I’d be foolish to claim that I’m any kind of expert in SEO for video but I can say that I’m enjoying the experience and have reached a few basic assumptions about Video.

1. Video sites, especially YouTube and Vimeo outrank a lot of competition- not all, but more than you would think. This denotes a class system with video as a separate class from organic search. This is especially true for YouTube. Besides, Vimeo officially doesn’t allow commercial content, especially for the likes of real estate, etc.
2. Video has far less competition in most markets. First, people are skittish about appearing on video or appearing amateurish. The entire idea is dismissed outright, much to the benefit of those willing to go the next step. Even when people in business post video, they do it in ways that add little value to their marketability. Embedding video in your blog may make it a little more entertaining but it doesn’t always leverage it in terms of inherent SEO value to search engines. Think about it, it’s just an embedded object so search engines already are aware that the content comes from elsewhere.
3. Video requires far less offsite SEO than traditional web pages. The blend of a little offsite search optimization and the intrinsic value of video gets you up to warp speed right away. You’re competing on a whole different level with video.
4. Carefully planned video and onsite optimization can yield spectacular results. Paying attention to the thumbnail image (think “call to action”) and the text you’re allowed to place in the description and tag fields make all the difference. I even pay attention to the name of the video file and, of course, Title, keywords and tags. All these work the same as any other web content. Make it count when you write up the text content for your video. That’s all the search engines have to go on- they can’t watch your video. That’s its own advantage and disadvantage so you want to leverage that element as well.
5. Your video content should be valuable enough to attract viewers, Even if it’s short. Cheating with a static image is going to turn off viewers and maybe even get you a few 1-star ratings. (I think that would be bad)

My latest experience in SEO for video revealed another factor that requires a little patience. YouTube, the second most searched website on the Internet, gets millions of uploads a day. It really should be no surprise that indexing isn’t perfect. I posted some videos on Sunday and they didn’t index until Tuesday. I learned quickly that Google thought more of a video it found later than the one I’d optimized offsite for earlier. I’d recommend holding off on offsite SEO until everything you post is either indexed or deleted.

The result for video SEO is spectacular when it works. Your target is often the only link on a search page with its own thumbnail image and the promise of something to look at- not just read.

For real estate, don’t just do a virtual tour and expect it to rank high for your business. There are millions of virtual tours on YouTube, some several years old (why don’t the authors delete them? Are they still on the market?) Make a video that has a message that’s relevant to your business and your audience like “I’m the right agent to choose for your search for PGA National homes for sale.”

SEO For Real Estate in Orange County and anywhere by Dave Keys

I specialize in SEO for real estate and other small business. You can see that I rank #7 on Google for small business SEO expert, and around position #4 for Orange County Photography (a very part-time endeavor) Although I’m far from the top ten or even fifty photographers in Orange County, my capabilities in SEO place me in the top ten for Orange County photography related searches.

Contact me today for your spring and summer SEO needs.

The best cars and best SEO are both built by hand.

Web strategies on a local level, Orange County SEO for small business, is my focus and it’s your advantage wherever you may be geographically located. SEO for large companies and SEO for small business have much in common but also differ in very important ways:

