The real video SEO school is the one where you’re engaged in SEO for video and finding out first hand by experience, research and good old fashioned trial and error, what works, what sometimes works and what doesn’t work at all.

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

real estate, video, Video SEO, YouTube, YouTube SEO

Orange County SEO is now in the summer season! If you’re considering your business advertising and marketing for summer and you plan to invest in search engine optimization and marketing, now is the time to get started in your SEO strategy for Orange County and all geographic markets. Typically, a solid placement in a competitive environment such as Orange County SEO markets are, requires anywhere from one to six months (sometimes longer) depending on the level of competition.

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.

Marketing, online advertising, Orange County SEO, real estate, SEO, SEO Expert, small business, Summer

An aggregate of not too much optimization has landed my video for La Cresta homes on page one of the keyword search. This result lends to my developing theory that three factors make video an easy target compared to traditional websites for SEO:

1. Anchor text on back links
   The exact phrase being optimized along with a mix of related keywords can do a lot for propelling your video to page one, especially in niches. The result can be seen within days or even hours.
2. Optimization on the video page, especially on YouTube, including a file for CC (closed captions or captioning) even if it doesn’t render as expected in the video, I suspect it still gets read by Google
3. Relative competition – you’re not going to get a video on page one for “California real estate” without a whole lot of major effort and influence online. If competition is relatively low for the video, you’ll sail past a lot more competitors than with SEO on web pages alone.

La Cresta homes for sale

Orange County real estate photography

Next steps: Take on a more competitive environment in Orange County for real estate photography. This search already yields two other real estate photography videos, both from youtube with prominent positions. The competing videos are about six months old. This could be a long time in terms of assessing age for videos on YouTube.

This is still a learning process, but an exciting one. For now, video seems to be a vulnerable exploit that many competitors won’t be engaging in for a while yet.

Update – One of my real estate clients has rocketed to page one for a coveted high value real estate area in just 24 hours using YouTube video and offsite SEO. Twenty Four Hours. Search Google for “BallenIsles real estate for sale” and you’ll see it there, ahead of competitors that have invested plenty of time and money into SEO activity.

La Cresta Homes, real estate, video