9 Overlooked Video Optimization Tips

I've posted before on the some of the things you can do to optimize your videos (like YouTube Channel Ranking Tips and A Tip To Improve Your YouTube Ranking), but here are 9 additional tips for improving your video SEO after your meta tagging is complete. Most of these are overlooked, but fairly easy to accomplish.

1. Upload a transcript of the video. This is perfect for a music video in that it can contain the song lyrics. This closed-caption file is important because it's searchable content that helps with search indexing.

2. Create a custom thumbnail for each video. Don't rely on the choice given to you by YouTube. Create a custom thumbnail in an image editing program like Photoshop that adequately describes the video at a glance.

3. Upload in high-definition at 1920 x 1080 if possible. Unlike only a few years ago, hi-def is now the norm and preferable to most viewers.

4. Include a call to action. This can either be a link to a website or an annotation.

5. Make the video public. This seems like a no brainer, but the video won't be searchable unless this is selected.

6. Choose the right category for the video. This is a tough one sometimes since a video may fall into a number of categories at the same time. The best strategy is to stay with the most appropriate category (music), since that's where you're most likely to get the most views from.

7. Create a playlist. This is a relatively new feature of YouTube, but it helps viewership by keeping similar videos joined by topic or theme.

8. Embed the video on your website or blog. The best way to get the video out there is to have it appear in as many places as possible.

9. Include annotations. These are the pop-up links and text that provide the video with interactivity. Annotations take some extra time to program, but are worth it as it's been found that the engagement increases with videos that include them.

I've adapted these points especially for musicians from a great article on ClickZ, which has a lot of additional info on video SEO.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.