• SEO for small business can capture local market share
  Large companies have to dominate the web globally. This may be possible for a niche product or service but it becomes increasingly difficult to impossible for small business to compete with large SEO campaigns. Conversely, a specific product or geographic target, such as La Cresta Custom homes, can land you on page one and in position one for a Google search: proof- La Cresta Custom Homes – check for my photography back-link at the bottom of the first website. Also, this client owns the first several results- not just the first one. If someone is looking for nearly any search term on La Cresta Custom homes, or even La Cresta homes for sale, they will find this target home on page one of Google. They will be exposed to the message about this home ahead of many thousands of competing web pages.
• SEO for small business can enjoy faster results
  Since competition is smaller, effective analysis and keyword research (see my article: Orange County SEO Expert | Finding the Right Keywords) can mean faster access to high rankings in Google. My example of La Cresta homes was achieved in about six weeks, with page one results appearing within three weeks. Dominance- multiple showings in high positions is possible depending on competing SEO efforts and site traffic.
• SEO for small business can be inexpensive. If you’re a do-it-yourself type, you can learn from studying and applying basic SEO techniques and for the cost of web hosting (Bluehost offers the best cheap web hosting plans from $6.95/month) and the time spent setting up and posting to a WordPress blog, a small business can make a quick impact on search engines and place high in search results with little other work.
• Small businesses know their target and it can be more easily reached.
  This is even true for individuals. Example: My wife and I collected several Thomas Kinkade prints- but after two moves, we have one that doesn’t fit our decor- the one that my wife always liked least. It’s the Clocktower Cottage print. I’m selling it, but the demand is low for Kinkade is low. I created a WordPress post for this painting and titled it, Private Sale: Thomas Kinkade Painting – Clocktower Cottage Streams of Time $779 Kinkade Paintings. This post always shows up on page one when the title is mentioned in a search, and in position one when “for sale” is mentioned in the search too. I get little traffic for this term, perhaps three or four hits a week. What I’m assured of is that, when someone wants to buy this painting-print and looks online, they will see my offering. It’s over-priced a bit so it hasn’t moved. That’s fine because it gives me the advantage of this illustration. There are countless methods of capturing the buyer that only a small business owner that knows their audience can leverage. Local people start typing locally oriented phrases into Google when they’re closer to buying.
• Geographic specificity is your biggest advantage.
  A large business, like Canon, for example has to take a completely different strategy toward brand building. Even a page one result means little more than the sense that they might be a bigger name than Pentax. A small business that serves a locale has tremendous advantage by being on page one. There is a greater sense of relevance and authority for that business. Often, the first link with a good call to action, direct or inferred, in the title or even the description will get the first click. The title, Orange County SEO small business advantage that I used here immediately communicated, “there’s something in it for you” to those who are reading this post.

Always remember that SEO should always be SEM, Search Engine Marketing. You’re not just trying to get on page one. You’re marketing a product, a serviced and a brand. That is why the keyword research and analysis I mentioned earlier is vitally important.

This means that web design isn’t nearly as important as web exposure. Not only that, but overreaching web design, especially the very crowded arena of Orange County web design, can actually work against the small business owner’s effort to be discovered on the internet by customers. A great looking website that is not oriented toward acquiring new business is about as useful as a Van Gogh on a street corner.

Web optimization is what is important. It’s a mix of formula and art. The formula is straightforward: Analyze, Optimize, Develop and Promote in the words of foremost SEO expert, Steve Wiideman (just type SEO expert into Google- he’s number one). The art is in determining during the analyze phase, just what your potential customers are typing into search engines as they’re trying to solve a problem. Sometimes this is not necessarily the words that describe your product, but rather, the words that describe their problem.

Example: A person is trying to figure out how to build a garden shed to hold his tools. He knows the materials are potentially expensive and he may not have all the tools he needs for the job. He may then type something like “tools for building sheds” into Google, still knowing he may or may not do it himself. A local business has determined that a high percentage of their customers come from the ranks of those who considered doing it themselves first but then decided they’d rather purchase a ready-made installed shed. This business then optimized their “Ready-Made” brand sheds website toward do-it-yourself types with keyword optimization for phrases that are tied down to specific article titles like “Anaheim Shed Building Supplies and Tools Too Costly? Our Ready-Made® Sheds Cost Far Less!” While that is a narrow range of searches, it will catch the eye of everyone who is looking for information on proper tools and supplies for building a shed, especially if they are looking for suppliers in Anaheim, but who may actually be making a decision about whether to build or buy.

Result: The 5 or 10 percent of web searchers on the topic of sheds that find this article are exactly the segment of consumers who are poised to purchase right now.

My specialty is providing this kind of optimization for your small business website in Orange County and elsewhere so that your website design is a design on maximizing profit.

Dave Keys

Though it is not necessarily the most critical part of a successful SEO campaign, the optimization phase is the one most familiar to clients and business owners.

Dave Keys: basic optimization pricing for Orange County SEO

Keyword results with Google rankings is something everyone is after but the mistake most often made is that business owners often think in terms of how they perceive their business, not what the most likely buyer is thinking when they go to a search engine. That is both the science and art of effective SEO and search engine marketing. What is a person who is ready to buy your product going to type into Google? There are tools that enable an accurate analysis of what people are searching for- that’s the scientific part. Analysis with various tools will show you exactly what people are typing into Google. The art is predicting what your next customer will type into Google. Someone who actually needs your product may not even be aware of your product as they are trying to solve a problem.

The purpose of this website is twofold:

1. To educate non-technical small business owners, especially those in Orange County locations, about the effectiveness of search engine marketing for business results at minimal cost.
2. To support my clients in their SEO efforts by providing relevant back-links from my trusted network.