RealTown's RealTalk

I know we have discussed adding video to web sites and there appears to be a consensus that Google etc. like video and rewards sites that use it.

The next question is how to host video. Does it make sense to link to a video that has been uploaded to YouTube or WellcomeMat for example or is it better to host your own video? It occurs to me that video filescan be pretty huge.

Any thoughts?

Bernard Gibbons

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Bernard Gibbons, Realtor, e-PRO Certified Internet Specialist
J. Rockcliff Realtors, 15 Railroad Avenue, Danville, CA 94526
Phone (925) 997-1585
bernard@bernardgibbons.com
www.bernardgibbons.com

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Bernard,

Absolutely use You Tube! But, if you are looking to optimize within your own website, use images and work on the alt tags.

If you can get a decent amount of ratings on YT and views.. Your video could show up on the SERPS.

I would absolutely NOT use YouTube! First of all, at the end of the video other video "options" appear that you "may be interested in"... why would you want to get rid of your viewer that quickly? Plus.. who knows what those related videos are! A stripper video?

Secondly, YouTube quality is the worst... and the best. They have a hi def version which chokes most connections, and their regular definition is absolutely awful. Some YouTube videos also contain advertising. Do you want your viewers to see that? Using YouTube as your main hosting platform is generally not advised. It makes you look unprofessional, unfortunately.

How many 'views' a video gets on YouTube won't get you any better search engine rankings either. I've had videos rank on page one of Google that have had 2 views. It's not about 'views'. It's about tagging your videos with the correct keywords, the correct keywords in the subject line and and correct title of your video file using those same keywords.

Search engines can't 'see video. Good SEO from video comes via the video sharing sites, not your personal website. Some (not all) get indexed and ranked in search engines (assuming you do all of the above correctly). Many do not. I've had videos rank on page one of Google within 4 hours of uploading for the TOP keyword search for that particular area.

The only way your personal site will be helped by video is by surrounding the video with relevant keywords in the text descriptions, page headers, titles, etc. - the same thing you do with an html web page. As of right now (although I'm it will be changing), search engines cannot index or rank based on the spoken word of your video - but they're working on it!) It's all based on the keywords surrounding the video - whether it's on your site or on a video sharing site. We upload our real estate videos to over 12 video sites for all of our customers as part of our services - any good video tour provider should do that for you, keyed properly for maximum effectiveness.

The other benefit of having video on your site is stickiness - people will stay on your site longer. They're more engaged. And (good video) makes you appear far more professional and can give you a huge, competitive edge.

If you want to host your videos on a video sharing site, be sure to check the terms of service. Sites such as VIMEO, Spike.com, Blip.TV, and others do NOT allow commercial videos and will ban you and your account and remove all of your videos without notice. Other sites, such as Veoh, YouTube, etc will remove your videos if you use any type of copyrighted material or music - without notice.

Best bet is to use sites that either cater to or at least encourage real estate video, such as WellcomeMat or Zipvo.

I agree with Fred for quality and embeding into your sites not to use YT. But, I disagree YT is of no use for SEO which is what you mentioned in the title of your post.

Most of what Ryan and Fred have to say is correct, and I would agree with. I would just add a few thoughts. First of all, Google IS going to be indexing video via voice recognition software. This was announced last year to be in beta the first quarter of this year (which of course ends next week).

I also agree that I would be wary of YT for the video. There are so many other services. Here's the best way for you to understand how video is being used today. Type into Google "Denver real estate" (or substitute any city) and then when you get the results, note at the top of the screen, you may not have noticed, but many people are starting to see "Web", "Images", "Maps", "News", "Video", "Gmail", "more". If you click on "Video", you will see all video sites that have video specific to "Denver real estate" (or whatever city you used). But don't think that these are websites with video, these are specifically video sites with anchor text that meets your keyword phrase as has been mentioned.

If you want to see video in websites, just add the word "video" to your search, and you'll see that now you'll mainly get websites that have video in them on "Denver real estate".

Either way, video can be a real draw and compelling feature for your blog or website.

Randy Eagar, CRS
President, WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com
(800) 277-1316

I literally have thousands of videos on web sharing sites, and I never put the word "video" in. �You want people to find videos when they're looking for real estate, not for videos!