantly know what your offer is - then, how it will change their lives. I had to read 6 lines of text before I knew what your site is offering.

• Your 45 minute personal coaching session should be the peak point of your product offering. You have totally under valued it with a price tag of $45 and that statement alone would switch me off from your offering immediately. You position yourself as the authority in your market place with valuable experience. You are sharing your experience in your book/guide so that others can be profitable. What is better than reading how to do it ? Speaking with the expert privately in a conversation of course!
Take the hourly rate of a patent lawyer as an example: a professional in their field. Would they open their mouths for less than $500 to teach anybody their trade ?? I guess not. As a prospect, reading your squeeze page - I'd wonder how valuable and helpful your product is seeing as you only place a $45 value on your time. The most valuable thing in the world is experience... You are worth a lot more, so say it.

Your prospects are buying into an image, an idea and hopefully a way of life. Feed them the "short" story, set the scene and explain to them how you can deliver that dream in reality. They need to trust that what you are offering is going to deliver on its promises. They need to trust you. Hype is just that, hype and is found everywhere these days in the eyes of the skeptic majority.

VIDEO: Whether you supplement your site with video or not, the most important aspect of your site is every bit of it will need to look professional. Your audience has a specific personality, they will be stepping out of the ordinary expectations of civilization, they are focused on customer service of a personal nature and probably have an eye for detail. For you to succeed over your competition for your product, your copy; layout and presentation needs to match the probable expectations of your prospects. This is also true with your video production also, either very clean and crisp or luxurious surroundings and suitable lighting. I recommend combining a wide format video as the feature of the page which doesn't load until they click an image presentation of the video area.


That's my thoughts anyway. I hope that maybe a few bits of it you might consider useful. :)

Martin.

[MyRentals]

Martin, I agree with you, especially in the context of youtube and the ability for visitors to post text.
The problem is what happens when you get overwhelmed with SPAM?
And/Or your SPAM blockers don't stop them?

Yep! every good idea gets run over by those wishing to abuse things. I love YouTube and what it brings to the marketing table, let alone pure entertainment value. SPAM is a constant battle everywhere. My hosting servers deal with 10's of thousands of spam attacks daily.

I don't know the efficient answer to handling SPAM in a YouTube page or anywhere else. The more popular a video, the more Spammers it attracts of course !!

[ep2012]

Hi Martin,

I'm soooo sorry, I am not sure if I received the e-mail or got so busy I ddin't look at your comments.

Thank you so much for your input & time, that means a lot to me.

I'm going to hire someone to redo the copy as soon as the funds allow for it & I'm moving to WP soon. I hope all these things will help.

I hope you are doing well.


Michelle