Performics' VP of search describes how to use site maps and metadata to ensure customers can find your videos.
2006 marks the year that online video content and search became a powerful, popular and very fast growing segment of the online advertising industry. The promise of online video is confirmed by a recent study from the American Advertising Federation which highlighted that by 2010 more than 20 percent of advertising budgets allotted to broadcast TV will shift to online video.
Today the challenge with online video content is a needle in the haystack scenario. The explosion of online video over the last two years has created a huge demand for the search capabilities needed to help users find the content for which they are looking. If you are the needle in the haystack -- if you create the content and want consumers to find it easily -- there are specific steps and techniques marketers can apply to web pages and the video content itself that will increase the likelihood of content being found.
Video content creators have two primary means to increase the ability for their videos to be viewed: site maps and metadata. Somewhat ironically, both approaches focus on textual descriptions of video files that are video search engines' sole source of information regarding the contents of those files.
First, it is key to have a strong site map where the online video content resides. This will point to and reinforce the context of the actual video or videos. A site map is an important part of any large website. It provides visitors and search engines with a high-level view of a site's contents by providing a list of direct links to all pages. Visitors can go to a site map page to quickly find pages with information that might not be obvious from the main site navigation.
Search engines, too, find site maps useful because they allow them to crawl and index a website's content. Indexation makes it possible for a site to appear within the natural listings on a search engine results page. When building a site map, there are six important factors to keep in mind.
Six tips for video site maps
- Always use text-based links
Use plain html text links that contain descriptive keywords related to the video content -- not javascript or image links -- to ensure search engines can read them. - Link to the video site map from all over the website
A link to the video site map should be added to every page of the website. - Keyword synergy
Build context for the video files by ensuring that the keywords in the links leading off the site map tie into the overall keywords for the page. - Rule of 100
Research indicates that search engines stop using hyperlinks to index a single page when the number of hyperlinks on those pages is over 100. - Use static, persistent URLs
Keeping links persistent will make it easier for search engines to crawl the website and maintain overall ranks for the pages. - Keep it fresh
Although often overlooked, it is critical to keep the site map updated-- next to the homepage, the site map is the page that search engines crawl the most.